Major corporate events canceled or postponed due to Covid-19 this week

The Covid-19 outbreak has turned into a global pandemic as the total confirmed cases are increasing day-by-day, nearing 255,000 worldwide. Governments around the world have banned public gatherings in many places for restricting the spread of the virus. This has led to companies canceling their earnings conference calls or rescheduling them through web-mode.

This week’s change of plans

The Children’s Place, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCE) reported on Tuesday that its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2019 jumped by 102% helped by lower costs and expenses, despite a 3% decline in the top line. The company is not providing forward guidance now as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the impact and duration of the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, the company canceled its webcast review and call, which was scheduled for March 19 at 8 am ET.

Turning Point Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: TPTX) on Monday reported a wider loss for the fourth quarter of 2019 due to an increase in the total operating expenses. The company has canceled its quarterly update conference call due to the spread of coronavirus outbreak.

Addus HomeCare Corporation (NASDAQ: ADUS) on Tuesday provided preliminary unaudited financial data for the fourth quarter. Due to an audit adjustment, the company delayed the filing of its annual report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2019 and its conference call previously scheduled for March 18. The company was not able to assess the potential impact of Covid-19 on its business at this time.

Key impacts till now

The annual news conference of Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google, originally scheduled to be held in Sunnyvale in April, was called off. Also, Google canceled its I/O developer event, which was set for May.

The 90th International Motor Show, which is an annual auto show held in early March in the Swiss city of Geneva, was canceled as the country called off all programs with over 1,000 people.

Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) changed the F8 developer conference from an in-person event to a live-streamed online event on May 5 and 6 in order to prioritize the health and safety of developer partners and employees.

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) closed its biggest theme parks, Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, and all of its theme parks in Asia stand temporarily shut. Also, the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando was closed until the end of March.

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Target (NYSE: TGT) canceled its in-person analyst and investor meeting in New York City and made it a webcast due to the rapidly evolving Covid-19 situation.

Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) called off its in-person annual shareholders meeting in Seattle, which was scheduled for March 18. The event will only be available via webcast.

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) canceled digital GPU Technology Conference CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote webcast after the cancellation of the physical portion of the flagship event due to the virus spread. The company will be issuing news announcements for the products on March 24 instead of the digital keynote.

The virus has hit hard the global telecom industry’s biggest event, Mobile World Congress. The event, which was scheduled between February 24 and 27 in Barcelona, was canceled within two weeks before the kick-off.

The New York International Auto Show has been postponed to the end of August, while the video game industry’s biggest conventions, E3, which was set for June, were canceled.