TOP NEWS

German recession

Germany's GDP shrank 2.2% in Q1 (that's quarter-on-quarter; year-on-year was 2.3%). The drop was entirely in line with analyst expectations, but still the country's worst quarterly GDP drop since Q1 2009. With German's Federal Statistics Office also revising Q4 2019 down to a mild drop, that means the country is now technically in a recession. In happier news, the latest estimated virus transmission rate in Germany is back down to 0.75, indicating success in keeping the coronavirus outbreak under control even while lifting restrictions, as Germany has been doing in recent weeks. Fortune

TSMC U.S.

The world's biggest contract manufacturer of silicon chips is to spend $12 billion building a plant in Arizona, according to the Wall Street Journal. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., better known as TSMC, is apparently responding to concerns in the U.S. about over-dependence on Asia for chip manufacturing. WSJ

Calhoun candor

Boeing CEO David Calhoun is less than popular with his customers after predicting that a major U.S. airline would likely go bust this year. His prediction, made in an interview earlier this week, apparently irked American Airlines CEO Doug Parker, who called Calhoun to complain. Given the state of the airline industry right now, Calhoun may not have been wrong—but saying it out loud was never going to win friends. WSJ

Solvay cuts

And here's another indication of aerospace-sector misery. The Belgian chemicals firm Solvay is closing two of the plants where it manufactures cutting-edge composite materials for planemakers Boeing and Airbus—570 jobs, or around 20% of Solvay's workforce, will go. Solvay had already started cutting costs due to the Boeing 737 Max groundings, but COVID-19 will mean further drops in demand for civil aircraft. Bloomberg

AROUND THE WATER COOLER

Richard Burr

Republican Senator Richard Burr, who is being investigated for alleged insider trading, has temporarily resigned his chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee after it emerged that the FBI had searched his house, seized his cellphone, and served a warrant on Apple to provide information from his iCloud account. Burr: "I believe this step is necessary to allow the committee to continue its essential work free of external distractions." Fortune

WeWork burn

WeWork's cash burn for Q1 was 60% lower than the previous quarter, clocking in at a *cough* mere $482 million. Luckily for the office-space firm, whose business has obviously been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, it had already initiated huge cost-cutting measures in the wake of its abortive IPO debacle last year. Financial Times

WTO chief

Roberto Azevêdo is to step down as director-general of the World Trade Organization at the end of August, more than a year before his second term was due to end. The Brazilian's departure comes during a time of partial paralysis for the WTO, due to the U.S.' blockage of judges to its appellate body—a move that essentially means the WTO can't settle trade disputes, which is sort of the point of the organization. Deutsche Welle

Clinical trials

COVID-19 could change how the pharmaceutical industry performs clinical trials. As Fortune's Erika Fry writes here, the pandemic is forcing more stripped-down trials that break with orthodox approaches, though many argue there has never been a greater need for rigorous, well-designed clinical trials. Fortune

This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.