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Oil Prices Hit $70 A Barrel – Top 10 Global News

1. Nasdaq Leads Surge in Futures as Bonds Rebound

Contracts on the tech-centric Nasdaq 100 rose 2.2% while those on the S&P 500 advanced 0.9%. Markets have been gripped by volatility in tech stocks this week and the Nasdaq 100 has fallen 11% from an all-time high. Investors will be closely watching Treasury sales in the coming days, with the U.S. planning three debt auctions totalling $120 billion. The sales will test appetite for the safest debt after last month’s poorly bid auctions sent shockwaves throughout global markets and short bets climbed to a record. Benchmark 10-year yields traded sharply lower after breaching the 1.6% level to trade at a one-year high last week.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index advanced 0.9% as of 8:30 a.m. New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.5%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased by 0.4%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index decreased by 0.2%.

2. Worst-Performing Asia Stock Index Turns Winner on Value Love

Singapore could be the biggest comeback story for Asian equities this year. After becoming the region’s worst performer in 2020 following a 12% slump, the Straits Times Index has surged 9.3% to trounce all other major Asian benchmarks so far this year. That’s come in the wake of a tech rout that saw the Nasdaq 100 enter a correction amid rising U.S. Treasury yields. Singapore’s market revival echoes the global trend of value investing as investors bet on an economic rebound. The island nation’s market is dominated by old economy shares, with more than 80% of the index made up of cyclical stocks without technology and communication services — among the highest contributions in Asia.

3. Bitcoin Hits Highest Level in Two Weeks as Big-Money Bets Flow

Bitcoin rallied to a two-week high, with prices hovering near $54,000 as the digital currency rides a wave of investor demand for crypto assets. The token rose 3.8% to $53,850 in early U.S. trading on Tuesday. While high-flying bets like Tesla and the ARK Innovation ETF have cratered recently, Bitcoin has steadily climbed on news of more institutional involvement in crypto. The narrative that longer-term investors such as family offices, insurers and corporate treasurers are adding exposure to tokens is controversial but gaining traction. Goldman Sachs Group recently said it’s seeing substantial demand from institutions as it works to restart its cryptocurrency trading desk.

4. China’s $1 Trillion Stock Rout Tests Limit of State Intervention

A world-beating rally in Chinese stocks has turned into the biggest rout globally, shocking investors with the severity of its reversal and evading state efforts to slow the pace of losses. In just 14 trading days, the nation’s benchmark CSI 300 Index has plummeted 14% from a 13-year high. That compares with a 3.3% drop by the MSCI All-Country World Index. The plunge has wiped out more than $1 trillion of value and hammered the holdings of retail investors who piled in at the peak, betting that the new lunar year of the Ox, or bull, would be auspicious. State intervention on Tuesday briefly arrested the tumble, before losses resumed.

5. Pfizer-BioNTech Covid Shot Neutralizes Brazilian Strain in Lab

The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech showed a high ability to neutralize coronavirus strains first detected in Brazil, the U.K. and South Africa. In lab experiments, the shot demonstrated “roughly equivalent” levels of neutralizing activity against the Brazil and U.K. strains compared with a version of the virus from early last year. It also showed “robust but lower” activity against the South Africa variant. While the research needs to be validated with real-world data, it offers another reason for optimism that the Covid vaccines are generally performing well against variants of the virus. 

6. Oil Flirting With $70 Challenges World’s Economic Recovery

The spike in oil prices has focused attention on how the steady rise in energy costs is threatening to create a drag on the global economic recovery and stoking fears of inflation. After surging more than 30% this year on coordinated supply constraints by major exporters and demand returning from the depths of the Covid-19 crisis, a missile attack Sunday on a key Saudi Arabian export facility sent Brent crude, the international benchmark, above $70 a barrel for the first time since January 2020. While prices have since pulled back, the impact on inflation and the overall global recovery depends on how sustained the underlying rally proves to be. For economists, the cause of higher prices is what matters, rather than the price itself. Rising energy costs on the back of strong demand normally indicate robust and resilient growth, while a surge from crimped supply could weigh on a recovery.

7. Haunted by 2008, China and U.S. Diverge on Stimulus Plans

The U.S. and China are pursuing divergent economic policies in the aftermath of the coronavirus recession in a role reversal from the last time the world economy was recovering from a shock. One of the takeaways from the annual National People’s Congress underway in Beijing is a conservative growth goal, with a tighter fiscal deficit target and restrained monetary settings. That’s a big contrast with Washington, where President Joe Biden is preparing a second major fiscal package after he gets final approval for his $1.9 trillion stimuli. The widening policy divergence is putting strains on exchange rates and could potentially reshape global capital flows. It stems, in part, from different policy lessons from the 2007-09 crisis.

8. Hedge Fund Investors Rush for Private Deals With IPOs Surging

Investors are increasingly betting on private markets — and they want to use hedge funds to do so. Private markets equities have emerged as the strategy most in-demand among non-traditional offerings from hedge funds. The appetite for growth and venture capital investments is increasing as private companies and unicorns become a larger part of the capital markets ecosystem.  More than half of the investors surveyed said they are now using hedge funds to access private markets. That figure rises to more than 70% for family offices, endowments and foundations.

9. Biden Faces Tougher Obstacles for Broad Relief Bill Sequel

President Joe Biden’s soon-to-be-unveiled longer-term economic stimulus package is set for far tougher obstacles in Congress than the pandemic-relief bill that’s on the verge of squeaking through without a single Republican’s backing. The “build back better” program that the White House says will be announced after Biden signs the $1.9 trillion aid bill — heading for final passage as soon as Tuesday — will be far more expansive than its predecessor. Biden has the same three options as for his first package: go without the GOP on a bill that’s as expansive as moderate Democrats and Senate rules will allow, dramatically scale back ambitions to lure at least 10 Senate Republicans, or split the program up and pursue a combination of approaches.

10. Carlyle-Backed China Biotech Firm Plans Hong Kong IPO

Abbisko Therapeutics, an oncology-focused Chinese biotech company, is planning a Hong Kong initial public offering that could raise about $250 million. Abbisko, which is backed by investors including Carlyle Group and Warburg Pincus, is working with advisers on the offering. The company aims to list as soon as this year. The Shanghai-based company joins a growing wave of health-care and biotech firms listing in Hong Kong after a record year for share sales in the sector. So far this year seven health-care companies have debuted in the city, raising a combined $2.1 billion. Abbisko raised $123 million in a Series D funding round in January which was led by Carlyle, Warburg, OrbiMed Advisors and Lake Bleu Capital. That brought its total fundraising to $263 million.

Curated from Bloomberg.com

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Bond Yields cause Chaos in Global Markets – Top 10 Global News

1. U.S. Stocks Slide With Futures; Yields Drop

Stocks fell with American equity futures as investors await key U.S. jobs data at the end of a week in which fears of a growth break-out sparked volatility across markets. Treasuries rose and the dollar advanced. Europe’s Stoxx 600 index opened more than 1% lower, with every industry sector in the red. Equity futures in the U.S. slipped, with contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 signalling more declines after a topsy-turvy week that erased this year’s gains. 

Bond yields have climbed in recent weeks on mounting expectations of stronger economic growth and price pressure, with erratic moves unsettling stocks as well.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index decreased 0.5% as of 8:33 a.m. London time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 1%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dipped 0.6%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index declined by 0.7%.

2. Oil Soars to $65 With Saudi Limiting Supply

Oil briefly moved above $65 a barrel after OPEC+ chose not to relax supply curbs even as the global economy pulls out of its pandemic-driven slump, confounding widespread expectations the group would loosen the taps. The surprise decision spurred a wave of crude price forecast upgrades by major banks. The producer alliance agreed to hold output steady in April, while Saudi Arabia said that it will maintain its 1 million barrel-a-day voluntary production cut. West Texas Intermediate rose as much as 1.9% and Brent briefly topped $68. Crude has soared this year, shepherded higher by OPEC+ restraining supplies and the vaccine-aided recovery in consumption that’s drained inventories. The group’s decision represents a victory for Riyadh, which has advocated for tight curbs to keep prices supported.

3. Bitcoin Falls with Rising Bond Yields

Bitcoin fell for a second day amid concerns that a jump in bond yields is sapping demand for riskier investments. The largest cryptocurrency shed as much as 3.4% on Friday and was trading at about $47,000 as of 1:05 p.m. in Hong Kong. Bitcoin is now some $10,000 below February’s record above $58,000, stoking the debate over whether the token’s investment base will widen or peter out as happened in the 2017 boom and bust. Overall risk appetite in markets took a knock after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell refrained from pushing back against the recent climb in long-term borrowing costs.

4. Chinese Tech Index Drops 21% in Two Weeks on Yield Concerns

The Hang Seng Tech Index, which includes Chinese technology giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., closed down 2.1% Friday. The gauge has steadily declined since its Feb. 17 peak, compared to a drop of 9% in the Nasdaq 100 and a decline of around 7.5% in the MSCI Asia Pacific Information Technology Index over that time. The latest bout of selling followed a fresh spike in Treasury yields overnight. The technology sector is particularly sensitive to concerns that highly valued stocks may struggle to match expectations if borrowing costs surge, as Covid lockdowns end and economic growth fuels cyclical shares.

5. ECB May Increase Bond-Buying to Control Yield Rates

The European Central Bank will step up its pace of emergency asset purchases to counter rising bond yields that risk hurting growth prospects in the euro area, according to economists, who expect the 1.85 trillion-euro ($2.23 trillion) program to be extended beyond its current end-date of March 2022. At the same time, others expect another increase in the size of the tool, suggesting market moves so far haven’t fundamentally changed the economic outlook. Multiple policymakers have dismissed the need for drastic action after returns on government debt started to increase last week, yet they’ve also stressed that the ECB is ready to counter any “unwarranted” gains. For now, there’s no evidence that the region’s central banks have accelerated purchases. The Governing Council holds its next meeting on March 11.

6. China’s Humble Growth Target Signals Policy Shift From World

China’s government set a conservative economic growth target for this year, shifting its focus from recovery mode to longer-term challenges like reining in debt and reducing technological dependence on the U.S. The growth target was set at above 6%, well below economists forecasts, with the budget deficit expected to fall to 3.2% of gross domestic product, Premier Li Keqiang said Friday at the opening of the National People’s Congress. In sharp contrast to places like the U.S., where the Biden administration is trying to push through a new $1.9 trillion stimulus package, Beijing outlined a plan to normalize policy now that the pandemic is under control domestically and the economy has bounced back.

7. U.S., U.K. Consider Russia Sanctions, Possibly Targeting Debt

The U.S. and U.K. are weighing additional penalties against Russia over the use of chemical weapons, with options ranging from sanctions against oligarchs to the extreme step of targeting the nation’s sovereign debt. British officials plan to push for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to continue to pressure Russia to provide answers over its use of banned substances and will raise potential measures with key European allies, including France and Germany, in the coming weeks. The Biden administration announced its first sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, punishing the Kremlin for the poisoning and jailing of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. The penalties mirrored those imposed by the European Union and the U.K., mainly targeting senior Russian law enforcement officials and others allied with President Vladimir Putin.

8. U.S. Senate Readies $1.9 Trillion Stimulus for Legislation

Senate Democrats on Thursday released an updated version of the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said will pass the chamber by the end of the week. The legislation has already undergone several changes since President Joe Biden released his initial proposal in January — a $15 federal minimum-wage mandate has been stripped from the bill and the eligibility rules for the $1,400 stimulus payments have been narrowed. The latest version of the bill adds a full subsidy for the health insurance premiums of laid-off workers through September. The legislation, which Democrats hope can be signed into law next week, would rival the $2 trillion March 2020 Cares Act in size and scope and follow a $900 billion December relief package. 

9. China Pledges to Tackle Housing Problem in Biggest Cities

China pledged to solve the housing problem in large cities at its top legislative session, as monetary loosening after the pandemic spurred a rush to real estate in the biggest hubs, pushing home affordability there to the worst ever. “We will address prominent housing issues in large cities,” Premier Li Keqiang told the National People’s Congress in Beijing on Friday. “We will make every effort to address the housing difficulties faced by our people, especially new urban residents and young people.” Li repeated President Xi Jinping’s mantra that houses are “for living in, not for speculation” in the key report, signalling that policymakers may maintain a tight rein on the bubble-prone sector. “We will keep the prices of land and housing as well as market expectations stable,” he said.

10. China Deals Fresh Blow to Tech Giants in Reach for Data

Companies are encouraged to open up data related to areas from search to e-commerce and social media, in order to promote the healthy development of the sharing and online economies, according to a government report outlining the Communist Party’s top priorities for the next five years. Beijing is also establishing a platform for sharing public and government data. Industry behemoths Alibaba and Tencent as well as up-and-coming competitors like ByteDance and Meituan have at their disposal vast amounts of proprietary information, gathered from the hundreds of millions of consumers shopping on their platforms and using social media apps like WeChat and Douyin. Surrendering that data could undermine their market-leading positions and deal a heavy blow to their ability to squeeze out smaller competitors.

Curated from Bloomberg.com

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China Economic Recovery Slows – Top 10 Global News

1. Stocks, Commodities Rally as Treasuries Slide

U.S. equity futures and global stocks rallied, while Treasuries dipped as confidence returned to markets after last week’s turmoil. The move was broad, with stocks tied to economic reopenings and faster growth notching some of the biggest gains. Apple, Tesla and American Airlines Group climbed in early U.S. trading. Retail and travel shares led the advance in Europe’s Stoxx 600 Index. Treasury yields added four basis points to 1.45% and the dollar was steady.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index increased 1% as of afternoon London time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 1.4%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 1.4%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index advanced 1.2%.

2. China’s Economic Recovery Slows Amid Holiday Disruptions

China’s economic recovery slowed in February as factories shut during the Lunar New Year holidays and virus restrictions dampened what’s usually a busy travel season. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to a nine-month low of 50.6 from 51.3 in January as export orders plunged, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday. The non-manufacturing gauge, which reflects activity in the construction and services sectors, declined to 51.4, versus a median estimate of 52. The composite index dropped to 51.6 in February, the lowest since the virus lockdown a year ago.

3. Goldman Sees Asia Stock Opportunities After Yield-Led Slide

The biggest slump in Asian stocks since March hasn’t shaken the faith of strategists, who recommend buying regional cyclical shares on expectations of a strong economic rebound from the pandemic. Growth can offset rate risks, a Goldman Sachs team including Timothy Moe wrote in a note, saying they prefer value cyclicals and short versus long duration ideas. Sanford C. Bernstein and Oanda Asia Pacific Pte see Asian stocks weathering a global surge in sovereign bond yields to stay ahead of their U.S. peers in 2021.

4. China Region Declares War on Crypto Mining, Stirring Wider Fear

China’s Inner Mongolia has banned cryptocurrency mining and declared it will shut all such projects by April, spurring fears the world’s No. 2 economy will take more steps to eradicate the power-hungry practice. The autonomous region, a favourite among the industry because of its cheap power, also banned new digital coin projects, according to a draft plan posted on the Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission’s website on Feb. 25. The aim is to constrain growth in energy consumption to about 1.9% in 2021. Bitcoin extended gains on Monday amid reports of the move, increasing as much as 6% in the session to $47,970.

5. Gold Steadies After Worst Month in Four Years as Yields in Focus

Gold steadied after its biggest monthly slump since late 2016 as dovish comments from the world’s major central bankers helped curb rising bond yields. Last week’s sell-off in sovereign debt stabilized after central banks from Asia to Europe provided reassurance that policy support remains in place. Bets on accelerating inflation are raising concerns that there could be a pullback in monetary policy support despite assurances from the Federal Reserve that higher yields reflect economic optimism for a solid recovery.

6. Ex-French President Sarkozy Found Guilty of Corruption

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty by a Paris court of corruption after he offered to pull strings to help a magistrate land a prestigious job in return for a favour. The 66-year-old was also sentenced to a one-year prison term, though under the French system he’s unlikely to serve it, even if he fails to overturn the verdict on appeal. “Sarkozy used his status as former French president,” said Presiding Judge Christine Mée on Monday as she read out the court’s decision. The conviction of Sarkozy is another setback to a political career that stuttered after his failed 2012 re-election bid. The judgment puts the former president on the back-foot weeks before he’s due back in court on separate charges that he illegally exceeded campaign-spending limits ahead of his electoral defeat.

7. Ambani to Partner Google, Facebook for Payments Business

Reliance Industries, led by Asia’s richest man, along with its partners plans to seek a license to enter India’s burgeoning digital payments business. India’s largest company by market value is teaming up with its investors Facebook and Google, as well as a homegrown technology service provider, Infibeam Avenues, to apply for a license from the Reserve Bank of India. The development was first reported by the Economic Times, which said that a consortium led by the Tata Group and another by Amazon.com were among other applicants.

8. Wealth Fund Newbie Comes In Focus in $1Trillion Sovereign Hub

Even in a city that’s among the few globally to manage around $1 trillion in sovereign wealth capital, ADQ has been making waves as one of the Gulf region’s most dynamic and deal-hungry investors, morphing in a short time from a relatively obscure holding company first known as ADDHC. Through the transfer of government holdings including the domestic stock exchange, alongside a series of investments, ADQ now oversees $110 billion in assets. ADQ has also become Abu Dhabi’s go-to fund to accelerate the economic diversification of one of the world’s top oil exporters. Set up in 2018, it owns companies across the emirate’s non-oil economy, from a stake in a regional food giant, film studios and a steel producer to a low-cost airline and the entity that oversees the nuclear energy program of the United Arab Emirates.

9. EU Vaccine Passports Draw Closer Amid Calls to Speed Up Rollout

European Union health ministers were told Monday they need to ramp up coronavirus vaccinations as the bloc’s executive arm prepares plans for certificates that will ease a return to normality for those who are immunized. On a video call with ministers, EU Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said that more mass testing and genome sequencing are needed to track mutations. In addition to improvements in detection, the bloc’s health chief warned governments they need to accelerate inoculations in the weeks and months ahead to match the increasing pace of deliveries. The European Commission will unveil a proposal this month for a “Digital Green Pass,” which will provide proof that a person has been vaccinated, recovered from Covid-19, or has received a negative test.

10. Dubai Suffered Steepest Population Drop in Gulf Region: S&P

Dubai’s population dropped by 8.4% last year, the steepest decline in the Gulf region, as expatriate workers were forced to leave amid the economic upheaval wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, S&P Global Ratings said. The drop in Dubai — the Middle East’s hub for business and tourism — compares with a 4% decline for the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, according to S&P estimates. Job losses accelerated in the region last year as the pandemic spread. Expatriates make up the majority of the population in the United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part. Residency permits in the country are usually tied to employment and many expatriates have to leave if they lose their jobs.

Curated from BloomBerg.com

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Facebook Blocks News in Australia – Top 10 Global News

1. Nasdaq Leads U.S. Futures Lower; U.S. Yields Rise

U.S. equity futures slumped amid disappointing earnings, while bonds resumed a selloff. Contracts on the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 fell 0.8% and S&P 500 futures dipped. Walmart Inc. dropped in U.S. pre-market trading after saying it will increase spending on worker salaries and automation. In Europe, banks led losses in the Stoxx 600 Index. Yields on 10-year Treasuries climbed to 1.29%. Concern is growing across markets that higher borrowing costs could sap a rally that’s driven values to historic highs. Technology companies that derive much of their cash flows from future earnings are especially vulnerable to inflation pressures.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index sank 0.5% as of 8:22 a.m. New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 0.4%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 0.8%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index sank 0.8%.

2. Big Freeze in Texas Is Becoming a Global Oil Market Crisis

What began as a power issue for a handful of U.S. states is rippling into a shock for the world’s oil market. More than 4 million barrels a day of output — almost 40% of the nation’s crude production — is now offline. One of the world’s biggest oil refining centres has seen output drastically cut back. The waterways that help U.S. oil flow to the rest of the world have been disrupted for much of the week. Brent crude briefly surged above $65 a barrel on Thursday, a level not seen since last January. Spreads indicating supply tightness also soared. Ten months ago, the price slumped below $16 because of a demand shock caused by Covid-19.

3. Facebook Blocks News in Australia in Warning for the World 

Facebook’s decision to block news sharing on its Australian platform is an unprecedented show of force that escalates a legal standoff with the government and flashes a warning to regulators worldwide. The tech giant imposed the restrictions early Thursday, an unexpected riposte to a proposed law that will force the company and Google to pay Australian publishers for news content. Facebook’s algorithmic ambush switched off the main news source for almost one in five Australians. It also disabled — accidentally, the company said — a raft of government Facebook pages carrying public health advice on the coronavirus, warnings from the weather bureau and even the site of a children’s hospital.

4. Walmart Falls After Forecasting Earnings Drop, More Spending

Walmart Inc. fell after forecasting a slowdown in sales and profit for the year, plus billions of additional spending on worker salaries, automation and other technology. The retailer said Thursday earnings per share will decline slightly in the fiscal year that just started, though will be flat or slightly up when excluding divestitures. Although U.S. comparable sales will stay positive this year, they’ll rise in the low-single-digits, below the recent breakneck rate but on pace with estimates. Walmart shares fell 5% in premarket trading at 7:49 a.m. in New York. Over the past 12 months, the shares have outpaced the S&P 500 but have trailed Target Corp.

5. Biden Immigration Agenda Takes Shape as Lawmakers Unveil Bill

President Joe Biden’s proposed immigration overhaul will be introduced in Congress on Thursday, kicking off what will likely be one of his most difficult legislative challenges. The legislation, known as the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, hews closely to the outline that Biden sent to Congress on his first day in office. The proposal includes an eight-year path to citizenship for most of the roughly 11 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S., bolsters the nation’s refugee and asylum systems and calls for additional technology to be used to help secure the southern border. The citizenship path is not explicitly tied to the implementation of border security measures, a trade-off included in past immigration bills designed to earn Republican support.

6. Bitcoin Keeps Hitting New Highs as Crypto Mania Accelerates

Bitcoin’s incredible rally shows little sign of abating yet after the token jumped past $52,000 for the first time. The largest cryptocurrency was little changed in Asian trading Thursday at about $52,100 after a fivefold surge in the past year. The crypto faithful counter that the digital asset is grabbing more mainstream attention, especially after Tesla’s recent $1.5 billion purchase. MicroStrategy Inc. boosted its convertible debt sale to buy Bitcoin by nearly half to $900 million and cut the coupon to 0%, making it virtually a straight bet on the price of the cryptocurrency.

7. WeWork Slashes Prices Across the U.S. by 10%

WeWork Cos. cut prices across the U.S. in the past few months, indicating that a post-pandemic recovery will come slowly for office rentals. The New York-based company reduced the price of most rental units—from individual desks to small offices—in early November and again in January. The average price reduction overall was about 10%, the data show. Some locations declined by as much as 25%. The pricing information was contained within the source code of WeWork’s website but wasn’t displayed to visitors through a web browser. Office rental prices across the country have been dropping precipitously. In the largest American cities, fewer than 20% of office workers were back at their desks as of the end of last year. Landlords’ asking prices could drop by 7% by early 2022 before rebounding.

8. Global Cases Slowing; Pregnancy Vaccine Trials: Virus Update

Encouraging signs in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic are emerging, with new global infections slowing sharply, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. In a lab study, Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine stimulated lower levels of neutralizing antibodies against the South African coronavirus variant. Indonesia will mandate vaccinations, the government said Thursday, while New Zealand has made masks compulsory on most forms of public transport. The United Nations is pushing for a worldwide vaccination effort. Vaccine-makers will begin trialling their shots with pregnant women, in a bid to provide reassurance that they are safe for expectant mothers.

9. Hong Kong Unemployment Hits Highest Level Since April 2004

Hong Kong’s unemployment rate rose in January to the highest level in more than 16 years as social distancing and travel restrictions from the pandemic continue to damage local businesses and destroy jobs. The jobless rate rose to 7% in the November-to-January period from 6.6% previously, the highest since April 2004, according to a government report Thursday. The underemployment rate also increased, rising to 3.8%. Hong Kong has struggled under an extended recession over the past two years amid social unrest and the global pandemic, with the economy shrinking a record 6.1% in 2020. Retail consumption, a key pillar of the economy, slumped first because of political demonstrations and then continued to decline due to restrictive measures to contain the spread of the virus.

10. Robinhood Rival Webull Raises New Funds at $1 Billion Valuation

Webull, the Chinese-owned brokerage that runs one of the fastest-growing retail trading platforms in the U.S., raised $150 million in a new financing round that gives the startup more firepower to compete with Robinhood Markets. The fundraising valued Webull’s parent company at more than $1 billion. The brokerage, founded by Alibaba Group Holding alum Wang Anquan, has benefited from the surge in trading by individual investors as stock prices soar to all-time highs. Webull has positioned itself as the go-to platform for disgruntled users of Robinhood, whose restrictions last month on highly volatile stocks including GameStop sparked outrage from some customers and drew criticism from politicians.

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10% Correction Likely in U.S. Markets – Top 10 Global News

1. U.S. Yields Slip From One-Year High; Stocks Drop

Treasury yields retreated from their highest in a year on Wednesday, while European stocks edged lower as investors assessed a busy day for earnings.  The Stoxx 600 Index slipped amid a mixed bag of corporate results. S&P 500 futures were flat, while the yield on benchmark 10-year Treasuries dipped to around 1.28% after touching the highest since February 2020. The three-month implied volatility on 10-year swap rates jumped, signalling that U.S. Treasuries are in for more wild gyrations. The dollar strengthened.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index were little changed at 9:06 a.m. London time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index sank 0.2%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased by 0.1%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index advanced 0.4%.

2. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Reveals Three New Secret Buys

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway cut its Apple holding during the last few months of the year. The conglomerate also revealed three new buys that it snapped up in secret. Berkshire bought stock in Verizon Communications, insurance broker Marsh & McLennan and Chevron, bets that were granted confidential status and not revealed in a third-quarter regulatory filing. The news of the investments sent the shares of those three companies up in after-market trading. The Apple stake reduction left Berkshire with a holding valued at about $120 billion at the end of 2020, which remains Berkshire’s biggest single stock holding.

3. 10% Correction in U.S. Stocks Is ‘Very Plausible’: Citi Strategist 

A 10% pullback in U.S. shares seems “very plausible” with markets balanced on a risk-reward basis, according to Citigroup Inc.’s Tobias Levkovich. “Our current caution reflects several factors, including ebullient sentiment readings, stretched valuation levels and slipping earnings revision momentum,” the bank’s chief U.S. equity strategist wrote Tuesday. “With limited upside even to others’ bullish targets, a neutral stance is realistic.” U.S. stocks are not in a bubble and comparisons with the early 2000s don’t stack up as the economy is exiting, not entering, a recession and the Federal Reserve isn’t raising rates, according to Levkovich. That suggests a deep selloff in stocks is unlikely, he said.

4. Penny Stock Craze at Boiling Point: SEC Eyes Social Media

Penny stocks are an area where sentiment remains boiling hot, earning the scrutiny of federal regulators. Way-off-exchange venues, where lightly regulated companies have repeatedly been drawn into social media-fueled trading vortexes, saw more than 1 trillion shares change hands in December for the first time in a decade. The mayhem has caught the eye of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which last week suspended trading in SpectraScience Inc. — a firm that had surged 633% in 2021 to just over two-tenths of a cent before the halt. The SEC’s order noted that while the company hadn’t filed reports in years and its phone number doesn’t work, “social media accounts may be engaged in a coordinated attempt to artificially influence” its share price.

5. Baidu’s Back With an $80 Billion Rally and Electric Car Ambition

For two decades, Baidu has largely been viewed as an online marketing company selling ads within its web search results. Now, the internet company is ready to make the case that it has more to offer. Shares of China’s largest search engine firm have surged nearly threefold since their mid-March lows when the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic forced marketers and brands to tighten their budgets. Since then, advertising has staged a recovery, while Baidu’s years of investments in artificial intelligence is starting to bear fruit as it monetizes the technology in electric vehicles and smart speakers. The rally has emboldened the 21-year-old company to tap capital markets with a slew of financing plans, including a potential second listing in Hong Kong.

6. Saudi Wealth Fund Made $3.3 Billion Bet on Video-Game Makers

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is pursuing investments in an industry long favoured by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: video games. The Riyadh-based Public Investment Fund acquired more than $3 billion worth of stock in three U.S. video-game makers during the fourth quarter. They include Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive. The sovereign wealth fund, also known as PIF, is chaired by Prince Mohammed, credited video games with sparking ingenuity and that his favourite diversion is Call of Duty series, Activision’s best-selling franchise.

7. Cathay Pacific Traffic Numbers Plunged to New Lows in January

Cathay Pacific Airways flew an average of just 981 passengers a day in January, the first time the number dropped below 1,000 since June, and its load factor was the lowest on record at just 13.3%. The Hong Kong-based airline has been reporting huge drops in passenger traffic in the months since the coronavirus emerged in China in early 2020. It flew a total of 30,410 passengers in January, a 99% slump from a year earlier. Revenue passenger kilometres fell 98.7%. 

8. Citi Loses Bid to Recoup Massive Mistake in Surprise Ruling

Citigroup unexpectedly lost a legal battle to recover half a billion dollars it sent Revlon lenders after the embarrassing blunder forced it to answer to regulators and tighten its internal controls. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman on Tuesday ruled that 10 asset managers for the lenders — which include Brigade Capital Management, HPS Investment Partners and Symphony Asset Management — don’t have to return $504 million that Citibank said it mistakenly transferred in August while trying to make an interest payment. He said they shouldn’t have been expected to know that the transfer, which totalled more than $900 million before some lenders returned their share.

9. Ford Going Almost Fully Electric by End of Decade in Europe

Ford will drastically overhaul its business in Europe, where it didn’t sell a single fully electric vehicle last year, vowing to go almost entirely electric by the end of the decade. One of the first steps in the transformation announced Wednesday will be to plow $1 billion into a German assembly plant that will start making an all-electric model in two years. By mid-2026, all passenger cars Ford sells will be plug-in hybrids or fully electric. By 2030, Ford’s passenger-vehicle range will be completely all-electric — one of the more demanding road maps among Europe’s major incumbent carmakers. Only its smaller but strategically important commercial-vehicle business will sell some vans and trucks that lack a plug by then.

10. Sweden Toughens Curbs; New EU Vaccine Deal: Virus Update

Sweden fleshed out tougher new measures to help the country cope with a potential Covid-19 resurgence in response to “a concerning” increase over the past week. The European Union finalized an agreement with Pfizer and BioNTech SE for 200 million more doses of their vaccine, locking in a second-quarter supply boost as countries struggle to speed up their immunization drives. New Zealand is ending a three-day lockdown in Auckland after authorities expressed confidence that the latest community outbreak is contained. The U.K. is preparing plans for a testing blitz to lift its lockdown.

Curated from Bloomberg.com

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Tesla to Make Cars in Bangalore – Top 10 Global News

1. Stocks Extend Gains; Oil Climbs on Cold Snap

Global stocks rallied as investors took comfort in the vaccine rollout while freezing temperatures in Texas roiled energy markets. The FTSE 100 Index jumped 2% and the pound strengthened after the U.K. recorded 15 million vaccinations against coronavirus. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average topped 30,000 yen for the first time since August 1990 on data showing the economy is charging ahead. Meanwhile, an Arctic blast in the U.S. threatened to disrupt energy supplies, sending crude oil to a 13-month high. Texas began rolling power blackouts for millions of households for the first time in a decade.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index increased 0.3% as of 1:48 p.m. London time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased by 1.2%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.6%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index gained 0.6%.

2. Tesla to Start Making Cars in India, Targeting Vast Market

Tesla is closing in on an agreement to make electric vehicles in India for the first time, opening up a new growth opportunity after setting up production in China. Tesla has picked Karnataka, a southern state whose capital is Bangalore, for its first plant, the state’s chief minister said over the weekend. The automaker has been negotiating with local officials for six months and is actively considering car assembly in the suburbs of Bangalore. The company is conducting due diligence for office real estate in the region and plans to set up an R&D facility. Tesla has focused on Bangalore because it’s shaping up to be a hub for electric vehicles and aerospace manufacturing talent.

3. Blackouts in Texas as Big Freeze Upends Energy Markets

Millions of households in Texas are suffering rolling power blackouts for the first time in a decade as an unprecedented Arctic freeze wrought chaos in U.S. energy markets. The largest cities from Houston to San Antonio were without power for spells of up to an hour at a time as supplies in the U.S.’s second-largest state fluctuated wildly. The extreme cold caught the highly decentralized Texan electricity market by surprise despite a heads up a week ago about the impending frigid temperatures from the U.S. National Weather Service. With the equivalent of 2 million households being cut off at a time, the situation is expected to worsen throughout Monday.

4. JPMorgan: Markets Most Complacent in Two Decades

Global investors are the least fearful they’ve been in two decades, and perhaps the most greedy. A JPMorgan gauge of cross-asset complacency based on valuations, positioning and price momentum is nearing the highest level since the time the dot-com bubble burst and some companies found out burning cash faster than they made it wasn’t quite effective as a long-term survival strategy. Some of that get-rich-quick spirit has already been on display in 2021 from Bitcoin’s flirting with the $50,000 mark to the craze for cannabis firms and speculative warfare over penny stocks. Global equities have added $7 trillion since New Year, digital currencies have ballooned to a market value of $1.4 trillion and high-yield bond sales are raking in records.

5. Bumble, Copper, and Weed: Investments in the Spotlight

Matchmaker app Bumble, where only women are allowed to make the first move, soared as much as 85% on its debut Thursday. That values the company at about $14 billion including debt. With inflation expectations picking up, industrial metals such as copper are on a tear. Copper hit an eight-year high on Wednesday as factory-gate prices in China rose for the first time in a year. Metals used in industrial products are typically beneficiaries of economic upswings and are also a common way to hedge against inflation risk. Platinum, which is used in catalytic converters to curb vehicle pollution, also hit a six-year high this week. A change in control of the U.S. government has boosted Canadian cannabis company Canopy Growth Corp. Its shares jumped as much as 15% in New York trading Tuesday after saying it expects to gain broad access to the U.S. market this year. Canopy has a medical-cannabis operation and makes consumer products such as cannabis-infused chocolates and drinks. 

6. Vegan Chocolate Race Heats Up: Nestle Plans Rice-Based KitKat

Nestle is adding its first vegan milk chocolate to its products as the world’s biggest food company expands beyond meat alternatives. The Swiss food giant will start offering plant-based KitKat bars this year, called KitKat V. The product will be for sale online and at selected stores in a handful of markets including the U.K. as a test run before a possible wider rollout. The bar, which uses a rice-based formula as a milk substitute, took about two years to develop. The main challenge in making alternatives to milk chocolate is ensuring it blends well with cocoa and sugar for a creamy texture.

7. Dubai Airports Traffic Slumps 70% in 2020

Dubai International Airport reported a 70% slump in traffic last year as restrictions in place to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic put the air travel industry into a tailspin. The number of travellers through the Middle East’s tourism hub fell to 25.9 million in 2020. That included 17.8 million passengers during the first quarter of the year before the pandemic started to impact travel. Since then, restrictions on air travel have battered airlines and airports around the world. Despite the drop in traffic, Dubai International Airport is the largest intercontinental hub in the world.

8. Expat Exodus Threatens Gulf Economies, S&P Says

Gulf Arab states lost up to 4% of their population last year in an “exodus” of expatriate workers that could complicate the diversification of the region’s economies, S&P Global Ratings warned in a report. The share of foreigners relative to citizens in Gulf Cooperation Council countries is set to drop further through 2023 because of subdued non-oil sector growth and workforce nationalization policies. GCC countries’ productivity, income levels, and economic diversification may stagnate in the long term without significant investment in the human capital of the national population and improvements in labour-market flexibility.

9. Jaguar’s Electric Shift May Leave U.K. Plant With No Car to Make

Jaguar Land Rover laid out plans to electrify its lineup under a new chief executive officer, with its namesake luxury-car brand ditching combustion engines just four years from now. JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors, will invest about 2.5 billion pounds ($3.5 billion) a year into electrification and related technologies. The Land Rover line will get its first fully electric model in 2024, and by the following year, all Jaguars will be entirely powered by batteries. The shift is poised to be challenging for the carmaker, which was grappling with Brexit, stricter emissions rules and a dip in exports to China even before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

10. U.S. Infection Rate Eases to Lowest Since October

The pace of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. continued to ease as the country’s week-to-week average fell to its lowest in almost four months. A top Biden administration health official warned Americans not to get complacent as the potentially more lethal variant first found in the U.K. spreads across the country. California’s positive test rate fell to its lowest since November, and New York state’s hospitalizations, stuck among the nation’s highest, dropped by more than 1,000 over the last week. The U.K. affirmed its plan for schools to reopen early next month as the nation’s vaccine program meets its first target. The Czech government prolonged its lockdown as the country struggles to contain one of Europe’s worst outbreaks.

Curated from Bloomberg.com

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Asian Markets Shut on Record-Highs for Lunar New Year – Top 10 Global News

1. Stocks Slip Near Record Highs; Crude Oil Declines

Global stocks slid near record highs in subdued trading at the end of the week. Oil futures fell for a second day, while the dollar strengthened. European stocks slumped, with retail and energy stocks posting losses. In the U.S., Treasuries edged up and S&P 500 futures dipped after the benchmark closed at an all-time high on Thursday. Most markets in Asia were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday. Despite losses on Friday, global stock markets are still on track for a weekly advance, with the MSCI World up 1.1% in the past five days.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index sank 0.4% as of 8:39 a.m. London time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.2%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index decreased 0.1%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index dipped 0.1%.

2. Oil’s Red-Hot Rally Fizzles With Virus Continuing Hold on Market

Oil slipped below $58 a barrel as a recent rally fizzled with the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to weigh on the demand outlook and as one technical indicator signalled prices may have climbed too far, too fast. Futures in New York fell for a second session on Friday after surging more than 12% for the longest run of gains in two years. The enduring outbreak continues to crimp fuel consumption from China to the U.S., with the International Energy Agency cutting its demand forecast for 2021 and describing the market as fragile. The U.S. government earlier this week also predicted the nation’s petroleum demand will likely need much more time to recover.

3. Australia Enforces Lockdown; U.S. Orders Doses: Virus Update

Australia’s second-most populous state will enter a five-day lockdown after a spike in cases, with movements in Victoria to be restricted from late Friday night. The Australian Open tennis tournament underway in the capital of Melbourne will continue but without spectators. The Philippines will soon allow cinemas to resume operations and expand seating capacity at religious gatherings. President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. has finished deals for 100 million additional vaccine doses each from Pfizer and Moderna and that the companies would deliver new and existing orders quicker than projected. U.S. vaccine supply should increase enough by April to allow anyone who wants a shot to begin getting one, said Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease doctor.

4. Norway GDP Even Stronger Than Expected; Rate Hike Rumored

Norway’s economy grew much faster than expected at the end of last year, underpinning bets its central bank will be the first in the rich world to raise interest rates this year. Mainland gross domestic product, which adjusts for Norway’s offshore industry, grew 1.9% in the fourth quarter. For all of 2020, Norway’s mainland economy contracted 2.5%, much less than the 3.5% decline the central bank had predicted. Norway, the richest Nordic economy thanks to its oil wealth, emerged much stronger from 2020 than the eurozone, where the economy shrank almost 7%. Norway’s resilience, underpinned by its $1.3 trillion wealth fund, has economists betting the central bank will be able to raise rates years before others.

5. French Carmaker Rivalry Defies Macron’s EV Battery Vision

President Emmanuel Macron’s vision for France to join forces in building batteries for cars of the future isn’t going exactly as planned. The more than 120-year rivalry between Peugeot and Renault SA has proved too fierce to overcome, even for a 5 billion-euro ($6 billion) project backed by their powerful shareholder, the French government. Instead, PSA Group, now part of Stellantis, and oil giant Total are pushing ahead without Renault, which may pursue its own plans with South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd. France and Germany, where the electric revolution is making obsolete thousands of jobs in areas like engine and transmission-making, have led the political push over the past few years for developing a local battery cell industry in a bid to take back control of a car part that can make up 40% of an EV’s value. 

6. Musk’s Younger Brother Sells $25.6 Million of Tesla Shares

Kimbal Musk, the younger brother of Elon Musk and a Tesla board member, sold $25.6 million of shares in the electric-car maker. The 48-year-old sold 30,000 shares on Feb. 9 at an average price of $852.12. Tesla shares dropped 5.3% Wednesday to close at $804.82. Tesla soared 743% in 2020 and is up another 14% this year. The transaction reduced Kimbal Musk’s holding to 599,740 Tesla shares, which amounts to $483 million. Tesla insiders hold a 19.6% stake in the company.

7. U.K. Economy Caps Worst Year Since 1709 With a Surprising Surge

Figures published Friday add some weight to the Bank of England’s view that while the economy will likely shrink in the first three months of the year, a successful vaccine rollout and a surge in household savings during lockdowns could power a sharp recovery in 2021. The gross domestic product grew 1% in from October through December, fueled by a boom in construction and government spending. Output contracted 9.9% for the whole of 2020, slightly below the latest estimates of the U.K.’s fiscal watchdog. The outlook hinges on the degree of scarring left by the pandemic and how soon can the government capitalize on one of the world’s fastest vaccination campaigns to loosen restrictions.

8. Klein’s Churchill Said to Raise $1.68 Billion in Two New SPACs

Financier Michael Klein raised a combined $1.68 billion in initial public offerings of two new blank-check companies. Churchill Capital Corp. VI raised $480 million, upsized from $400 million in the IPO. A second special purpose acquisition company, Churchill Capital Corp. VII, raised $1.2 billion after earlier planning to raise $1 billion. One of Klein’s SPACs is in talks to take Lucid Motors Inc. public in a transaction that would value the carmaker at about $15 billion. That SPAC, Churchill Capital Corp IV, closed trading Thursday at $31.50 a share, more than three times its $10 trust price. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is leading the Churchill VI IPO, while Churchill VII is being advised by Citigroup Inc.

9. Merkel Warns Mutations Could Wreck Progress in Virus Fight

Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that aggressive coronavirus mutations will gain the upper hand in Germany sooner or later, threatening to destroy the progress made in containing the pandemic. Europe’s largest economy needs to maintain tight controls even as contagion rates steadily decline and immunizations slowly ramp up, Merkel said Thursday. The fast-spreading British variant is already in the country, and strains from Brazil and South Africa are also a risk, she added. Under pressure from state leaders, the chancellor agreed late Wednesday to loosen some virus restrictions and open a pathway to a return to some semblance of normality after months of stringent curbs.

10. Coronavirus Weakens Netanyahu’s Allies Ahead of Polls

About half of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community thinks their own leaders have failed them during the coronavirus pandemic — and that could hurt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s already troubled re-election bid. Talk of boycotting the March 23 election is percolating In Israel’s fractured political landscape, a party’s loss of a parliamentary seat or two can determine the outcome of the entire vote. Ultra-Orthodox, or haredi, parties have been staunch allies of Netanyahu and currently control 16 of parliament’s 120 seats. Any weakening of their clout would make it even tougher for the prime minister to form a governing coalition.

Curated from Bloomberg.com

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Amsterdam Overtakes London in European Stock-Trading – Top 10 Global News

1. U.S. Stocks Rise Toward Record; Treasuries Decline

U.S. stocks snapped a two-day slide to push back toward records as a decline in jobless claims signalled a modest firming of the labour market. Oil declined. The S&P 500 Index advanced past its closing high, while 10-year Treasury yields held around 1.15%. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index was buoyed by strong results. Applications for U.S. state unemployment benefits fell slightly last week in a sign that the labour market is still gradually improving as the vaccine rollout continues and business restrictions ease. In the background, there’s still a debate over whether more U.S. stimulus, the vaccine rollout and the government’s determination to kickstart growth will cause the American economy to overheat.

The S&P 500 Index gained 0.3% as of 9:36 a.m. in New York.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.4%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased by 0.2%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index advanced 0.4%.

2. Amsterdam Topples London as Europe’s Main Share-Trading Hub

Amsterdam overtook London as Europe’s largest share trading centre in January after Brexit saw about half of the city’s volumes move to the continent. An average 9.2 billion euros ($11 billion) of shares a day were traded on various Dutch venues in January, a more than fourfold increase from December. That compares to average daily volumes in London of 8.6 billion euros. Britain lost its rights to access the single market on Dec. 31 and the European Union has not permitted investors inside the bloc to trade shares in companies such as Airbus and BNP Paribas from the U.K. That’s seen more than 6 billion euros of daily EU share trading leave London since the start of the year.

3. IEA Says Oil Market Recovery Still Fragile as Virus Persists

The re-balancing of global oil markets remains “fragile” amid weaker estimates for demand and a recovery in supplies, the International Energy Agency said. The IEA cut forecasts for world oil consumption in 2021 by 200,000 barrels a day as the pandemic continues to limit travel and economic activity. It boosted projections for supplies outside the OPEC cartel by 400,000 barrels a day as a price recovery spurs investment. “Renewed lockdowns, stringent mobility restrictions and a rather slow vaccine rollout in Europe have delayed the anticipated rebound,” the Paris-based agency, which advises major economies, said on Thursday in a monthly report.

4. Democrats Use Video, Trump’s Words in Blaming Him for Riot

House prosecutors used the second day of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial to detail a months-long campaign by the former president to stoke hatred and encourage violence over the election results that they said culminated in the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol that he then did little to stop. Using previously unreleased videos and audio, the Democratic lawmakers vividly showed senators how close the rioters who ransacked the Capitol came to reaching them, as well as then-Vice President Mike Pence. Senators in the chamber listened in rapt silence as the recordings played.

5. Economic Boost from Americans’ Stimulus Checks Doubtful

President Joe Biden has promised to “act fast” in delivering another dose of pandemic relief, including $1,400 checks for millions of Americans. That doesn’t mean all the recipients will be in a hurry to spend the money.  By comparison with the first round of stimulus checks that went out last spring, the payments from Biden’s $1.9 trillion aid bill are much more likely to be saved rather than spent. Some of Biden’s Democratic allies are making that case and calling for a more targeted approach as the administration steers its bill through Congress. They want to lower the income ceiling for people to qualify for the full $1,400, currently set at $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples.

6. Bitcoin Hits Record as Mastercard, BNY Mellon Embrace Crypto

Bitcoin jumped to a record high after Mastercard and Bank of New York Mellon moved to make it easier for customers to use cryptocurrencies. The largest digital asset rose as much as 7.4% to $48,364, surpassing the all-time high reached Monday after Tesla announced it would hold $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency on its balance sheet. The wider Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index also touched a record. “The crypto-asset world is bursting into the realms of traditional finance at a staggering pace,” said Simon Peters, an analyst at investment platform eToro. Mastercard has already partnered with crypto card providers such as Wirex and BitPay, but has required digital currencies to be converted into fiat before processing payments for transactions on its network.

7. Biden, in Call With Xi, Talks of ‘Unfair Economic Practices’

Joe Biden, in his first conversation as president with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, spoke of his concern about China’s “coercive and unfair economic practices” as well as human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. Biden also expressed misgivings about the country’s growing restrictions on political freedoms in Hong Kong and “increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan,” in the call, which took place Thursday morning Beijing time. Biden, who wished Xi a happy Lunar New Year, was “committed to pursuing practical, results-oriented engagements when it advances the interests of the American people and those of our allies.”

8. Germany Curbs Travel; WHO Warns on Mutations: Virus Update

The World Health Organization warned that a decline in overall virus cases conceals increasing numbers of outbreaks and community spread involving variants, with the strain first identified in South Africa late last year now identified in 19 countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said coronavirus mutations will likely become dominant across the country, threatening to derail the progress made in containing the pandemic. The country plans to impose restrictions on travel from Austria and the Czech Republic over concerns about aggressive mutations.

9. Dubai Business Activity Barely Grows As Restrictions Reimposed

Non-oil companies in Dubai increased output for the second month in a row in January but the uptick was marginal in the emirate where authorities have reimposed some restrictive measures imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19. The non-oil private sector economy in the Middle East’s business hub improved fractionally last month, according to IHS Markit. While its Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 50.6 in January from 51 last month, driven by a decrease in output and new orders, the gauge still remained above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. Employment figures in Dubai showed an uptick for the first time in about a year, and at the quickest pace in 14 months as companies expressed optimism toward future business.

10. Kuwait Currency Peg in Spotlight With State Unable to Borrow

The Kuwaiti dinar’s peg to a basket of currencies is coming under scrutiny as concerns grow that one of the world’s richest nations is running short of cash. While other Gulf Arab states tapped global debt markets to bolster strained finances amid the pandemic, Kuwait has been hamstrung by lawmakers’ resistance to approving a law that would enable the government to borrow. Concern over how Kuwait will cover its budget deficit has become more acute after the government transferred the last of its performing assets to the country’s sovereign wealth fund in exchange for cash.

Curated from Bloomberg.com

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Weak Market Sentiments Continue – Top 10 Global News

1. Futures Drop With Stocks; Bond Yields Rise

American equity futures slid along with stocks in Europe Friday amid lingering concerns about volatile retail-trader speculation in the U.S. and a cash squeeze in China. Treasury yields ticked higher and the dollar erased gains. S&P 500 futures dropped after the U.S. gauge rebounded Thursday from its worse loss since October. Crude oil inched higher and gold rose. The Stoxx Europe 600 index declined, though it pared losses after data from three of the euro area’s largest economies suggested the region can avoid a deeper recession, while still facing headwinds from extended coronavirus lockdowns. 

The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 0.8% by 7:04 a.m. in New York.

S&P 500 futures slipped 0.6%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific index fell 1.4%.

The MSCI Emerging Markets index dropped 0.9%.

2. Oil Holds Steady Amid Economic Data, Fears Over Demand

Oil steadied amid surprisingly robust economic data from Europe, while the spread of a new Covid-19 variant and lockdowns raised concerns about the near-term recovery in fuel demand. WTI futures held above $52 a barrel after the biggest decline in almost a week on Thursday. Three of the euro area’s four largest economies — Germany, France and Spain — rounded off the pandemic year suggesting the region can avoid a deeper recession. The virus variant identified in South Africa has reached the U.S. just as Europe is set to tighten its rules on the export of vaccines. Stay-at-home orders to combat the spread of the disease have hit travel and crimped consumption of fuels from China to Los Angeles. India’s demand for diesel, the country’s most-used fuel, is also struggling to shake off the pandemic’s crippling effects on its economy. The crawl back to pre-virus levels will be slow.

3. Biden Covid Team Derides Trump Plan Using Its Old Playbook

President Joe Biden and his top advisers have derided the Trump administration’s playbook for distributing coronavirus vaccines, but so far have made only modest changes to the plan that’s meeting their target pace of more than one million shots a day. Biden has said vaccine distribution was in “worse shape than we anticipated.” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said a Trump administration plan “did not really exist.” Adviser Cedric Richmond said they “didn’t leave a plan.” Xavier Becerra, Biden’s choice for health secretary, said it was like taking over a plane in a nosedive. But while Biden’s approach to the virus — frank warnings about the pandemic, mask mandates on federal property — is a reversal from Trump’s policies, his administration’s distribution of vaccines so far looks little different from that of its predecessor.

4. Bitcoin Investors May Lose Everything, Central Banker Warns

Bitcoin investors need to be prepared to “lose all their money,” European Central Bank governing council member Gabriel Makhlouf said, the latest warning from a central banker on the cryptocurrency. Makhlouf’s comments echo scepticism from ECB leaders. The cryptocurrency is a “highly speculative asset,” President Christine Lagarde said this month. Bitcoin prices have more than doubled since November and topped $40,000 earlier this month. Large movements in its value are common, with four daily swings of more than 5% in the past nine days.

5. Robinhood Raises $1 Billion in Dash for Cash After Trader Revolt

New York markets had just fired up, and the investing world was tuning in for Thursday’s episode of the continuing drama: Legions of Robinhood Markets investors versus hedge-fund Goliaths. But within minutes, a shock wave invisible to the outside world rattled the mechanics of Wall Street — sending Robinhood rushing for more than $1 billion of additional cash. The stock market’s central clearing hub had demanded large sums of collateral from brokerages including Robinhood that for weeks had facilitated spectacular jumps in shares such as GameStop. The Silicon Valley venture with the wildly popular no-fee trading app came to a crossroads. It reined in the risk to itself by banning certain trades and unwinding client bets — igniting an outcry from customers and even U.S. political leaders. By that night, word was emerging that Robinhood had raised more than $1 billion from existing investors and drawn hundreds of millions more from bank credit lines to weather the storm. 

6. Mexico Deaths Surpass India’s; WHO Team in Wuhan: Virus Update

Mexico overtook India as the country with the third-highest number of fatalities after the U.S. and Brazil. The virus variant identified in South Africa reached the U.S. with two cases found in South Carolina. Struggling to keep up in the vaccination drive, the European Union is poised to tighten rules on vaccine exports, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen slammed AstraZeneca for cutting the number of doses it would deliver to the bloc in the first quarter. In China, a team from the World Health Organization began meetings in Wuhan to try to understand the genesis of the coronavirus.

7. GameStop Shows Rising Power of Retail Traders: Reddit CEO

Reddit Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Huffman said on Thursday that the WallStreetBets forum is “by no means perfect but they’ve been well in the bounds of our content policy.” He said anyone who thinks the users of the forum are “idiots” should spend more time reading the discussions. “It’s this idiot swagger that masks what I think is this charming intelligence,” Huffman said. The forum’s unprecedented influence on GameStop’s stock shows that markets must adapt to a world where retail investors are gaining some of the power big financial firms have long held, according to Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of the online forum.

8. Taiwan’s GDP Growth Outpaces China’s for After 30-Year Gap

Taiwan’s economic growth outpaced that of China’s for the first time in 30 years, helped by its early control of the virus and stellar export performance. Gross domestic product expanded 2.98% last year, compared with China’s 2.3% rise. Taiwan was able to avoid the strict lockdowns last year that brought most other economies to a halt. With a few exceptions, Taiwanese businesses, offices and schools stayed open throughout the year and there was something of a boom in domestic travel as people opted to vacation at home rather than head overseas. 

9. Pfizer, BioNTech Covid Vaccine Safe for the Elderly, EMA Says

Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine for Covid-19 is safe for older people, a Europe-wide review found, with no link between the shot and the deaths of elderly vaccinated people. The review found no new side effects as the vaccine has been rolled out. The European Medicines Agency’s safety panel analyzed deaths in light of other medical conditions the people had, as well as the fatality rate for corresponding age groups in the general population, the EMA said in a statement. Reports of deaths in Norway earlier this month caused concern around the world, with people watching for signs of potential side effects from the vaccines being introduced with unprecedented speed.

10. U.K. Bans Flights From Dubai, Rest of UAE to Stop New Strain

The U.K. banned direct passenger flights from the United Arab Emirates to stop the spread of a new virus strain originally identified in South Africa, putting one of the world’s busiest international air routes on ice. Starting 1 p.m. U.K. time, passengers who’ve been in or transited through the UAE in the previous 10 days will also no longer be allowed to enter the country. Visitors from Burundi and Rwanda in Africa are barred as well. Exemptions usually in place, including for business travel, will no longer apply.

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Jack Ma resurfaces after Ages – Top 10 Global News

1. Europe Stocks Rise With Futures; Dollar Declines

European stocks tracked U.S. equity futures higher on Wednesday, buoyed by earnings and hopes for more stimulus. The dollar extended its retreat. Nasdaq futures rallied and tech shares led gains in the Stoxx 600 Index following strong earnings from Netflix and chipmaker ASML Holding NV. S&P 500 contracts edged higher a day after Janet Yellen unveiled a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief proposal to lawmakers. In Asia, Chinese firms trading in Hong Kong saw the bulk of gains, and the Hang Seng Index approached the 30,000 level.

The S&P 500 Index jumped 0.7% as of early morning time in New York.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.1%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 1.2%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index increased 1.3%.

2. Biden Sweeps Executive Orders to Reverse Trump Legacy

President-elect Joe Biden plans to begin immediately unwinding President Donald Trump’s policies on immigration, climate and other issues on Wednesday with at least 15 executive actions, including moves to reverse U.S. withdrawals from the Paris Agreement and the World Health Organization and stop construction of a border wall. Biden will also sign orders revoking a permit for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, imposing a mask mandate on federal property to combat the coronavirus pandemic and ending Trump’s travel ban against some predominantly Muslim and African countries.

3. Jack Ma Emerges for First Time Since Ant, Alibaba Crackdown

Jack Ma resurfaced for the first time since China’s government began clamping down on his business empire nearly three months ago, appearing in a live-streamed video that sent Alibaba’s stock soaring but left plenty of unanswered questions about the billionaire’s fate. Ma spoke briefly on Wednesday during an annual event he hosts to recognize rural teachers. In one video of the event circulated online, China’s most famous entrepreneur can be seen touring a primary school in his hometown of Hangzhou. Ma, who had stayed out of public view since regulators suspended the IPO of his fintech company Ant Group, told the teachers he’ll spend more time on philanthropy. He didn’t mention his run-ins with Beijing.

4. Disney Cuts Iger’s Pay 56% to $21 Million, Axes Bonuses

Walt Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger saw his pay decline 56% to $21 million last year. Chief Executive Officer Bob Chapek, who was promoted to Iger’s former role at the end of February, earned $14.2 million, one of the lowest compensation levels for a Disney CEO in more than a decade. Bonuses were eliminated for the company’s most highly compensated executives. Disney was hit in myriad ways by the Covid-19 crisis, but also saw some businesses thrive. The world’s largest entertainment company closed theme parks and docked cruise ships around the world. Like other Hollywood studios, it postponed releases of films in theatres, while the loss of live sports on television earlier in the year crimped the company’s advertising business.

5. China ETF Overtakes BlackRock as Investors Avert Sanctions

A Chinese exchange-traded fund has surpassed BlackRock’’s ETF to become the largest tracking onshore stocks. China Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd.’s CSI 300 Index ETF grew to $2.7 billion in assets as of Tuesday, surpassing BlackRock’s iShares fund tracking the FTSE A50 China Index. Investors are shifting to the Chinese-owned CSI 300 index fund partly to avoid U.S. sanctions, which forced New York-based BlackRock to unload shares in popular telecom stocks such as China Mobile Ltd. Buyers have also been attracted to the index’s broader holdings, compared with the finance-heavy FTSE A50.

6. Ethereum May Surge Sevenfold to $10,500

Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, could climb more than sevenfold to $10,500 after reaching a record this week, according to Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC. Strategist David Grider’s prediction is based in part on the popularity of the related Ethereum blockchain for so-called decentralized finance applications. Ethereum has also made progress toward a network upgrade that would allow it to process a similar number of transactions as Mastercard and Visa. Decentralized finance, or DeFi, allows people to do things like lend or borrow funds without the need for traditional intermediaries such as banks. Many DeFi applications are run on the Ethereum blockchain.

7. U.K., Belgium Among Nations Seeking Cheaper Indian Vaccines

India says it can increase its production of Covid-19 vaccines to 500 million per month for export, as it fields interest from the U.K., Belgium, and countries across the Middle East and Africa seeking access to cheaper inoculations. The South Asian nation can boost its production on expectations that vaccine demand will rise by the end of this week. South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are among African nations in talks for supplies. New Delhi on Wednesday began shipping out vaccines to six neighbouring countries — Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Maldives and Seychelles — and is waiting for regulatory clearances from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Mauritius to send out the shots, the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

8. Yellen Opens Debate on Giant Spending Saying ‘World Has Changed’

Janet Yellen invoked an enduring era of low-interest rates in delivering the Biden administration’s opening argument to lawmakers for its $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief proposal. President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for Treasury secretary told the Senate Finance Committee in testimony Tuesday that the slew of spending — from aid to small businesses and the unemployed to funding for state governments — was needed to fight the pandemic while playing down concerns about the debt it creates.

9. Trump Pardons Bannon, Lil Wayne, Broidy, But Not Himself

Donald Trump granted clemency to dozens of people on Wednesday, including his former strategist Steve Bannon, the rapper Lil Wayne and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, in one of his final official acts as president. A list of pardons and commutations the White House released early Wednesday, Trump’s last day in office, doesn’t include the president himself. Trump had discussed preemptively pardoning himself and associates, but some advisers had cautioned the president against what would have been an unprecedented action. Trump didn’t grant clemency to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange or former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

10. Aldar Shares Jump as AbuDhabi Signs Off on $12 Billion in Deals

Aldar Properties climbed the most in almost three months after Abu Dhabi signed off on deals worth $12.3 billion. The company will take on the management of 30 billion dirhams ($8.2 billion) in developments and provide oversight for projects worth 10 billion dirhams in education, health-care and infrastructure. Aldar will also manage 5 billion dirhams of projects that were awarded by the government in 2019. The shares rose as much as 15% shortly after trading started, and trimmed their gains to 8% as of 11 a.m. local time.

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UK Businesses Face Aftermath of Brexit – Top 10 Global News

1. Stocks Decline; Treasury Yields Extend Climb

U.S. stocks fell and benchmark Treasury 10-year bond yields rose to a 10-month high as investors mulled the prospects of the economic recovery and vaccine rollout. The S&P 500 edged lower for a second day, with the utilities and communication services sectors leading the declines. Europe’s Stoxx 600 Index traded little changed. The dollar weakened following a three-day rally. While progress on a vaccine gives reason to be hopeful, there are lingering concerns over the speculative excess and froth that’s driven stock markets to all-time highs in the middle of a pandemic.

The S&P 500 Index fell 0.5% as of noon New York time.

The Nasdaq Composite Index eased 0.4%.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.2%.

The MSCI All-Country World Index climbed 0.2%..

2. Trump and Pence Signal President Won’t Resign or Be Removed

Vice President Mike Pence signalled he’ll spurn demands to immediately oust Donald Trump over a deadly riot by the president’s supporters as the two met and agreed to work together for the remainder of the term, according to a senior administration official. The discussion adds to indications that Trump has no plans to resign before Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration. The House is set to issue a largely futile ultimatum to Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday, demanding he invokes constitutional authority to remove President Donald Trump from office, as a prelude to an expected vote to impeach the president for the second time in little more than a year.

3. Twitter Bans 70,000 QAnon Accounts in Conspiracy Crackdown

Twitter Inc. has permanently suspended more than 70,000 accounts dedicated to sharing QAnon-associated conspiracy theory content and ratcheted up its enforcement in the wake of the Washington, D.C. riot last week. Many of the affected accounts were run by individuals who were operating several of them at a time, Twitter said in a statement detailing its actions. Any tweets labelled for violations of Twitter’s civic integrity policy — a key reason cited by the company in its initial suspension of departing U.S. President Donald Trump — will now be limited in engagement. Users will only be able to quote-tweet such posts, with likes, replies and retweets disabled.

4. Bitcoin Rebounds While Leaving Everyone in Dark on True Worth

Bitcoin rebounded after Monday’s steep plunge left investors grasping for clues about what lies ahead for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. The digital coin rose 4.9%, following yesterday’s 11% slide. The latest bout of roller-coaster volatility recalls past boom and bust cycles including the 2017 bubble, and has investors debating whether this is a healthy correction or the end of the latest bull run for cryptocurrencies.

5. Merkel Anxious That U.K.’s Mutated Virus Will Hit Germany Hard

Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that Germany may need to prolong its coronavirus lockdown until Easter due to risks posed by a fast-spreading variant from the U.K. Europe’s largest economy has already seen its outbreak intensify in recent days, despite tightening restrictions on movement and contact. Now authorities are looking with concern toward Ireland, where the new strain has contributed to one of the world’s worst contagion rates. During a video call on Tuesday, Merkel said harsh curbs might have to remain in place for the next eight to 10 weeks to combat the mutation.

6. U.K. Businesses Drowning in Red Tape Under Brexit Border Rules

While the mile-long lines of trucks have dissipated at ports, U.K. businesses are waking up to less visible forms of friction at the border with the European Union that may cause more enduring damage. From health certificates to new taxes and additional paperwork, the cost of moving goods across the English Channel is rising due to Britain’s exit from the EU. While each one of the new rules marks a minor shift from the border-free trade Britain enjoyed for four decades as a member of the EU, together they add up to a significant constraint. That’s already starting to upend supply lines and limit shipments for companies of all sizes. Those hit hardest are the U.K.’s 5.9 million small- and medium-sized businesses, which employ about three-in-five of those working in the private sector. All told, Brexit may cost British exporters 25 billion pounds ($34 billion) this year as a result of weak demand and more red tape, shaving 1.1% off Britain’s GDP.

7. China Won Trump’s Trade War and Got Americans to Foot the Bill

U.S. President Donald Trump famously tweeted that “trade wars are good, and easy to win” in 2018 as he began to impose tariffs on about $360 billion of imports from China. Turns out he was wrong on both counts. Even before the coronavirus infected millions of Americans and sparked the steepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, China was withstanding Trump’s tariff salvos, according to the very metrics he used to justify them. Once China got the virus under control, demand for medical equipment and work-from-home gear expanded its trade surplus with the U.S. despite the levies. “China is too big and too important to the world economy to think that you can cut it out like a paper doll,” said Mary Lovely, an economics professor at Syracuse University. “The Trump administration had a wake-up call.

8. Byju’s to Pay $1 Billion for Blackstone-Backed India Tutor

India’s biggest online-education startup Byju’s has signed a deal to acquire brick & mortar test prep leader Aakash Educational Services Ltd. for $1 billion. The deal for what will be one of the largest ed-tech acquisitions in the world should close in the next two or three months. Bangalore-headquartered Byju’s is valued at $12 billion and has been on a fund-raising spree as the pandemic has sent demand for its online lessons soaring. India’s second-most valuable startup is backed by the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Tiger Global Management and Bond Capital, co-founded by Silicon Valley investor Mary Meeker.

9. Asian LNG Cargo Prices Break Records as Cold Makes Traders Scramble

North Asia’s liquefied natural gas benchmark rose above $30 per million British thermal units for the first time, breaking a barrier that few thought possible. Freezing temperatures across North Asia have boosted gas consumption and caught short some end-users, sending the spot rate to new highs. Meanwhile, numerous production issues at export facilities and delays traversing the Panama Canal curbed supplies. This marks a dramatic turnaround for the fuel, which hit an all-time low less than nine months ago amid pandemic lockdowns. Tuesday’s spot price represents an 18-fold rise from that level.

10. Dubai’s Open-City Policy Saw Hotel Bookings Surge in December

Occupancy at Dubai’s hotels surged in December and neared pre-pandemic levels as travellers flocked to the emirate to escape coronavirus lockdowns at home. Hotels were 71% full last month — the highest figure since February. Dubai’s hotel occupancy, for years one of the highest in the world, slumped to 23% in part of 2020 from about 80%. Dubai attracts about 16 million tourists annually and its hotels were initially among the worst-hit by travel restrictions introduced to keep the pandemic in check. The opening up has come at a cost. Infections surged in the United Arab Emirates — of which Dubai is one of seven sheikdoms — from late December.

NOTE TO THE READERS: Due to unavoidable personal reasons, there was a delay in preparing this article today. I apologize for this inconvenience.

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Trump Impeachment Likely After Capitol Riots – Top 10 Global News

1. Dollar Rises as Stocks, U.S. Futures Retreat

After a buying frenzy swept across global markets last week, investors are starting Monday in a cautious mood. The dollar climbed against all its major peers, with demand supported by elevated US bond yields. European stocks pulled back from a 10-month high and S&P 500 futures dipped. Weighing on the minds of investors are worries that equities are running too hot and valuations are stretched at a time when major parts of the world are grappling with the worst of the pandemic.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index decreased 0.9% as of early morning New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.2%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index declined 0.2%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index increased 0.2%.

2. Democrats Eye Fast Trump Impeachment Days Before Biden Sworn In

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is readying Democrats for a lightning-fast second impeachment of President Donald Trump this week that risks consuming Congress in a bitter political fight just as President-elect Joe Biden’s administration is attempting to get off the ground. With a groundswell of anger among Democrats over the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 by a mob encouraged by Trump, Pelosi said Sunday night the House would take up a resolution to impeach Trump for the second time in less than two years unless Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet invoke the 25th Amendment this week to remove Trump from office.

3. Wall Street Cuts Campaign Spending to Condemn U.S. Politicians

Wall Street will use the power of its campaign-giving to broadly condemn U.S. politicians, including those whose attempt to overturn the November presidential election spurred last week’s attack on the Capitol. Goldman Sachs Group will probably curtail donations to leaders who tried to block the election result, and Morgan Stanley similarly singled out members of Congress who withheld their votes to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win in November, pausing its contributions to them. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by assets, said it’s planning a six-month suspension to both Republicans and Democrats, and Citigroup said it intends to temporarily stop all political contributions this quarter.

4. Tech Under Attack After Parler Goes Dark, Twitter Drops

Tech firms tried to contain a mounting backlash against their social media sites, with shares of Twitter and Facebook falling in early trading and rival platform Parler forced offline by Amazon.com. Twitter fell 7.8% in pre-market trading in New York after it banned President Donald Trump permanently for risking incitement to violence, citing posts referring to riots in the U.S. capital last week, removing one of Twitter’s biggest accounts. Facebook’s shares were down 2%. Free-speech-centric network Parler was taken offline early on Monday after Amazon Web Services shut down access to its servers, leaving it without an online home. Both Google and Apple kicked Parler from their stores, making it almost impossible to download the app.

5. Bitcoin’s Biggest Plunge Since March Shakes Faith in Crypto Boom

A steep selloff in Bitcoin is fueling concern that the cryptocurrency bubble may be about to burst. Bitcoin slid as much as 21% over Sunday and Monday in the biggest two-day slide since March. While the digital token recovered some of the losses during the European session, it was still down for the day. “It’s to be determined whether this is the start of a larger correction, but we have now seen this parabola break so it might just be,” said Vijay Ayyar, head of business development with crypto exchange Luno in Singapore. Bitcoin has more than quadrupled in the past year, evoking memories of the 2017 mania that first made cryptocurrencies a household name before prices collapsed just as quickly. Prices almost reached $42,000 on Jan. 8 with retail traders and Wall Street investors clamouring for a piece of the action.

6. China Stocks Slump Most in Three Weeks on Valuation Concerns

Chinese stocks fell the most in three weeks, led by consumer shares and commodity producers, amid concern valuations for the most popular stocks were stretched and as metal prices slumped. The CSI 300 Index dropped as much 1.5% before paring losses to 1% at the close. Gauges tracking energy, consumer staples and materials producers slumped more than 2%. Mainland investors appeared to flock to Hong Kong equities instead, buying a record HK$19.5 billion ($2.5 billion) of the city’s shares through trading links Monday. Jitters are appearing in China’s $11 trillion equity market after the gauge surpassed its bubble peak in 2015.

7. Hedge Funds Head for Cover as Dollar Rebound Gathers Pace

The dollar rebound is picking up pace, with signs that speculative traders are busy covering short positions after U.S. Treasury yields surged. Traders are reporting strong demand from leveraged funds for the dollar on Monday, with the greenback leading major currency advances. That adds to data released from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that showed them trimming long positions on major currencies including the euro and the pound. “The dollar is so extremely oversold, over-hated, and over-shorted that it all but has to rally for a while at some point soon,” said Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co. “The dollar is getting very ripe for a tradable bounce — one that will last at least several weeks and maybe even a couple of months.”

8. Brexit Drags U.K. Below U.S. in Global Business Location Ranking

Britain is significantly less attractive as an international business location because of Brexit but remains well positioned compared with other major economies. The U.K. slipped behind the U.S. to second place in the latest rankings, though it remains ahead of the rest of its Group of Seven partners. Canada was fourth, followed by Germany in 17th, France in 18th, Japan in 20th and Italy in 21st and final spot. “Brexit has been a major liability for the U.K.,” the authors of the study wrote. “Future British governments have a long road ahead if they wish to regain their economic dynamism, as promised by Brexit advocates.”

9. T-Mobile to Borrow Up to $2 Billion in Heated Spectrum Bid

T-Mobile US Inc. is borrowing as much as $2 billion as the mobile carrier engages in an expensive battle to buy more spectrum assets. The company will issue the debt in three parts, maturing as late as 2031. Communications providers are amping up their bids in a 5G airwaves auction in the U.S., which may see T-Mobile’s peers such as Verizon and AT&T tap the debt markets as well. The auction — which still has several more rounds of bidding ahead — has now surged past $80 billion, well above analysts’ estimates of $47 billion. The frenzy underscores how crucial these mid-band frequencies are to companies trying to seize global leadership in emerging 5G technology. The airwaves are expected to drive a yearslong surge of profits when deployed for next-generation mobile devices, autonomous vehicles, health-care equipment and manufacturing facilities.

10. Staples Seeks to Buy Office Depot Parent in $2.1 Billion Deal

There could be consolidation ahead in the office-products space, with Staples outlining Monday a proposal to acquire the parent company of Office Depot in a deal that would value the target company at $2.1 billion. A deal would bring together two of the biggest names in office supplies at a time when brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to cope with broad economic shutdowns in the pandemic. Staples had previously tried to buy Office Depot, but the $6.3 billion acquisition was called off in 2016 amid antitrust scrutiny.