Tech Stocks Fall as Other U.S. Indices Move up
Treasury yields jumped to a more than 3-month high, pulling down shares of the world’s largest tech companies. The tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 underperformed other indices. FAANG shares including Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix moved down while energy stocks gained.
Stoxx Europe is down by 0.095%
Dow Jones is up by 0.41%
NASDAQ is down by 0.36%
Evergrande Misses More Interest Payments
Wealthy investors in Chinese households who bought high-yielding bonds from the Evergrande Group have started getting trapped after the debt-ridden developer missed payments on bonds sold through shadow banks.
Some lenders, known as trusts, have already used up their own funds to pay these investors on behalf of Evergrande. It is not clear how much funds are yet to be paid or who are the buyers of these fixed-income bonds.
Soaring Natural Gas Prices Set to Increase World’s Energy Crisis
As the Winter season approaches around the world, the shortage of natural gas and increase in energy demand is causing energy prices to shoot up.
Countries around the world are now heavily relying on natural gas for power to reduce coal usage. ONGC officials and other top government officials have said that The central government is likely to increase the gas prices by up to 70 percent from October 2021 in India. This is happening as nations around the world race to secure supplies of natural gas for the cold months coming ahead. Do watch out for gas stocks.
Senior Japanese Investor Takes Out Full-Page Ads to Warn of Market Bubble
A senior and legendary investor in Japan’s stock market has taken out multiple full page ads in Japanese newspapers to warn of an epic market crash. He has blamed excess liquidity in the system as the reason for causing a collapse of the stock market bubble.
Atsuto Sawakami, who founded the country’s first low-cost mutual fund is now 74 and is succeeded by his son Ryo who heads the firm he founded. The firm has more than 360 Billion Yen (~Rs 24 lakh crores)in assets under management as of September 24 with an exposure of 91% of assets in domestic stocks.
Orders For U.S. Business Equipment Rises Again
Orders placed with U.S. manufacturers for business equipment rose again in August, continuing the uptrend from the previous five months. The data from Commerce Department on Monday shows that the value of core capital goods orders, which exclude aircraft and military hardware increased 0.5% in August after an upwardly revised 0.3% a month earlier.
Beyond Meat Rises on Plans to Bring Meatless Chicken Tenders to Grocery Stores
Stocks of plant-based meat substitutes producer, Beyond Meat rose more than 3% in NASDAQ on Monday as the company decided to bring meatless chicken tenders to grocery stores starting next month. It will be available at select stores of Walmart, Jewel-Osco, Safeway NorCal, Harris Teeter, Giant Foods, and ShopRite stores and will be expanded in the coming months.
Brent Crude Hits New 3-Year Highs.
Oil prices jumped on Monday, a straight fifth day rise with Brent Crude Oil hitting its highest since October 2018 as supply tightens and demand rises. UK Oil went up till $79.88, a 2.3% rise. Goldman Sachs raised its forecast by $10 for Brent crude at the end of this year to $90 per barrel, as faster fuel demand rises tremendously.
Pfizer Starts Advanced Clinical Trial Of Anti-Covid-19 Pill
Pfizer said on Monday that it had started a middle-to-late stage clinical trial of an anti-Covid pill. Pfizer internally calls this drug PF-07321332, started experiments in March 2020, and is testing it in combination with ritonavir, a repurposed HIV medicine. Many pharma giants are developing oral antivirals against Covid and if the trial results are good, it will give a jump start for Pfizer.
Facebook Invests $50 Million To Build The ‘Metaverse’
Facebook has announced on Monday to invest $50 million (Rs 360 crores) to partner with organizations to build the so-called metaverse- a digital world where people can move between different devices and communicate in a virtual environment. Facebook said that the new XR Programs and Research Fund will invest the money globally over two years.
