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Indoor cycling studio chain Cyc Holdings LLC filed for bankruptcy after the coronavirus temporarily shut down its operations in cities across the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. The fitness company’s chapter 11 petition filed in Delaware on Wednesday will allow Cyc to get out of leases and pay back creditors while continuing to operate. Cyc is the latest in a string of fitness companies to seek bankruptcy protection after struggling to coax back members following some easing of coronavirus shutdowns. It operated studios across major cities in the U.S., including New York and Los Angeles. Zengo Fitness LLC, an affiliate of Cyc with studios in the Washington, D.C., area, and the company’s California-based Cycle House locations also sought court protection, papers show. Cyc’s bankruptcy follows other cycling boutiques. Flywheel Sports Inc., the operator of studios beloved by fitness-obsessed city dwellers, filed chapter 7 last month with plans to go out of business and sell its assets to pay off debts and close locations.

France plans to raise 20 billion euros ($23 billion) in quasi-equity loans for small firms hit by the coronavirus crisis by offering investors a state guarantee against the first 2 billion euros in losses, officials said, Reuters reported. Fearing failures among firms that were already saddled with record levels of debt before the crisis, the French government wants the program up and running by early next year as it battles the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under plans to be presented to the financial sector on Monday, banks would first lend to small and mid-sized firms and then sell 90 percent of the loans to institutional investors. That would limit banks’ risk exposure to 10 percent of the loans while also steering funds to viable firms. Since a public guarantee is involved, EU state aid regulators have to give the program their blessing, particularly the interest rate that would be charged. “The discussion is going well, the European Commission is very interested in the program, but we haven’t landed on a precise number yet,” a finance ministry source said.

A grim reality is setting in across the U.S. hospital sector: a surge in coronavirus infections is encroaching while most facilities are still recovering from the onset of the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. The growing number of cases is threatening the very survival of hospitals just when the country needs them most. Hundreds were already in shaky circumstances before the virus remade the world, and the impact of caring for COVID-19 patients has put hundreds more in jeopardy. The new coronavirus sidelined profitable elective procedures and pushed up costs to keep patients and staff safe. Meanwhile, hospitals are losing the privately insured patients they depend on as millions of Americans lose their jobs and employer-sponsored coverage. “It sort of all comes together as essentially a triple whammy,” Aaron Wesolowski, vice president for policy research, analytics and strategy at the trade group American Hospital Association, said in an interview. More than 215,000 Americans have now died from the novel coronavirus and 7.8 million have had confirmed infections, numbers that set the U.S. apart on the world stage. Though new virus cases fell last month after a summer spike, COVID-19 is again on the rise, especially in the Midwest. Thirty-eight states are now considered hot spots, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which considers rising cases, test-positivity rates and new daily cases per million population in its analysis. The AHA has estimated the pandemic will cost U.S. hospitals more than $323 billion through the end of this year. U.S. hospital revenue totaled about $1.1 trillion in 2018, according to the most recent AHA data available. The industry group is asking Congress for an additional $100 billion and full forgiveness of loans made under Medicare’s accelerated payment program, among other requests for relief.

The chances of Congress passing a pre-election stimulus are all but gone, as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin yesterday blamed politics for undermining the months-long negotiations, Bloomberg News reported. “At this point getting something done before the election and executing on that would be difficult, just given where we are in the level of details,” Mnuchin said. With a deal out of reach, the two sides in the talks faulted each other for the breakdown. The Treasury chief, who is scheduled to be in the Middle East next week, made his remarks after another in a long series of calls with Pelosi that have failed to seal a deal. While Mnuchin said he hoped for bipartisan support for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s latest idea -- a vote on a narrow bill next week to help small businesses -- Democratic leaders have no appetite for piecemeal measures now. The inability to bring months of negotiations to conclusion has sparked increasing tensions, with each camp seeing internal strains rise as it becomes clear there won’t be a spending bill to take to the public.

Wells Fargo & Co. fired more than 100 employees suspected of improperly collecting coronavirus relief funds, Bloomberg News reported. The firm determined that the staffers defrauded the Small Business Administration “by making false representations in applying for coronavirus relief funds for themselves,” according to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg. The review focused on employees who tapped the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, a key part of the government’s effort to prop up businesses during the pandemic. “We have terminated the employment of those individuals and will cooperate fully with law enforcement,” David Galloreese, Wells Fargo’s head of human resources, said in the memo. “These wrongful actions were personal actions, and do not involve our customers.” While it’s possible for employees at large companies to legitimately tap U.S. aid for businesses they operate on the side, Wells Fargo’s findings add to evidence that the program was abused. Unlike other employers, banks can check whether staff had aid deposited into their accounts. An earlier review by JPMorgan Chase & Co. found that more than 500 employees tapped the EIDL program, and that dozens did so improperly. The SBA urged banks to look out for suspicious deposits from the program to their customers and even their own staff. While the program offers loans to businesses, much of the concern has focused on its advances of as much as $10,000 that don’t have to be repaid. A Bloomberg Businessweek analysis of SBA data in August identified at least $1.3 billion in suspicious payments.

Bankruptcy Judge David Jones on Tuesday approved the reorganization plan of California Resources Corp. (CRC), one of the state's major oil and gas producers, paving the way for it to exit chapter 11 just three months after filing for bankruptcy protection, the Palm Springs (Calif.) Desert Sun reported. CRC is one of three fossil fuel companies — alongside Chevron and Aera, which is jointly owned by Shell and ExxonMobil — that produce the lion's share of oil and gas in the Golden State. The drilling company bills itself as a major job creator that plays an important role in domestic energy independence, while conservationists argue the firm is likely to eventually saddle taxpayers with a huge cleanup bill for orphaned wells. When CRC filed for bankruptcy protection on July 15, it was having trouble making payments to its funders and proposed a plan to shed more than $5 billion in debt. Tuesday's chapter 11 plan ultimately came with overwhelming support from creditors, according to the lawyers present at the hearing, and could allow the company to eliminate that debt, in part by employing a debt-for-equity swap.

United Airlines said yesterday that it cut operating costs by 59 percent in the third quarter and had nearly $20 billion of liquidity to position it for an eventual recovery from the COVID-19 crisis that has hammered the travel industry, Reuters reported. Airline executives have signaled a slow but steady improvement in leisure demand but do not foresee a recovery to 2019 levels for at least two years, with business and international travel particularly slow to bounce back amid ongoing travel restrictions. When the rebound finally arrives, airlines want to have a cost structure and network in place. “We’re ready to turn the page on seven months that have been dedicated to developing and implementing extraordinary and often painful measures, like furloughing 13,000 team members, to survive the worst financial crisis in aviation history,” said United CEO Scott Kirby. He acknowledged, however, that the “negative impact of COVID-19 will persist in the near term.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced yesterday that the Senate will take up a narrow economic relief bill when it comes back in session next week, the Washington Post reported. President Trump immediately undermined the move, writing on Twitter: “STIMULUS! Go big or go home!!!” Senate Republicans have balked at a $1.8 trillion relief package Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has offered to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Trump, though, has suggested Republicans should agree to an even bigger deal than what Democrats have offered. Pelosi has already rejected Mnuchin’s offer as completely inadequate, criticism she repeated Tuesday in a letter to House Democrats where she wrote, “Tragically, the Trump proposal falls significantly short of what this pandemic and deep recession demand.” Meanwhile McConnell will try again to pass a much more limited proposal, something he already attempted last month. Democrats blocked it at the time and may do so again with the new bill, which seems like it will be similar to the last one. The new bill will cost roughly $500 billion and will include provisions to extend enhanced unemployment insurance and the small business Paycheck Protection Program, as well as money for hospitals and schools, among other things.

Landlords, apartment owners and housing industry groups have unleashed a barrage of legal challenges against the Trump administration’s order protecting renters from eviction, leaving millions of families once again facing the risk of homelessness in the middle of a deadly pandemic, the Washington Post reported. Over the past month, an array of lawyers and lobbyists have inundated federal, state and local courts. They have sought to stop renters from invoking the federal ban, and in some cases, they’ve tried to quash the policy altogether, arguing that the government did not have the authority to issue it in the first place. The flurry of lawsuits has created a wave of legal uncertainty, exposing millions of Americans once again to the sort of hardships the Trump administration initially sought to prevent. Federal officials tried to clarify some of the ambiguity in policy guidance issued late Friday night. But the update instead appeared to give landlords a clearer green light to start eviction proceedings against some cash-strapped renters, even though a moratorium remains in place until the end of the year.