Marcum LLP Chairman and CEO Jeff Weiner joins Yahoo Finance’s Zack Guzman to discuss how companies are dealing with the supply chain issues, as cases of the coronavirus are spiking.

Video Transcript

ZACK GUZMAN: It's interesting just to see the fact that the US had locked out China when we think about international travel. And now we're seeing them do the same thing as the US becomes kind of the center of this global pandemic, as we get more cases than any other country in the world right now.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Yeah, absolutely. And I think this speaks to the larger question, which is how do you stop your country from re-getting a spread of COVID-19, right? I mean, China, for the longest time, had been dealing with trying to contain it within its own borders. Then it ultimately ended up spreading to Italy, to Western Europe, and then ultimately to the United States quite quickly. And the concern is going to be even if the United States can do a decent job at trying to contain it, who's to say that, you know, six or nine months from now, we would have the free flow of personal travel again?

Because you might worry about whether or not the COVID-19 could go to other corners of the world, and you might have to stop travel from those areas as well. This speaks to the idea that even though some might hope for this v-shaped recovery where everything will be back to normal, things might not necessarily progress that quickly in the recovery.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, Jeff, I just want to bring you back on to answer that as well in terms of what you're seeing play out, because, you know, China was hit first in all this, but now as they get back online, there's still a lot of question marks about overall trade and how economies across the globe will respond.

JEFF WEINER: Well, Zack, I think we're at the beginning of our slow-down. You know, for all practical purposes, businesses were shut-- were ordered to shut down just last weekend. So we're five days into it-- maybe, you know, here in the New York area, we've got a couple of days head start. But I think we're looking at a shutdown that's going to last mostly through the month of April. There may be various degrees of companies opening in regions depending on how badly they're impacted, but we haven't even scratched the surface of how long this shutdown may last.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, when you look at the unemployment claims number we got yesterday-- 3.28 million, the most on record, quadrupling the prior record-- just speaking to how severe and how quickly this really all played out, and now we get the consumer sentiment number as well. So how do you square those two things in saying that yes, all right, this was already a disaster in terms of how quick-- we heard from a lot of economists saying it wasn't necessarily the size, but when you have signs like that coming in so quickly, it's hard to really experience a return to normal on a scale as quick. So how long do you see, if we're going to be shut down, as you say, till the end of April, how much longer do you think it'll take for us to recover back to normal?

JEFF WEINER: Oh, I would think if my prediction is right and we're shut down until the end of April, May's going to be a leveling out and a slow start to things opening. Remember, it's not that easy to open some of these businesses. Just think of a restaurant-- you have to get deliveries. You have to get food. You have to get your people back to work. It's the same for all businesses.

So I don't know that they're going to open quite as quickly as they were forced to close. But I think if the end of April holds up to, you know, when most businesses are closed down, May will be a month that they're gradually opened. And I would think that the recovery starts probably right after Memorial Day.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Hey, Jeff, it's Brian Cheung here. So if it's, indeed, after Memorial Day, we would still expect to see a pretty substantial impact on Q2 GDP data, because that starts for the period April through June. I'm wondering what else you're watching for in that period that'll really tell us about how quickly the recovery would happen if it is, indeed, after Memorial Day, right? I mean, are you looking at jobs data? Are you looking at other types of things to say, you know what? We could actually get a v-shape even if the second part of that v-shape actually comes later in the summer?

JEFF WEINER: Well, I think that v's going to have a plateau at the bottom. So it may be more like a u than a v. But I would think the jobless reports will really be the key. You know, you need people getting back to work. I think last week's number is probably low considering what next week's number will probably be. And I also think that the $2 trillion stimulus package was probably just a down payment on how much the government will actually have to pump into the economy to right the ship.

But I think you have to have reasonable expectations. And if we can just get people starting back to work, it's really unimportant how quickly it happens, because once businesses get geared up, it will happen. But you know, it's the same thing on construction sites. You just don't open up one day.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah. And I mean, we're even hearing from Governor Andrew Cuomo now-- and if you use the example construction sites, potentially shutting those down as well to make sure we're doing everything we can to flatten the curve. But for now, Jeff Weiner, Marcum LLP chairman and CEO. Thanks again for joining us. Stay safe.

JEFF WEINER: Stay safe, Zack, thanks for having me.