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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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NASDAQ Hits Two-Month Low – Top 10 Global News

1. Nasdaq Sinks to Two-Month Low as Bond Yields Jump

The renewed bout of Treasury volatility spurred a surge in bond yields on Wednesday, dragging down stocks as investors grappled with concern overstretched valuations. A selloff in high-flying giants such as Apple and Amazon.com outweighed gains in banks and energy producers. The Nasdaq 100 slumped to a two-month low, bringing its losses from a February peak to about 8%. The S&P 500 extended its slide into a second day, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average outperformed. Benchmark U.S. government yields approached 1.5%, with bonds pricing in the highest five-year inflation expectations since 2008. 

The S&P 500 slid 1.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was little changed.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased by 1.1%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index advanced 1.4%.

2. Senate Final Vote on U.S. Stimulus Likely Pushed Into Weekend

The Senate enters the final stages of debating President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill on Thursday, with passage in the chamber likely pushed off until the weekend. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had planned to kick off the process Wednesday night but lacked an official cost estimate on the latest version of the bill, which has been trimmed down from the House-passed measure. In addition to stripping out a minimum-wage increase to comply with Senate rules, Biden agreed to moderate Democrats’ demands for tightening eligibility for $1,400 stimulus checks.

3. Initial Claims for U.S. Jobless Benefits Rose Slightly Last Week

Applications for U.S. state unemployment insurance rose slightly last week, underscoring the pandemic’s lingering restraint on the labour market recovery. Initial jobless claims in regular state programs totalled 745,000 in the week ended Feb. 27, up 9,000 from the prior week. The latest data underscore a labour market still in the grips of a health crisis that’s reducing economic activity across many industries. At the same time, infection rates are declining and more Americans are getting vaccinated against Covid-19, suggesting fewer layoffs in coming months as the economy picks up steam.

4. Brexit Antagonism Escalates as EU, U.K. Go Another Round

When the U.K. and European Union shook hands on a trade deal late last year, few expected the new relationship to be plain sailing. Among the most sensitive issue is Northern Ireland, and tensions ramped up considerably this week when the U.K. announced it will ignore some crucial obligations under the Brexit deal and the EU responded with a dramatic threat of legal action. With Johnson already under pressure from members of his own party to rip up the Northern Ireland deal, the risk is a further escalation that erodes relations. That could have spillovers far beyond politics, and the ongoing saga is a frustration for business. The U.K.’s huge finance industry, for example, is seeing the potential for beneficial trade agreements being slowly whittled away by endless political spats.

5. China Moves to Curb Hong Kong Opposition’s Role in Elections

Chinese lawmakers will advance a proposal to overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system, pushing ahead with a controversial plan to limit the opposition’s ability to win public office in the Asian financial centre. The National People’s Congress will review a draft resolution on “improving Hong Kong’s electoral system” in the coming days, according to an agenda published Thursday. The rubber-stamp parliament is slated to begin a week-long series of annual meetings Friday in Beijing, meaning the measure could pass as soon as next week. The action is the latest step by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government to curb dissent in the former British colony following historically large and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.

6. ByteDance Said to Invest in Chinese Self-Driving Startup QCraft

Chinese social media titan ByteDance Ltd. is investing in local autonomous driving startup QCraft, another sign of the blurring of boundaries between car companies and Big Tech. The owner of Tiktok is investing in QCraft’s latest fundraising round of at least $25 million, said the people. QCraft’s technology is being trialled in minibuses in parts of China. The deal, which may be announced as early as next week, follows a spate of similar investments and tie-ups between technology firms and car manufacturers, particularly in China. Both conventional and electric automakers are rushing to gain an edge as features like autonomous driving and smart-mobility solutions transform vehicles.

7. Singapore Won’t Allow New Diesel Cars and Cabs From 2025

Singapore won’t allow diesel-powered cars and taxis to be registered from 2025, five years ahead of previously scheduled, as part of its push to reduce emissions and encourage the adoption of electric vehicles. About 2.9% of passenger cars in Singapore run on diesel, while the proportion is as high as 41.5% for taxis, according to Land Transport Authority figures. Most goods vehicles and buses in the city-state run on diesel and won’t be affected by the new rule, announced Thursday by the government.

8. Germany To Lift Debt Spending to Help Tackle Virus

Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said Germany will need to increase debt spending this year to help tackle the impact of the coronavirus crisis on Europe’s largest economy. Merkel’s administration will present its 2022 budget proposal and a medium-term financing plan on March 24. The final decision on public spending beyond this year will be left to the new parliament after September’s elections. The government will likely have to spend aggressively next year as well. Scholz, who is running for chancellor for the Social Democrats, plans to propose a draft 2022 budget that will call for suspending constitutional borrowing limits for a third straight year.

9. Brazil Reports Record Deaths; N.Y. Eases Limits: Virus Update

For the second consecutive day, Brazil reported a record number of deaths from the coronavirus. AstraZeneca’s and Pfizer’s vaccines protected the elderly after a single dose in a new study that validates giving both shots to older people and spacing out injections. An experimental vaccine developed by India’s Bharat Biotech showed 81% efficacy in an interim clinical trial. U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak extended emergency tax cuts to help the British economy recover but warned he will ask profitable businesses to shoulder some of the bills for the country’s pandemic support.

10. Dubai Risks Driving Out Investors as Public Companies Delist

Betting on Dubai to deliver uninterrupted success as a tourism and entertainment hub is turning into a costly business for some stock investors. For the second time in less than three months, one of the emirate’s leading companies said it will effectively delist one of its units for about two-thirds of its original public-offering price. Emaar Properties, which built the city’s iconic Burj Khalifa tower, announced Tuesday it plans to buy back a 15% stake in its Emaar Malls unit at a 36% discount to the 2.9 dirhams a share at which it sold it in 2014. The move has a number of repercussions for a market that’s struggling to sustain interest following a pandemic-triggered selloff last year that was exacerbated by Dubai’s status as a global travel hub.

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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Major Bankers move from Hong-Kong to Mainland China – Top10 Global News

1. U.S. Stocks Climbed Up After Powell’s Reassurance

The S&P 500 Index erased a drop to end the day higher after reassuring comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on inflation and the outlook for growth spurred traders to buy the dip. The benchmark stock gauge closed 0.1% higher after declining as much as 1.8% amid a rout in technology shares on concern the high-flying stocks had become overvalued. The Nasdaq 100 ended just slightly lower, mostly erasing a loss that reached 3.5% after Powell signalled the Federal Reserve was nowhere close to pulling back on its support for the economy. Airlines, lodging companies and cyclical shares set to benefit from the end of pandemic lockdowns outperformed.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index fell 0.2% as of 8:54 a.m. New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.1%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1.8%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index fell 1.1%.

2. J&J Single-Shot Vaccine Found Effective Before FDA Review

Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective, U.S. regulators said, a key milestone on the path toward giving Americans access to the first such shot to work in a single dose. The vaccine was 72% effective in a U.S. clinical trial, Food and Drug Administration staff wrote in a document summarizing the company’s trial data, confirming findings J&J released earlier this month. There were no Covid-related deaths in the vaccinated group, the staff wrote. The analysis supported a favourable safety profile with no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude the issuance of a EUA.

3. More Than 150 Executives Back $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Plan

Senior executives from more than 150 companies are voicing support for President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package in a letter to congressional leaders urging them to pass coronavirus relief. The letter is signed by leaders across industries, including David Solomon, chairman and chief executive officer at Goldman Sachs; Stephen Schwarzman, the chairman and CEO of Blackstone; Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google; and John Stankey the CEO of AT&T. “We write to urge immediate and large-scale federal legislation to address the health and economic crises brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the executives wrote in the letter, first reported by CNN. “Congress should act swiftly and on a bipartisan basis to authorize a stimulus and relief package along the lines of the Biden-Harris administration’s proposed American Rescue Plan.”

4. Chinese Ride-Sharing Giant Didi Plans Entry Into Europe

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing Technology Co. plans to make its debut in Western Europe, people familiar with the matter said, as the company seeks new growth markets ahead of a long-awaited initial public offering. Beijing-based Didi is considering rolling out ride-sharing services in markets that could include the U.K, France and Germany by the first half of this year. The company has already set up a team dedicated to the European market and is hiring locally. Shares in rival Uber slumped 2.7% in premarket trading Wednesday, while Lyft slipped 0.7%. Didi is turning to new arenas as its momentum starts to slow in China, where it has a dominant market share after ousting Uber in 2016.

5. Hong Kong Shocks Traders with Stamp-Duty Hike

The stamp-duty increase for the first time since 1993 contributed to a selloff in Hong Kong’s $7.6 trillion market and sent shares of the city’s exchange operator down the most in five years, shows that even one of the world’s most capitalist-friendly governments is under growing pressure to target financiers and wealthy investors as it tries to address worsening inequality. In the U.S., a growing cohort of Democrats including Sanders have pushed for a financial transaction tax to the dismay of Wall Street. Both stock markets have boomed over the past year even as the economies tanked and unemployment rates soared.

6. France Contemplates ‘Targeted Measures’ To Avoid Lockdown

France is reviewing local coronavirus hot spots on a case-by-case basis and has decided to implement “targeted measures” to prevent the spread of new and more virulent variants. The situation is worrying in about 10 areas,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal said during a press briefing on Wednesday. President Emmanuel Macron’s government is seeking to avoid a third full lockdown, which would crush the economy and could prove politically costly some 14 months before presidential elections. The country is already implementing a nationwide curfew that runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., but amid a sluggish vaccine roll out officials have warned that isn’t enough.

7. GS-Backed ReNew Power Agrees To Merge With RMG-II SPAC

ReNew Power, India’s biggest renewable power producer, has agreed to merge with blank-check company RMG Acquisition Corp. II. The deal will give Goldman Sachs Group Inc.-backed ReNew an enterprise value of $8 billion and will close in the second quarter. An $855 million private placement to support the transaction is being raised from investors including serial dealmaker Chamath Palihapitiya, TT International Asset Management, a fund managed by BNP Paribas SA, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock Inc. and Sylebra Capital. The merger will extend a wave of clean-tech SPAC deals in the U.S. to include India’s growing renewables market. India’s electricity demand is surging as the country pushes to slash emissions and improve air quality.

8. Volvo and Geely Call Off Merger, Agree to More Collaboration

China’s Geely and its Swedish affiliate Volvo will collaborate more closely on electric and self-driving vehicles while putting off earlier plans to merge. The manufacturers will preserve their separate corporate structures while cooperating more closely on powertrains, electrification and autonomous-driving technology. While they’ll no longer pursue a combination as announced in February of last year, new listings could be on the table. “The deeper collaboration will enable existing stakeholders and potential new investors in Volvo Cars and Geely Auto to value their respective standalone strategies, performance, financial exposure and returns,” the companies said Wednesday. “We will also have the opportunity to explore capital market options.”

9. Credit Suisse, UBS Moving Bankers to China From Hong Kong

Credit Suisse Group and UBS Group are relocating a number of bankers to mainland China from Hong Kong to better compete for deals after the world’s fastest-growing major economy relaxed curbs on foreign financial firms. Having bankers in Hong Kong, long a bridge between the West and China, is becoming less crucial as the mainland market opens, while Beijing’s tightening political grip has dimmed the city’s appeal. The moves are also in part prompted by concerns over continued restrictions on travel to and from Hong Kong, which is making it hard to do deals on the mainland. Competition is heating up in China after the nation last year allowed foreign firms to fully own their onshore securities businesses. Credit Suisse and UBS, as well as U.S. rivals such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., are boosting their presence.

10. 91-Year-Old Suzuki Chairman to Step Down After Longest Reign in Auto Industry

Suzuki’s 91-year-old chairman Osamu Suzuki is stepping down after leading an automaker for longer than anyone else in the industry. Suzuki, who served as the Japanese carmaker’s chief executive for 22 years and then as chairman for another two decades, will step down from his current role following a shareholders meeting in June. He will remain as a senior adviser. With almost half a century at the helm, Suzuki is widely credited with turning the carmaker into what it is today: one of the largest small-vehicle manufacturers in the world. Instead of taking Japan’s biggest auto giants like Toyota head-on, Suzuki worked to grow the company by finding new markets around the world for its compact automobiles, building a dominant share in India during his first of two terms as president from 1978 to 2000.

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Facebook Withdraws News Ban in Australia – Top 10 Global News

1. U.S. Futures, Europe Stocks Decline as Tech Slumps

U.S. equity futures slid with European stocks on Tuesday as the jump in bond yields and commodity prices continued to hammer technology shares. Nasdaq futures slumped 1.7% a day after the tech-heavy gauge posted its longest losing streak in four months. Tesla dropped 5% in pre-market trading as investors continued to punish stocks that have led the rally from the depths of the pandemic a year ago. In Europe, tech shares dragged the Stoxx 600 Index lower. Budding inflation bets spurred by the global economic recovery are adding to pressure on equities. Treasuries steadied on Tuesday after the gap between 5- and 30-year yields touched the highest level in more than six years. Copper extended gains, while WTI crude rose to around $62 a barrel.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index declined 0.5% as of 8:20 a.m. New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.8%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.1%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index was little changed.

2. Texas Energy Crisis to Trigger Bankruptcy in Energy Companies

The Texas power crisis is threatening to spark a new wave of distress. Canadian energy retailer Just Energy on Monday said it may have trouble continuing as a going concern after last week’s freezing weather cost it about $250 million. Extreme gyrations in regional U.S. gas and electricity prices because of the cold weather in Texas also affected the finances of other companies. Atmos Energy, one of the largest independent suppliers of gas in the U.S., revealed Friday that it’s looking to raise cash after committing to spend as much as $3.5 billion to secure fuel during the freeze.

3. Facebook Ends Australia News Blackout After Law Compromise

Facebook backed down from its news blackout in Australia after the government agreed to amend world-first legislation forcing the tech giant and Google to pay local publishers for content. The social-media platform switched off news sharing in Australia last week in opposition to the proposed law, and Mark Zuckerberg and government officials have been locked in talks to find a compromise. Among key concessions, the government said Tuesday it would take into account commercial deals Google and Facebook reach with news companies before deciding whether they are subject to the law, and would also give them one month’s notice.

4. Elon Musk Loses $15 Billion in a Day After Bitcoin Warning

Elon Musk is no longer the world’s richest person after Tesla shares slid 8.6% on Monday, wiping $15.2 billion from his net worth. Tesla’s biggest decline since September was fueled in part by Musk’s comments over the weekend that the prices of Bitcoin and smaller rival Ether “do seem high.” His message — via his favoured medium of Twitter — came two weeks after Tesla announced it added $1.5 billion in Bitcoin to its balance sheet. The cryptocurrency, which has surged more than 400% over the past year, tumbled for a second day on Tuesday, at one point slipping below $50,000 on scepticism over the durability of its rally.

5. Thailand Mulls Waiving Quarantine for Vaccinated Tourists

Thailand may scrap its two-week mandatory quarantine for foreign visitors with proof of Covid-19 vaccination as the Southeast Asian nation seeks to revive its pandemic-hit tourism industry.  The plan to ease rules for tourists signal a shift in Thailand’s stance after months of insisting all visitors must stay in quarantine in the absence of enough evidence that inoculations can prevent virus transmission. If implemented, the move could bolster Thailand’s tourism sector that contributed about one-fifth to the nation’s pre-pandemic economy.

6. China’s Overseas Energy Lending Tumbles to Lowest Since 2008

China’s overseas energy financing dropped to the lowest level since 2008 after the pandemic hampered deal-making in developing nations. Financing for foreign energy projects, including power plants and mines, fell by 43% to $4.6 billion, which tracks data from two state-owned development banks. More than half of the lending was for a natural gas pipeline project in Nigeria. The impact of coronavirus added to a trend of dwindling project financing for the energy sector from President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative. Infrastructure projects funded by China’s program in developing nations, such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka, have suffered issues including heavy debt loads.

7. U.K. Domestic Stocks Jump on Reopening Plan

U.K. domestically oriented stocks gained on Tuesday as travel and entertainment shares surged after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced plans to reopen the economy. The FTSE 250 index of mid-cap U.K. shares jumped as much as 1.4%, paring its gains to 0.2% in London, after Johnson pledged to ease lockdown rules in stages over the next four months, including the possibility of international trips restarting as soon as May 17. The outperformance was especially pronounced as the European benchmark Stoxx 600 fell 1.2%. The news brought relief for cyclical and domestically oriented companies that have been suffering during the past year of the pandemic as lockdowns weighed on economic growth and consumer spending.

8. Debt Markets Brace for Higher Yields to Stay as Stimulus Sets In

President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief plan, plus the prospect of more stimulus later this year, is setting the stage for a shift away from historically low Treasury yields that’s likely to lead to a pickup in volatility in currency markets. U.S. yields have marched higher even before the plan’s arrival — offering an inkling of what may be in store. For weeks, the million-dollar question for many investors was whether the $1.9 trillion relief plan would flow mainly through financial markets — as the first package did — or actually find its way more into the U.S. economy, where it could trigger changes in spending and investment magnitudes greater than the original size of the stimulus. The wave of reflation bets sweeping through global markets indicates the latter narrative is taking greater hold, suggesting such trades may have room to run.

9. UAE to Supply First Air Missile Defense to Germany

The United Arab Emirates said it will supply its first locally manufactured air defence missiles to German security contractor Rheinmetall. Halcon, a unit of state-owned Edge Group, designed the SkyKnight missile system to provide early warning signals and counter threats from aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and rockets, according to the announcement made during Abu Dhabi’s International Defense Exhibition and Conference on Tuesday. The missiles will be part of Rheinmetall’s Skynex defence system. Oil-rich UAE has undertaken to localize arms production and exports amid a push to diversify its economy and become less dependent on foreign companies, particularly defence contractors.

10. Home Prices in U.S. Cities Jump at Fastest Pace Since 2014

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities surged in December, with low mortgage rates fueling the housing market. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of property values climbed 10.1% from a year earlier and was the biggest jump since 2014. Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle posted the biggest gains in prices. Historically low mortgage rates have fueled a pandemic housing rally, with a scant inventory of homes to buy helping to boost prices. December was the fourth straight month that prices gained the most since 2014. The rally started in July and picked up steam in the final months of 2020, with Americans looking to take advantage of low borrowing costs to buy suburban homes.

Curated from Bloomberg.com

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Bitcoin nears Trillion-Dollar Market Cap! – Top 10 Global News

1. Stocks Steady as Earnings Take Focus Off Bonds

Stocks in Europe snapped their longest streak of losses since October as Treasuries steadied, while attention shifted to corporate earnings and economic data. Oil added to recent losses. The Stoxx Europe 600 index fluctuated before heading higher for the first time in four days. Futures on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 gained and the dollar weakened. With the yield on the 10-year Treasury benchmark settling back around 1.3%, the focus is turning to corporate earnings reports. Rising yields dominated discussion this week and raised concern about the staying power of the New Year rally. The fear is that a rise in borrowing costs and price pressures could derail the economic recovery.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index climbed 0.3% by 9:40 a.m. in London.

S&P 500 futures added 0.3%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific index was little changed.

MSCI’s Emerging Markets index rose 0.2%.

2. Bitcoin Nears $1 Trillion Value as Crypto Jump Tops Other Assets

Bitcoin is closing in on a market value of $1 trillion, a surge that’s helping cryptocurrency returns far outstrip the performance of more traditional assets like stocks and gold. The largest token has added more than $415 billion of value in 2021 to about $956 billion. Speculators, corporate treasurers and institutional investors are thought to have stoked Bitcoin’s volatile ascent. Crypto believers are duelling with sceptics for the dominant narrative around the climb: the former see an asset being embraced for its ability to hedge risks such as inflation, while the latter sense a precarious mania riding atop waves of monetary and fiscal stimulus.

3. Biden to Visit Pfizer Vaccine Plant as U.S. Shots Accelerate

President Joe Biden will travel Friday to the Michigan plant where Pfizer Inc. is manufacturing its Covid-19 vaccine as his administration works to boost the number of shots delivered each day. The plant, in Portage, just outside Kalamazoo in southwest Michigan, is Pfizer’s largest manufacturing facility. There, the company’s coronavirus vaccine is formulated and filled into vials before being shipped for distribution. Biden has regularly touted his administration’s progress accelerating vaccinations and has encouraged any American with the opportunity to take a shot. “If you’re eligible, if it’s available, get the vaccine. Get the vaccine,” he said during the Tuesday town hall.

4. Pound Rises Past $1.40 for First Time Since 2018 in Vaccine Play

The pound surged through $1.40 for the first time in nearly three years as investors bet the U.K.’s rapid vaccine rollout will help pave the way for a reopening of the economy this year. Sterling is headed for the sixth week of gains after the U.K. hit its target of immunizing its top four priority groups, including the over 70s, by Feb. 15. That progress could enable the country to ease its coronavirus measures, which sparked the worst recession since 1709 last year. “The bullish case for the pound versus both the euro and dollar remains intact,” said Petr Krpata, a strategist at ING Groep NV, which expects it to finish the year above $1.50. “Against the euro, the pound should benefit from the faster vaccination process and a stronger second-quarter economic rebound.”

5. Facebook’s Australia Face-Off Could Backfire Across the Globe

Facebook’s dramatic move to block Australian news sharing escalated a broader battle against global regulation. World leaders were already watching Australian legislation expected to pass next week that will force tech titans Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to pay publishers for news content. But this week’s abrupt news blackout forced the issue onto the agenda of governments whose regulators are already ramping up scrutiny of the growing influence of Facebook and its ilk in spheres from media to artificial intelligence. Facebook drew a line in the sand precisely because it feared even larger markets would follow Australia’s lead. From Europe to the U.S. and China, governments are grappling with the issue of how to regulate the world’s largest internet giants, which have recently grown into trillion-dollar behemoths that help determine what billions of people view, discuss and consume on a daily basis.

6. Austria Regulator Sees Frauds Rising Amid Crypto ‘Hype’

Austria’s Financial Market Authority has seen a record in whistle-blower reports of potential fraud in 2020, with cryptocurrencies being a focus. Two-thirds of the investment fraud reports were related to crypto- and digital currencies trading products, while the rest was, among others, related to stocks and gold, FMA said in a statement. The regulator said it saw a rise in scam offerings for digital currencies on “dubious” platforms, which were often advertised on social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok or Telegram.

7. India’s $3.5 Billion Zombie-Home Experiment Starts to Pay Off

A 250-billion-rupee ($3.5 billion) fund set up by India’s government to complete stalled housing projects is set to deliver its first finished apartments in 2021, offering a template for a problem that has washed out savings of thousands of home buyers and bankrupted developers. The fund will hand over some 16 projects or more than 4,000 homes in the financial year starting April 1. The ‘Special Window for Completion of Construction of Affordable and Mid-Income Housing Projects’ (SWAMIH) fund was announced in November 2019. At the time, India had an estimated $63 billion of such stalled projects as an economic slowdown and a credit crisis cascaded through the sector. Builders were unable to service their loans, forcing banks to write off the debts and worsen what was already one of the world’s biggest bad-loan piles. 

8. Renault Warns of Rough Year After Record $9.7 Billion Loss

Renault SA braced investors for another challenging year as lingering coronavirus restrictions and supply-chain challenges threaten the French carmaker coming off a record annual deficit. The manufacturer reported a net loss of 8 billion euros ($9.7 billion) for 2020, worse than the 7.85 billion euro-deficit projected by analysts. Much of the damage was done during the first half when lockdowns crippled auto-shipments. “2021 is set to be difficult given the unknowns regarding the health crisis as well as electronic components supply shortages,” Chief Executive Officer Luca de Meo said Friday in a statement. “The priority is profitability and cash generation.”

9. U.S. Says It’s Willing to Meet With Iran to Restore Nuclear Deal

The Biden administration said it would be willing to meet with Iran to discuss a “diplomatic way forward” in efforts to return to the nuclear deal quit by President Donald Trump in 2018, a first step toward easing tensions. The offer is a politically risky effort by President Joe Biden to move beyond the standoff after a slew of U.S. sanctions cratered Iran’s economy and infuriated other world leaders, who argued that the 2015 accord and the inspections regime it created had reined in Tehran’s nuclear program.

10. Uber Loses U.K. Top Court Ruling on Drivers’ Employment Status

Uber lost a U.K. Supreme Court ruling over the rights of its drivers, in a landmark decision that threatens the company’s business model in the country. The judges said that Uber drivers are “workers” entitled to rights like minimum wage, holiday pay and rest breaks. The court said the contract terms were set by Uber and working conditions were controlled by the company. Uber drivers’ “working time is not limited to the period when driving passengers,” Judge George Leggatt said in a summary of the ruling. It also “includes any period when a driver is logged into the app and ready and willing to accept trips.” The ruling is the end of the road for Uber’s five-year fight over the status of its drivers and another setback for Uber in the U.K., which is home to the ride-sharing company’s largest European market. Last year, Uber had to fight to retain its license to operate in London after the transport regulator complained about safety concerns.

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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Stocks Rally Worldwide as CoVID slows – Top 10 Global News

1. Global Stocks Rally; Silver Jumps to 2013 High

Global stocks and U.S. futures climbed as concern over volatile retail trading receded and China took steps to ease a cash crunch. Silver surpassed $30 an ounce for the first time since 2013 in a Reddit-fueled buying frenzy. GameStop, AMC extended gains in early U.S. trading. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 1.7%, the biggest gain in three weeks. Silver futures surged as much as 12% as speculators flocked to the metal and a weekend buying binge overwhelmed online sellers of bars and coins. 

Futures on the S&P 500 Index increased 0.9% as of 8:56 a.m. New York.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 1.9%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 1.6%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index advanced 1.6%.

2. Biden’s Promised $1,400 Checks Are Dividing the White House

Even within President Joe Biden’s White House, there’s debate about how to meet his promise to issue Americans another $1,400 each in stimulus checks. At least two of the president’s top economic advisers, Heather Boushey and David Kamin, have privately expressed reservations about the size of the checks and at what level they would begin to phase out for higher-income people. The aides worry that the checks will cost so much that there won’t be enough left over in Biden’s proposed pandemic relief bill for other priorities – supplemental unemployment benefits, an expanded child tax credit, or aid to states and local governments.

3. Apple Selling Bonds After Cautious Outlook Masks Best Quarter

Apple is selling bonds just days after a blowout period for sales, still eager to take advantage of cheap borrowing costs amid a cautious earnings outlook. The company is issuing debt in six parts. The longest portion of the offering, a 40-year security, may yield between 115 and 120 basis points above Treasuries. Apple is coming off a quarter in which revenue topped $100 billion for the first time. Executives didn’t provide an official forecast in reporting earnings but warned that sales growth from AirPods and other wearables will decelerate in the current period. The tech giant said it will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including buying back stock and paying dividends. It may also be used in funding for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisition and repayment of debt.

4. India to Borrow Big for Nearly Half-Trillion Dollar Budget

India unveiled a spending plan worth almost a half-trillion dollars as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government seeks to dig Asia’s third-largest economy out of a pandemic-induced slump. Fueled by bigger-than-expected spending deficits and borrowing, as well as sales of government assets and dividends from state firms, the 35 trillion rupees ($480 billion) budget sent bonds tumbling and stocks rallying. It also aims to bolster the nation’s financial stability, by increasing the foreign investment cap in insurance to 74% from 49%, planned to set up separate firms to manage stressed debt held by banks and to buy investment-grade bonds to boost confidence in the nation’s corporate debt market.

5. HSBC Doubles Down on China With New Greater Bay Area Office

HSBC will establish an office to spearhead its strategy in China’s fast-growing Greater Bay Area, stepping up its bet on the world’s second-largest economy. Daniel Chan, currently head of business banking at HSBC in Hong Kong, was named head of the unit, which will oversee the strategy to “capture opportunities” in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. The move comes as Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam last week endorsed a stronger presence for HSBC in the former British colony, where it has come under criticism for freezing the accounts of activists and supporting the financial hub’s sweeping national security law. Hong Kong’s government has embraced closer ties with China since unrest hit the city in 2019, promoting the Greater Bay Area concept that seeks to create a Silicon Valley-style regional economic zone with the nearby mainland cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

6. Melvin Lost 53% in January, Hurt by GameStop, Other Bets

Melvin Capital lost about 53% in January on GameStop and more than a dozen other bets after the firm found itself on the receiving end of a short squeeze started by retail investors motivated on Reddit. Melvin now has the lowest amount of leverage since the firm was founded in late 2014. The hedge fund said last week that it had “repositioned the portfolio,” including covering its GameStop short.

7. Nintendo Smashes Expectations With Best Quarter Since 2008

Nintendo raised its annual forecasts a second time after continued momentum for the Switch console helped the company to its best quarterly earnings since 2008. The Kyoto-based games company reported operating profit of 229.7 billion yen ($2.2 billion). Nintendo now expects full-year Switch sales of 26.5 million units, having already surpassed its previous projection of 24 million. The company also boosted its forecast for operating profit by 24% on the back of a surge in sales brought on by the coronavirus outbreak and hit game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Sales remained strong even after the holidays and Nintendo has sufficient components supply for now despite industry-wide shortages.

8. London Bankers Face Location Limbo as ECB Targets Brexit Moves

A senior banker hired to work in London last year was asked just weeks later to pack his bags and move to Europe. Some trading managers at one U.S. bank still don’t know whether they’ll be able to stay in the U.K., while a young trader starting a new job at a European lender this month is waiting to learn just where that job will be. Despite years of planning for Brexit, global banks and their employers face continuing uncertainty as a threadbare trade deal for financial services and a pandemic keep the world in flux. Meanwhile, regulators are cranking up pressure on banks to execute relocation plans that were set out before Britain left the bloc on Dec. 31. 

9. EU Wins Boost From Bayer; U.K. Gets Vaccines: Virus Update

Chancellor Angela Merkel will hold crisis talks with pharmaceutical executives, regional German leaders and European Commission officials Monday to speed up the continent’s stuttering vaccination push. In a shot of welcome news before the meeting, Bayer agreed to produce CureVac NV’s experimental coronavirus vaccine to help speed up the roll-out of a promising shot. Meanwhile, Valneva, a French vaccine developer, said the U.K. government exercised an option to order 40 million extra doses of its shot for next year. Infections continued to show a slowing trend across many regions of the globe, including the U.S., though concerns remain about new variants. Italy will ease restrictions for most of the country starting Monday.

10. JPMorgan Strategists: Reddit Army Won’t Spur Big Market Drop

The battle between retail traders and hedge funds is unlikely to cause a major setback for markets, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Major drawdowns have usually occurred when there’s a worse outlook for growth, as well as signs of overvaluation beyond price-earnings ratios and credit spreads, JPMorgan strategists led by John Normand wrote in a note Friday. Few markets show signs of extraordinary price momentum or excessive investor leverage, he said. “The retail versus hedge fund conflict unfolding currently should be much less severe than the roughly 10% drops that have been occurring almost annually for the past two decades,” Normand wrote. “Our bubble tracker based on extreme price momentum, valuations and investor leverage isn’t flashing red at the asset class level, even if it might at the security level.”

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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.