covid europe lockdown Archives

1. Stocks Fluctuate Amid Key Georgia Senate Runoffs

Stocks wavered amid key elections in Georgia that will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate for the next two years, setting the scope of President-elect Joe Biden’s agenda. The S&P 500 swung between gains and losses after posting its worst start to a year since 2016. There’s a perception among several traders that if Democrats prevail in Tuesday’s runoff, Congress will deliver a more generous stimulus package, potentially leading to upward pressure on inflation and interest rates as well as higher taxes to pay for fiscal aid.
The S&P 500 was little changed as of early morning New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 0.5%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.6%.

2. Saudi, Qatar Borders Reopen Before Gulf Summit

Qatar’s ruler landed in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to a warm embrace from host Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, hours after their nations re-established travel ties and eased a regional dispute. Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is attending the Gulf Cooperation Council summit for the first time since a 2017 row that cut trade, travel and diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt. Saudi Arabia reopened its air, land and sea borders with Qatar on Monday, a leap toward easing the crisis that had complicated U.S. efforts to isolate Iran amid heightened tensions.

3. Oil Rises Above $48 With OPEC+ Talks Set to Start Second Day

Oil gained ahead of a resumption of OPEC+ talks that were unexpectedly suspended due to a disagreement over whether to raise output in February. Futures in New York rose above $48 a barrel after dropping the most in two weeks on Monday. Discussions will restart on Tuesday after a majority of members, including Saudi Arabia, opposed Russia’s proposal for another supply hike. The talks are happening against a shaky short-term demand backdrop. England was ordered into a third lockdown until mid-February, Germany is set to extend its curbs and Japan is considering another state of emergency for the Tokyo area. Several Asian refiners won’t be getting into long-term supply contracts for fuel sales this year, a sign the region’s energy consumption recovery is far from certain.

4. China Stock Index Tops 2015’s Peak, Closes at 13-Year High

China’s stock benchmark has ended above its 2015 bubble high, marking a recovery from one of the country’s worst equity crashes. The CSI 300 Index rose 1.9% at the close on Tuesday, surpassing the peak from June 8, 2015. That is its highest since 2008. That advance helped push the value of China’s domestic equities to a record $11 trillion. China’s stock benchmark outpaced MSCI Inc.’s global benchmark by the most in six years in 2020, with savers funnelling cash into thousands of new stock funds after some popular wealth products suffered their first-ever losses. The bullishness was reinforced by a strong currency, as well as data showing China’s economy was rebounding faster than other major economies from the virus pandemic.

5. JPMorgan Says Bitcoin Could Surge to $146,000 in Long Term

Bitcoin has the potential to reach $146,000 in the long term as it competes with gold as an asset class, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bitcoin’s market capitalization of around $575 billion would have to rise by 4.6 times — for a theoretical price of $146,000 — to match the total private sector investment in gold via exchange-traded funds or bars and coins. But that outlook depends on the volatility of Bitcoin converging with that of gold to encourage more institutional investment, a process that will take some time, they said.

6. NYSE Abruptly Reverses Plan to Delist Chinese Companies

The New York Stock Exchange has abruptly reversed plans to delist three major Chinese telecommunications companies after consulting regulators about an investment ban ordered by President Donald Trump. Coming days before the companies were to be delisted — and just over two weeks before Trump is to leave the White House — the U-turn avoids a step that threatened to heighten U.S.-China tensions further. The Big Board gave no reason for its decision in a statement released during Asian hours, saying only that it had consulted “relevant regulatory authorities” about Trump’s executive order, signed in November as part of his administration’s push to check China’s growing economic power.

7. Saudi, UAE Business Conditions Improve, but Employment Falls

Business activity in the Arab world’s two largest economies improved at the end of last year, with Saudi Arabia seeing its strongest expansion in 13 months. After 2020 setbacks caused by the spread of Covid-19 and lower crude prices, non-oil private sector economies in the United Arab Emirates and neighbouring Saudi Arabia still faced job losses as firms adjusted to the challenges of the global pandemic. Purchasing Managers’ Index surveys in December for the two Gulf nations rose above the threshold of 50 that separates growth from contraction. In Saudi Arabia, the gauge rose to the highest since November 2019, driven by an increase in output and new business.

8. Danes Get 20-Year 0% Mortgages

Denmark stands out in a global context as the country to have lived with negative central bank rates longer than any other. Back in 2012, policymakers drove their main rate below zero to defend the krone’s peg to the euro. Since then, Danish homeowners have enjoyed continuous slides in borrowing costs. The once unthinkable notion of borrowing for two decades without paying interest comes as central bankers across the globe shy away from rate hikes. No major western central bank is likely to raise rates this year. As rates have continued to sink, banks in Denmark — home to the world’s biggest mortgage-backed covered-bond market — to offer 20-year loans at 0%.

9. Airlines Start to Scrap U.K. Flights Following New Lockdown

Airlines kicked off 2021 by shrinking their already meagre U.K. schedules, prompted by a new coronavirus lockdown and the prospect of further restrictions on travel abroad. The fast-spreading virus strain that’s driven up U.K. case counts has also dashed airline-industry hopes of relief from 2020’s unrelenting downturn. Prime Minister Boris Johnson late Monday announced a new coronavirus lockdown that will keep most people at home until mid-February when vaccines being rolled out are able to stem the worst infection rates since the start of the outbreak.

10. Merkel Pushes for Strict Curbs With Vaccine Strategy Under Fire

Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking tighter lockdown restrictions to contain the coronavirus as criticism over Germany’s vaccine rollout sparks feuding in her cabinet. The chancellery is proposing a limit on how far people can travel from their homes in areas with high infection rates. The plan has run into opposition from state leaders, who are joining a video conference with Merkel on Tuesday to decide the next steps in fighting the disease. The political tensions threaten to escalate amid a rising tide of criticism that the government bungled the rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine.

1. Tech Shares Gain After Chipmaker M&A: Global Markets Update

Tech shares rose after Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced a $35 billion takeover of another chipmaker Xilinx, helping to blunt concern about the impact of growing coronavirus infections. Losses for shares in energy and financial companies were a drag on the S&P 500 as it struggled to bounce back from its worst loss in a month yesterday. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index headed toward its lowest close since June amid concern about the faster spread of the coronavirus on the continent.

The S&P 500 Index rose 0.1% as of early morning New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 0.5%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index was little changed.

2. U.S. Stimulus Hope On Hold: Senate Leaves for pre-election break

U.S. senators departed the Capitol for a pre-election break Monday, making the logistics for passing a fiscal stimulus package by next Tuesday practically impossible, leaving the economy more vulnerable to damage from a resurgent coronavirus pandemic. The Senate’s departure after the confirmation vote for Amy Coney Barrett to join the Supreme Court left House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to continue negotiating over the stimulus package. After their latest call on Monday, agreement remains pending on both the amount and language of the bill.

3. Germany Plans Restrictions as Italy Boosts Aid

Germany is looking at closing restaurants and prohibiting large events as governments across Europe seek to tackle rising infections and fatalities while avoiding full-scale lockdowns. Italy, the continent’s original epicenter of the pandemic, is coming up with more aid for businesses hardest hit by restrictions. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces growing discontentment within his party over lockdown measures imposed on northern regions. Many countries in Eastern Europe reported fresh daily records for cases and deaths. Hong Kong, meanwhile, will ease some social distancing rules and announced plans for mandatory testing of specific groups. India’s daily infections fell below 40,000 for the first time in more than three months.

4. Dubai to launch ‘Nasdaq’ market for emerging firms & SMEs

Dubai plans to launch a “Nasdaq Dubai Growth Market” to help emerging companies, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) attract investors and finance their projects, crown prince of the emirate, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al- Maktoum, said on Tuesday. The Nasdaq Dubai Growth Market will allow SMEs to list if they are valued below $250 million, with a minimum operating history of one year, compared to three years for Nasdaq Dubai’s main market. Nasdaq Dubai is collaborating with government bodies, UAE free zones and expert advisory companies as partners to launch the growth market in early 2021.

5. ADNOC seeks Indian partners for $45 bn petro-chem expansion plans

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), UAE’s biggest energy producer, is seeking Indian companies for partnership in its ambitious $45 billion (INR 3.3 lakh cr) downstream petrochemical expansion plans. ADNOC CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, during a virtual session Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with global energy chief executives on Monday evening, sought opportunities to strengthen the UAE-India energy relationships. Speaking at the roundtable, Al Jaber said India has always been and will always remain one of the UAE’s closest friends and one of its most important trading partners.

6. Global foreign direct investment halved in first six months of 2020

Global foreign direct investment (FDI) plunged by 49% in the first half of 2020 from the same period a year ago and is on course to fall by up to 40% for the year, driven by fears of a deep recession. FDI flows to European economies turned negative for the first time ever, falling to -$7 billion from $202 billion, while flows to the United States fell by 61% to $51 billion, the U.N. Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a report. Global FDI fell as multinationals postponed investments to preserve cash.

7. Russia Begins Producing Second Covid-19 Vaccine as Cases Spike

Russia has begun production of a second Covid-19 vaccine that hasn’t completed trials as the Kremlin rushes to develop a shield against the pandemic. Output of the vaccine, developed by former biological weapons lab Vector State Virology and Biotechnology Center in Novosibirsk, will ramp up by the end of the year. President Vladimir Putin announced the approval of Vector’s vaccine earlier this month, following a similar trajectory of the Sputnik V inoculation in August, which he claimed was the first to be registered in the world. Both were tested on a limited number of people before receiving provisional registration that will allow for widespread use as they undergo Phase 3 trials to prove they are safe and effective.

8. Pfizer not yet ready to release COVID-19 vaccine data from late-stage trial

Pfizer said on Tuesday it was not yet ready to release data from the late-stage trial of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate it is developing with Germany’s BioNTech. Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla has said the company could release data on whether or not the vaccine works as early as this month, but the company said in a presentation that the independent data monitoring board which will determine whether or not the trial has been successful has not conducted any interim efficacy analyses yet. This is a prime vaccine candidate touted by President Trump to be ready by November.

9. China Ramps Up Imports From U.S. as Trade Deal Target Looms

China ramped up purchases of American goods in September as its economy strengthened, though it still remains far from the full-year target set out under its Phase One trade deal with the U.S. The monthly value of U.S. goods that China bought under the trade agreement reached a monthly record high of $9.9 billion in September as oil, soybean and car imports surged. That still leaves China’s purchases at only 38.5% of a total target of more than $170 billion for the year. Under the agreement signed in January, China promised to buy an additional $200 billion of U.S. goods and services over the 2017 level by the end of 2021. The coronavirus pandemic upended some of those plans as demand crashed in the first quarter, but China’s recovery since then is gaining momentum, with imports gradually accelerating.

10. Rolls-Royce Gets Investor Approval for $2.6 Billion Equity Sale

Rolls-Royce shareholders backed a $2.6 billion equity raise, a key step toward shoring up the British jet engine maker’s finances to outlast the Covid-19 pandemic. Investors voted 99.5% in favour of the rights issue. Rolls-Royce’s engine business has been dealt a heavy blow by the coronavirus, with both unit sales and maintenance revenue hurt by a mass grounding of widebody aeroplanes. The company announced a 5 billion-pound refinancing plan at the start of this month, funded through a combination of debt issuance, a rights offer and loans, and now has no pressing need to extend borrowings guaranteed by the U.K. government.