Wednesday’s business headlines

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Here’s a look at Wednesday’s business headlines.

Lilly

Hospitals may have to ration Lilly and Company’s new COVID-19 treatment as the rapid spread of the virus strains their limited supplies.

Reuters reports that hospitals and medical groups are considering giving the antibody drug – which was cleared for emergency use last week – only to people with multiple coronavirus risk factors of those whose immune systems haven’t started to fight off the virus.

The Trump administration has purchased 300,000 doses of the treatment but experts says that may only cover a week’s worth of new infections.

Vaccine logistics

As UPS and FedEx brace for unprecedented volumes this holiday season. They are also preparing for the complex task of distributing COVID-19 vaccines.

Logistics analysts say this could spell trouble.

One analyst says as many as 7 million packages may not make it to their destinations on time.

UPS has hired 50,000 people for the holidays that can help move packages and vaccines to where they need to go.

Travel

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates predicts over 50% of business travel and over 30% of days in the office will go away in the pandemics aftermath.

Moving forward, Gates predicted that there will be a “very high threshold” for conducting business trips and there will always be a way to work from home with technology.

The pandemic has devasted air travel demand, particularly for lucrative business trips.

Mortgage debt

Low interest rates have helped fuel a boom in the U.S. housing market.

Last quarter, Americans’ mortgage debt climed to a record-high of nearly $10 trillion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

At the beginning of this month, mortgage rates fell to a record low – the 12th record low in 2020.