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What everybody is talking about

As big companies release their first-quarter earnings this week, one subject is dominating the discussion: how the pandemic will affect future results. (After all, the first three months of 2020 seem like ancient history.) As revealed on conference calls with investors, executives are navigating the lockdowns in radically different ways.

Tesla’s Elon Musk ranted about stay-at-home orders. In a profanity-laced tirade yesterday, the electric carmaker’s chief likened lockdown orders to “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights.” Then he really let rip:

“If somebody wants to stay in their house, that’s great. They should be allowed to stay in their house, and they should not be compelled to leave. But to say that they cannot leave their house, and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom.”

• Tesla has clashed with officials in California over the closure of its factory there, and Mr. Musk has a history of downplaying the risks of the coronavirus.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg worried about a second wave of infections. “The impact on our business has been significant,” the Facebook founder told investors yesterday, adding that the economic fallout from the pandemic may last longer than anticipated. But he continued:

“While there are massive societal costs from the current shelter in place restrictions, I worry that reopening certain places too quickly before infection rates have been reduced to very minimal levels, will almost guarantee future outbreaks and worse longer-term health and economic outcomes.”

• Facebook said that a drop in advertising in the early stages of the outbreak had stabilized, and the company’s shares jumped 9 percent in after-hours trading.

Microsoft and Alphabet are doing well. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella said that “we’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months,” a boost to the company’s cloud-computing and remote collaboration businesses. Sundar Pichai of Alphabet took a similar tack, noting that “we’ll see a long-term acceleration of movement from businesses to digital services, including increased online work, education, medicine, shopping and entertainment. These changes will be significant and lasting.” Both companies reported better-than-expected financial results.