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Consumer Savings to Drive Global Recovery – Top 10 Global News

1. U.S. Futures Drop as Treasuries Extend Selloff

Stock futures fell as a spike in Treasury yields added to concern overstretched equity valuations amid an uneven economic recovery from a pandemic-induced recession. The dollar rose. Gains in S&P 500 contracts started to fade after data showed the number of employees at U.S. businesses rose in February by less than expected, underscoring the labour market’s struggle to rebound. As Treasuries tumbled, stock futures erased their earlier advance. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 underperformed, following Tuesday’s rout in big tech.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index dipped 0.3% as of 9:20 a.m. New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased by 0.2%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 1.2%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index advanced 1.5%.

2. Consumers Savings of $2.9 Trillion to Drive the Global Recovery

Consumers in the world’s largest economies amassed $2.9 trillion in extra savings during Covid-related lockdowns, a vast cash hoard that creates the potential for a powerful recovery from the pandemic recession. Households in the U.S., China, U.K., Japan and the biggest euro-area nations socked money away when forced by the coronavirus to stay home and out of the shops. They are likely continuing to do so as restrictions remain and governments dole out stimulus. Half that total — $1.5 trillion and growing — is in the U.S. alone.

3. Bitcoin Jumps Above $50,000 in Recovery from Last Week’s Rout

Bitcoin rallied back above $50,000, surpassing the key psychological level as bullish momentum returned after last week’s selloff. The digital token climbed 8% to trade around $51,500 in early U.S. trading, reaching the highest level in a week. The cryptocurrency has been volatile. Prices plunged 21% last week and have recovered with the broad bounce back in equities. The swings in Bitcoin and Ethereum give the impression that they are a general barometer of risk sentiment.

4. Sunak to Hike Business Tax to Pay Off U.K.’s Vast Covid Debts

Rishi Sunak extended emergency tax cuts to help the British economy recover from the coronavirus but warned he will ask profitable businesses to help pay the huge bill for the U.K.’s pandemic support. With the country mired in a third national lockdown, the chancellor of the exchequer has made clear that safeguarding jobs is his priority in the short term. He said he’s adding another 65 billion pounds ($90.7 billion) of pandemic support to help the country recover this year and next year. But Sunak sketched out a plan to start plugging the deficit, with an increase in corporation tax to 25% from the current 19%, taking effect in 2023. “The government is providing businesses with over 100 billion pounds of support to get through this pandemic, so it is fair and necessary to ask them to contribute to our recovery,” Sunak said in Parliament on Wednesday.

5. Tokyo Olympics to Decide on Overseas Spectators This Month

Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics will decide later this month whether to allow spectators from overseas, while limits on domestic fans will be determined in April, Organizing Committee President Seiko Hashimoto said at a press conference on Wednesday. Following a five-party meeting that included the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo government, an agreement was reached to make a decision by March 25 when a nationwide torch relay will start, Hashimoto said. Hotels and tourism companies have asked for a decision at an early stage, she said.

6. Samsung Details Plans for $17 Billion Chip Facility in the U.S.

Samsung Electronics Co. revealed additional details about its plans to build a cutting-edge semiconductor facility in the U.S. in a filing with the Texas government, making the disclosure as the Biden administration vows to make the security of the U.S. chip supply a national priority. The South Korean company plans to invest about $17 billion in its Project Silicon Silver and create about 1,800 jobs over the first ten years. Some $5.1 billion would go into buildings and property improvements, while $9.9 billion would be spent on machinery and equipment.

7. Korean Battery Battle Has Global Carmakers Urging Swift Peace

The pressure is mounting on two South Korean companies that are the world’s largest manufacturers of electric-vehicle batteries to ensure their U.S. legal dispute doesn’t disrupt automaker plans to electrify their fleets. SK Innovation is facing a 10-year ban on U.S. imports of its batteries, after losing a trade dispute with LG Energy Solution last month. SK Innovation is lobbying the Biden administration to overturn the ban even as Ford and Volkswagen — which both plan to buy SK Innovation batteries — urge the companies to settle the case quickly. The import ban goes into effect in mid-April unless President Joe Biden takes the unusual step of overturning it on public policy grounds.

8. Goldman Swell to Record Size in Singapore With 100 Tech Hires

Goldman Sachs Group plans to add about 100 staff in Singapore, taking its headcount in the Southeast Asian financial hub to a record, following a tumultuous period in the region. All of the new positions will mainly be in technology, and the appointments will take the number of employees in the city to more than 1,000. About 60% of existing staff work in support and technology roles. Part of the tech hiring will support the bank’s cash management operations, a new area of business for Goldman Sachs. The firm also plans to hire more investment bankers as it faces its “strongest deal pipeline for many years”. Singapore is becoming the focus of Goldman Sachs’ regional strategy after the fallout from a corruption scandal involving Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund tarnished its image in Asia and further afield.

9. A $21 Trillion Bonds Mystery Is Troubling Global Markets

Last week’s startling gyrations in U.S. Treasury yields may offer fresh backing for that mantra, and prompt another bout of soul-searching in a $21 trillion market that forms the bedrock of global finance. While stocks are prone to sudden swings, such episodes are supposed to be few and far between in a government-debt market that sets the benchmark risk-free rate for much of the world. Yet jarring moves occur periodically in bond yields, forming a bit of a mystery as no two events have been the same. Last week, when the gap between bid and offer prices for 30-year bonds hit the widest since the panic of March 2020. The latest events are a stark reminder of what happens when liquidity suddenly vanishes in the deepest, largest bond market.

10. Citi’s $900mn Mistake Prompts Banks to Seek New Safeguards

Wall Street banks are seeking new legal protections to help avoid a repeat of Citigroup’s accidental $900 million payment to Revlon lenders. After last month’s surprise court ruling that let certain Revlon creditors keep $500 million of the mistaken transfer, banks began inserting new language into loan deals that would require investors to return the money if such an error occurred again. The provisions, which were in the works before the decision, aim to strengthen the hand of administrative agents that oversee interest distributions and repayment schedules.

Curated from Bloomberg.com

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Economic Bubble Warnings go. off in China – Top 10 Global News

1. U.S. Futures Recovers Decline as Europe Shares Gain

U.S. stock futures pared losses in early trading, while European stocks climbed and Treasuries slid. Trading was mixed across asset classes as investors took stock of recent bond market volatility and China’s top banking regulator said he’s “very worried” about risks from bubbles in global financial markets. Benchmark Treasury yields added two basis points to 1.44%. In the U.K., the FTSE 100 Index rose ahead of the government’s annual budget report on Wednesday. Oil futures in New York traded near $60 a barrel, with investors looking ahead to the OPEC+ meeting later this week.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index declined 0.2% as of 12:45 p.m. London time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.6%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.2%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index increased by 0.1%.

2. China’s Focus on Bubble Risks a Warning Sign for Stock Market

For investors fretting about an end to the era of cheap and plentiful debt, China just provided another reason to worry. The nation’s top banking regulator jolted markets on Tuesday with a warning about the need to reduce leverage amid the rising risk of bubbles globally and in the local property sector. The impact on Chinese stocks was swift: the CSI 300 Index fell as much as 2.1% to lead declines in Asia. Central banks around the world are facing the challenge of when and how to pare back stimulus as economies recover from the pandemic. Deleveraging has particular resonance in China, where it is a key priority of President Xi Jinping due to the size of the nation’s debt mountain.

3. OPEC Production Plunges as Saudis Deliver Extra Oil Cutbacks

OPEC’s crude production plunged last month as Saudi Arabia delivered extra cutbacks intended to clear the remnants of a global supply glut. The output from the group fell by 920,000 barrels a day — the biggest drop in eight months — to 24.87 million a day. As promised, the kingdom slashed its production by almost 1 million barrels a day, or about 11%. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies have been constricting oil supplies since the pandemic crushed demand almost a year ago. To disperse the lingering stockpile surplus, the Saudis pledged extra reductions during February and March. Their efforts have paid off, reviving oil prices back to pre-crisis levels above $60 a barrel.

4. Canada’s Economy Bounding Into 2021 on Inventory Build-Up

Canada’s economy showed surprising strength as businesses stocked up on inventories, even as a wave of Covid-19 restrictions held back consumption. Gross domestic product expanded at a 9.6% annualized rate in the fourth quarter. The GDP was on track to grow 0.5% in January, defying expectations for a contraction.  The biggest contribution to the GDP gain was businesses rebuilding inventory levels after two successive quarters of drawing down stocks, a good sign. That helped offset a very weak end of the year for consumer spending, which recorded an unexpected drop during the quarter.

5. Ambani’s Jio Biggest Buyer in $11 Billion India Airwave Sale

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio emerged as the top bidder in India’s $11 billion airwaves auction, as the country’s largest wireless operator seeks to cement its competitive edge over rivals. Reliance Jio bought airwaves worth 571.23 billion rupees ($7.8 billion) of the total 778.2 billion rupees raised in the latest spectrum auction, India’s Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday. Rival Bharti Airtel Ltd. spent $2.6 billion while Vodafone Plc’s India unit acquired spectrum worth 19.9 billion rupees.

6. Ting Hsin Weighing $800 Million IPO of KFC’s Chinese Rival

Ting Hsin International Group, the Taiwanese food company behind the Master Kong brand, is weighing a Hong Kong initial public offering of its restaurant business in mainland China. The firm has invited banks to pitch for a role on the listing. The Taiwanese company may include restaurant chains Dicos, a prominent fried chicken brand, and Master Kong Chef’s Table, which specializes in Taiwan-style beef noodles, in the Hong Kong listing. Dicos, a local rival to Yum China Holdings Inc.’s KFC, operates about 2,600 outlets across China and has more than 70,000 employees serving 600 million customers annually.

7. Hong Kong Explores SPAC Listings to Get In on Deal Boom

Hong Kong is exploring allowing the listing of special purpose acquisition companies, jumping into a market that has sparked a frenzy of U.S. dealmaking. The government has asked the Hong Kong exchange and the city’s financial regulator to look into having SPACs list, according to Financial Secretary Paul Chan. The aim is to allow the new fundraising arrangements while upholding investors protections. The listing of SPACs has propelled IPO deals in the U.S. to the fastest pace in 12 years so far this year, with the vehicles comprising 77% of the announced offerings. The city’s main Asian competitor, Singapore, is looking at opening up for SPACs.

8. No New Strain in UK; Vaccination Picks up Pace: Virus Update

U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that there is no information to suggest the Brazil variant has spread further in the country. Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for a broad extension of Germany’s lockdown until March 28 with a partial easing of some restrictions. Italy may seek more stimulus spending, while the number of patients in the Czech Republic hospitalized in serious condition reached a record. In Asia, registrations for vaccinations in India jumped after the prime minister got his shot, while the Philippines rejected a proposal to have “influencers” undergo public inoculations. China set a goal to vaccinate 40% of its population by the end of June.

9. Dubai Real Estate Market May Bottom Out Next Year: S&P

The property market in Dubai may “bottom out” next year after weathering a tough 2020, according to S&P Global Ratings. “We already had a supply and demand imbalance in the market even before the pandemic, and after Covid-19 the situation just got worse,” an S&P analyst told on Tuesday. Prices of residential and office spaces in the city are expected to “somewhere bottom out in 2022,” she said. A property glut and faltering demand in the Middle East’s business hub have driven prices down by more than a third since the market peaked some seven years ago. The decline has been made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.

10. Wall Street Bullishness Is Becoming a Contrarian Sell Signal

Stock market optimism among Wall Street strategists has risen close to levels that signalled trouble for equities in the past. A Bank of America measure of their bullishness is near a level that historically has been bearish for stocks. The gauge assesses the average recommended allocation to equities by sell-side strategists and is very close to triggering a sell signal. “The last time the indicator was this close to ‘Sell’ was June 2007 after which we generally saw 12-month returns of minus 13%,” the strategists said, adding even current levels signal below-average equity returns over the next year. “We‘ve found Wall Street bullishness to be a reliable contrarian indicator.”

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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US Markets Calm as Bond Yields Ease – Top 10 Global News

1. U.S. Tech Stocks Rebound as Global Bond Rout Eases

U.S. assets steadied on the last day of a tumultuous week, with tech stocks posting a modest rebound and the yield on 10-year Treasuries falling below 1.5%. The Nasdaq 100 climbed from a six-week low amid gains for mega-cap tech companies such as Apple and Microsoft. The S&P 500 Index eked out a smaller advance. The dollar strengthened for a second day, helping fuel a slump in commodity prices from oil to gold to copper. Asian shares tumbled in line with Thursday’s rout in the U.S., and European gauges also headed lower. Global bonds stabilized after central banks from Asia to Europe moved to calm a panic.

The S&P 500 Index rose 0.1% as of 9:52 a.m. in New York.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 1.3%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific index declined by 3.6%.

The MSCI Emerging Markets index retreated 3.1%.

2. Commodities Boom Can Turn Into a Possible Supercycle

A surge in commodity prices has Wall Street banks gearing up for the arrival of what may be a new supercycle — an extended period during which demand drives prices well above their long-run trend. A major impetus is the massive stimulus spending by governments as they juice up their economies following pandemic lockdowns. The evidence includes surging copper and agricultural prices and oil back at pre-Covid-19 levels. One theory is that this could be just the start of a years-long rally in appetite for raw materials across the board, but the reality is more complicated.

3. EU and U.K. Near First, Small Step for Post-Brexit Finance

Britain and the European Union are nearing an agreement on how to cooperate on financial market rules — a first, limited step toward working together after Brexit. The two sides are proposing a joint forum for discussing regulations and sharing information, though this accord won’t require them to open markets through so-called equivalence decisions, according to a draft memorandum of understanding. The forum would lead to “informal consultations concerning decisions to adopt, suspend or withdraw equivalence,” according to the draft. Each side will keep the power to make and change its own rules.

4. Volkswagen Forecasts Profit Rise as Sales Come Roaring Back

Volkswagen expects profitability to improve this year, banking on continued recovery from the pandemic even as many economies wrestle with high infection rates and a global chip shortage weighs on the industry. Europe’s biggest carmaker is projecting an operating margin of 5% to 6.5% for 2021 and aiming for the higher end of that range.  “We intend to carry over the strong momentum from the significantly better second half into the current year,” Chief Financial Officer Frank Witter said in the statement. “The programs for reducing our fixed costs and in procurement will make us more robust in the long term.”

5. G-20 Moves Toward Consensus on Boosting IMF Firepower

The Group of 20 nations on Friday moved closer to an agreement on boosting International Monetary Fund reserves to help poor nations devastated by the global pandemic, according to officials familiar with the discussions. Talks focused on a proposal for a $500 billion allocation of the IMF’s special drawing rights, but the final decision likely will come closer to the lender’s spring meetings in April. Friday’s virtual meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors was hosted by Italy.

6. Bitcoin Heads for Worst Weekly Slide in a Year Amid Selloff

Bitcoin’s rally this year has hit a speed bump, putting it on track for the worst weekly slide in almost a year amid wider losses in risk assets. The largest cryptocurrency slumped as much as 21% this week, the most since March.  The price earlier dipped to as low as $45,525, nearing a key Fibonacci level at around $45,000, before recovering some losses to about $46,375 as of 6:21 a.m. in London. The rough patch for Bitcoin comes amid wider chaos in global markets, as a surge in bond yields heralds growing expectations that growth and inflation are moving higher and forcing traders to reevaluate their positions across multiple asset classes.

7. Ambani Again Richest Asian as China’s Zhong Loses $22 Billion

India’s Mukesh Ambani is back to being the wealthiest person in Asia. Despite a brutal week for markets, his Reliance Industries was relatively unscathed as it said it would spin off its oil-to-chemicals business into an independent unit. With a net worth of about $80 billion, Ambani is again richer than Zhong Shanshan, whose bottled-water company tanked a record 20% this week. The Chinese tycoon is worth $76.6 billion, down more than $22 billion from a peak just last week.

8. India Beats China at Its Own Game in Vaccine Diplomacy Fight

India’s huge capacity to make coronavirus vaccines is helping the country take on China in the battle to gain political influence across the developing world. Competition among poorer nations to get cheap or free vaccines to fight the pandemic had given China a golden chance to strengthen ties in emerging markets it has been courting for years. And initially, Beijing seemed in a strong position. It suppressed the domestic spread of Covid-19 last year and accelerated the production of shots. But Chinese pharmaceutical companies have been reticent in sharing details of their pivotal vaccine trials crucial for building public trust around the world, and new domestic outbreaks reinforced the urgency of inoculating China’s own 1.4 billion population. Meanwhile, India sent millions of doses to neighbouring Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, allowing them to begin vaccinations earlier than if they had waited for Chinese doses.

9. Saudi Crown Prince Implicated in Khashoggi Murder, U.S. Finds

A U.S. intelligence report expected to be declassified as soon as Friday implicates Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in approving the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The report builds on classified intelligence from the CIA and other agencies after Khashoggi’s murder in October 2018 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. It wasn’t immediately clear how much detail the declassified version of the report will provide on Prince Mohammed’s role. The decision to release the report, compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, reflects the Biden administration’s determination to recalibrate relations with Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, over its human rights record.

10. Canada Approves AstraZeneca Shot; J&J Nears EU Nod

Canada’s health authority approved the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine will probably be approved by the European Medicines Agency in early March. Separately, the EU regulator’s human medicines committee found Regeneron’s REGN-COV2 combination can be used to treat confirmed coronavirus in patients who don’t require supplemental oxygen and are at high risk of progressing to severe Covid-19. Asia-Pacific continues to lead Bloomberg’s measure of the best places to be in the pandemic era, with New Zealand in pole position on the Covid Resilience Ranking for a fourth month in February, followed by Australia and Singapore.

Curated from Bloomberg.com

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Meme Stocks Go Brrrr Again! – Top 10 Global News

1. Bonds Drop With Tech Futures on Inflation Worries

The selloff in global bonds deepened as the benchmark Treasury yield hit a one-year high and debt from the U.K. to Australia came under pressure. U.S. stock futures slumped, with tech shares once again bearing the brunt of selling as investors rotated to companies poised to benefit from an end to pandemic lockdowns. Across markets, investors are betting on a sunnier outlook for the global economy and the risk that inflation is just around the corner. U.S. data showed fewer-than-forecast jobless claims last week. Commodities also extended gains, with investors piling into metals that can ride faster growth trends. Copper moved closer to a record high set a decade ago and aluminium touched a two-year high.

Futures on the S&P 500 Index dipped 0.4% as of 8:16 a.m. New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index decreased 0.1%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index surged 1.3%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index added 1.2%.

2. GameStop Reignites Meme Stock Frenzy With $7.6 Billion Surge

GameStop soared in premarket trading Thursday as retail investors revived the surge in Reddit-favorite stocks, putting it on pace to reap $7.6 billion in market value over two days. The video-game retailer rose as much as 83% in New York. Among other favourites of traders populating Reddit forums, AMC Entertainment advanced 12% premarket after gaining 59% in the first three days of the week, while Koss surged 78%. Nokia Oyj, also a favourite of the meme crowd, climbed 7.7% in Europe, and BlackBerry added 5.3% in early trading.

3. Coinbase Files to Go Public on Nasdaq Via Direct Listing

Coinbase, the biggest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, filed to go public via a direct listing, in what’s anticipated to be a break-through moment for the industry. The company won’t raise any proceeds in the transaction, Coinbase said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Coinbase’s offering could be the first major direct listing to take place on the Nasdaq. All previous ones, including Spotify, Slack, Asana and Palantir were listed on the New York Stock Exchange.  Started in 2012, Coinbase has raised more than $500 million from backers that include Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator and Greylock Partners. It was valued at more than $8 billion in 2018 after a $300 million funding round led by Tiger Global Management.

4. Debt Crisis Threatens Developing Nations: World Bank Head

Developing nations remain at risk of a debt crisis due to the impact of the global pandemic, and the World Bank is working on ways to reduce the burden, President David Malpass said. The Washington-based development lender and the International Monetary Fund are collaborating closely on designing plans that connect debt reductions to freeing up resources for countries to invest in health care and initiatives to fight climate change, Malpass said. A debt crisis is “a prominent risk for some of the countries at the bottom, and that has to do with the difficulty of getting new investment,” Malpass said. “The rest of the world should see that there’s a beneficial linkage” in finding ways to reduce unsustainable debt in developing countries, he said.

5. Facebook, Netflix Face Fresh Scrutiny as India Tightens Grip

India joined the global regulatory push to rein in Silicon Valley technology giants, tightening rules that govern how social media and streaming companies do business in the world’s biggest democracy. The new rules that come into immediate effect will require the likes of Facebook and Twitter to take down unlawful content quicker. Messaging apps can be asked to provide the identity of the originators of unlawful messages on their platforms, implying the likes of Whatsapp may have to break the encryption and dilute users’ privacy safeguards. Streaming services such as Netflix, Google’s YouTube and Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video face stricter oversight over content containing sexually explicit scenes, violence and abusive language.

6. Norway’s $1.3 Trillion Fund Dumped Saudi Shares, Added Qatar

Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund slashed its exposure to Saudi Arabian stocks last year while boosting its portfolio in neighbouring Qatar by almost seven times. Total holdings of shares in Riyadh fell to about $194 million as of the end of December from $420 million the year before. In Doha, exposure surged to $582 million from $80 million. Qatar is now its second-biggest holding in the Gulf after the United Arab Emirates. The shift highlights a turn by the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund in two Gulf countries that were on opposite sides of a spat in the oil-abundant region that ended in January after almost four years.

7. China’s Traders Are Hoarding Scrap Copper as Rally Powers On

The supply tightness that has helped fuel copper’s epic rally is showing signs of spilling over to the Chinese scrap market, with traders hoarding the metal on bets on further price gains. Refined-copper’s premium over scrap slid to 3,934 yuan ($610) a metric ton on Thursday, a 10% drop from Monday, when it hit the highest in eight years, according to data from Mysteel Global. The spread has narrowed as prices of the waste metal climbed after some traders hoarded supplies in anticipation of even more gains.

8. Pfizer-BioNTech Shot Could Help End Pandemic: Israel Study

Pfizer and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine was overwhelmingly effective against the virus in a study that followed nearly 1.2 million people in Israel, results that public-health experts said to show that immunizations could end the pandemic. Two doses of the vaccine prevented 94% of Covid-19 cases in 596,618 people vaccinated between Dec. 20 and Feb. 1, about one-quarter of whom were over the age of 60. The researchers matched each vaccinated person with someone who hadn’t gotten a shot, enabling the best analysis yet of whether extremely good results from an earlier clinical trial would hold up in the real world. The Pfizer-BioNTech shot cleared every hurdle. It was so effective, in fact, that outside experts said that with broad enough use it may be possible to halt the pandemic.

9. Fallen Diamond Billionaire Loses Bid to Stop India Extradition

One-time diamond tycoon Nirav Modi lost a bid to challenge his extradition from the U.K. to India, where he’s wanted on charges that he orchestrated the largest bank fraud in the country’s history. Modi is accused of defrauding state-run Punjab National Bank of around $2 billion over seven years. In addition, the one-time billionaire jeweller is charged with threatening to have a witness killed if he testified against him. London Judge Sam Goozee on Thursday dismissed Modi’s argument that he would face an unfair trial if he were extradited to India.

10. U.K. Companies Say Brexit Paperwork Is Biggest Headache

British companies say new customs forms required following Brexit are the biggest hurdle to trading with the rest of the world. About 38% of exporters and 39% of importers identified form-filling as their main hurdle. While half of the exporters reported no difficulties trading internationally, the concerns on paperwork exceeded those about disruption at U.K. borders and transportation costs. The findings add to evidence that friction at ports is weighing on Britain’s ability to trade following after the nation left the European Union’s common customs system. Importers are warning they face even more red tape when new regulations come into force in April and July. Almost a third of the companies moving goods from Britain to Northern Ireland in  the past two weeks said volumes have fallen.

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 Falls after Elon Musk’s Tweet – Top 10 Global News

1. Technology Leads Stock Declines; Commodities Rally

Stocks pulled back on concerns equities are overvalued and commodities rallied with investors pricing in stronger growth and faster inflation as the global economy recovers from the pandemic. Technology took the brunt of the selling as higher yields dented the appeal of expensive, growth-focused stocks. The Nasdaq 100 slid about 1% and European and Asian markets were broadly negative. Commodities were almost uniformly green. Brent oil climbed above $63 a barrel as Goldman Sachs Group predicted prices could advance into the $70s in coming months. Copper rose above $9,000 a metric ton for the first time in nine years.

The S&P 500 Index declined 0.5% as of 9:55 a.m. New York time.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.5%.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index dipped 0.7%.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index declined 2%.

2. WHO Sees Positive Signs; Reopening Plan in U.K.: Virus Update

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is weighing as much as 50 billion euros ($61 billion) in additional debt spending, with officials meeting on Monday to discuss financing for tests and other measures to support Europe’s largest economy. In the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson will outline his plan for lifting the lockdown in England, prioritizing the return of schools and outdoor activities over reopening stores, bars and restaurants. WHO said it’s seen some positive signs but cautioned against easing curbs too quickly. The U.S. is poised to reach 500,000 Covid-19 deaths, though the pace of fatalities has slowed dramatically.

3. Bitcoin Pares Drop After Tumbling on Elon Musk’s Price Remarks

Elon Musk’s embrace of Bitcoin earlier this month week rocketed the cryptocurrency almost 50% higher to more than $58,000. His cold shoulder this weekend whipsawed the digital asset. Bitcoin trimmed losses to 5% after plunging as much as 17% earlier Monday. It briefly came back below $50,000 in New York, giving up more than $8,000 in a matter of hours after the world’s richest man tweeted his concern that the price had risen too high too quickly. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has been on a tear this month, propelled by purchases from Musk’s Tesla and institutional investors who say Bitcoin is an attractive alternative to gold and the dollar. In February alone, Bitcoin was up more than 60%, prompting commentary that the run-up is excessive.

4. Snap Hits $100 Billion Market Value After Doubling in 4 Months

Snap Inc. hit $100 billion in market value after surging usage and a rebounding market for digital ads sent the social-media stock soaring this year. The Snapchat owner rose as much as 3% on Monday after Morgan Stanley turned bullish, saying it’s poised for faster-than-expected growth in engagement, revenue and profitability. The stock has doubled since mid-October and is up more than fourfold over the past year amid a sharp increase in usage during the coronavirus pandemic. Social-media companies have seen their revenues swell as stuck-at-home consumers spent more time on their platforms and spending on digital ads rebounded from an initial drop last year. Snap’s daily active users rose to 265 million in the fourth quarter, a 22% increase from the same period a year ago.

5. Biden’s $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Plan Enters 3-Week Congress Dash

Democrats begin the final push for President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus bill this week, dropping any pretence of bipartisanship to quickly pass the package before an earlier round of benefits runs out. This will be the first real test for Democrats’ full control of the government since former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, with implications for the rest of Biden’s agenda and the pandemic-battered economy. The House plans to vote as soon as Friday on Democrats’ stimulus package, setting up a Senate vote as soon as next week.

6. U.K.’s Vaccine Milestone Ignites World-Beating Market Rally

A world-leading vaccine campaign is bringing U.K. markets back to life. With around 30% of the adult population receiving at least one shot, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to announce a roadmap for lifting lockdown on Monday — adding fuel to the cross-asset rally. Among the biggest moves of late: The pound has rallied faster than any other major currency this year. U.K. stocks have been generating outsized gains in dollar terms. Companies have been enjoying a borrowing bonanza that’s looking historic.

7. Boeing 777 Engine Blast Spurs Grounding of Some Older Jets

Airlines grounded dozens of older Boeing 777 aircraft after the failure of a Pratt & Whitney engine showered debris into a Denver suburb and prompted U.S. regulators to order emergency inspections. United Airlines halted operations of 24 of its planes in the wake of the incident involving one of its fleets over the weekend after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered fan-blade checks on PW4077 engines. Japan’s transport ministry grounded aircraft with the engine variant on Monday, while Korean Air Lines and Asiana Airlines idled theirs and the U.K. banned such jets from its airspace. Shares of Boeing and Pratt & Whitney owner Raytheon Technologies slipped in U.S. trading.

8. Kuwait Seeks Approval to Use Wealth Fund to Finance Deficit

Kuwait’s government submitted a draft law to parliament seeking permission to withdraw as much as 5 billion dinars ($16.5 billion) a year from the country’s sovereign wealth fund to help finance a spiralling deficit. If approved by lawmakers, it would be the first time since the aftermath of the Gulf War in 1990 that Kuwait had extracted funds from the $600 billion Future Generations Fund. Previous withdrawals were treated as loans and had to repay. The government’s also attempting to push through parliament legislation allowing it to tap international bond markets and wants to plug its monthly shortfall using both cash and debt.

9. High Gas and Diesel Prices in India Prompt Smuggling of Fuel

Pump prices are so high in India that some of the gasoline and diesel exported to neighbouring countries is being smuggled back through porous land borders. A large oil truck loaded with 1,360 litres (359 gallons) of diesel that was being smuggled to India, where pump prices are at a record, was held last week in Nepal. Pump prices of gasoline, which have breached the 100 rupees a litre mark in several parts of India, are the highest in the South Asian region. That’s resulting in illegal trade as Indians grapple with soaring fuel prices. “Smuggling has become rampant as prices are cheaper in Nepal because of tax differentiation,” said Ravi Bharti, who operates a gas station at Adapur in eastern India’s Bihar state, less than 3 kilometres (2 miles) from the Nepal border. “This is severely impacting our sales.”

10. Ambani’s $3.4 Billion Retail Deal Stalled by Indian Court

India’s Supreme Court stopped regulatory approval for the Future Group’s $3.4 billion asset sale to Reliance Industries, delaying the deal in a boost for Amazon.com which wants to scuttle the transaction in its bid to dominate the country’s retail sector. Agreeing with the American e-commerce giant’s petition, the top court on Monday overturned a lower court’s ruling and said the National Company Law Tribunal can continue hearing the case but must not give a final nod till further orders. The court also sought written statements from Future Retail and said it will hear the case after three weeks. Future’s stocks and bonds fell.

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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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Market News Top 10 News Top Global News

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

Categories
Market News Top 10 News Top Global News

Bitcoin Rally Peaks $50,000 – Top 10 Global News

1. Stocks Set for Longest Winning Streak in 17 Years

Global stocks are in the midst of the longest run of gains in 17 years as optimism over the economic recovery sweeps across markets. The MSCI benchmark for emerging and developed market stocks has risen for 12 straight sessions, while U.S. equities were set to open higher after a public holiday. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Stock Average extended its advance past the 30,000 level. European markets steadied after a rally on Monday. At the same time, investors are riding a wave of speculative euphoria from penny stocks to Bitcoin amid abundant policy support.

2. Bitcoin Jumps to $50,000 as Record-Breaking Rally Accelerates

Bitcoin blew through another milestone, surging past $50,000 for the first time as the blistering rally in the largest cryptocurrency continues to captivate investors worldwide. The world’s largest cryptocurrency reached about $50,191 as of 7:32 a.m. in New York and is now up about 73% so far this year. Ether, a rival crypto, hit a record on Friday and is up about 140% year-to-date. After ending last year with a fourth-quarter surge of 170% to around $29,000, Bitcoin token jumped to $40,000 seven days later. It took just nearly six weeks to breach the latest threshold, buoyed by several endorsements.

3. Plummeting Cases in U.S. Show a Path to Crushing Covid-19

Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are dropping dramatically across the U.S., suggesting that measures to interrupt transmission are working, at least for now. More than 27.6 million Americans have tested positive, likely giving them some degree of immunity. A rising number — 11.8% of the population — has now received at least one dose of a vaccine. And data gathered from mobile phones suggest people are being more cautious day-to-day. If cases keep falling, it could buy time for the vaccination effort to take hold in the warm summer months ahead, potentially underpinning a long-sought economic recovery. Health experts, though, anticipate challenges. Inoculations need to outpace highly contagious variants from the U.K. and South Africa.

4. Swiss Wealth Tax Rakes in Cash as Covid Stokes Global Debate

Switzerland’s wealth tax offers a rare real-world example of how a levy on assets can work, just as such ideas gain traction elsewhere in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. The measure forces residents in one of the world’s richest nations to tally the value of their investments, real estate, cars, fine art, Bitcoin, and even beehives and cows. A percentage is then skimmed off by cantonal governments, varying in size and method depending on the canton. With the Covid-19 fallout causing government debt to swell, and hurting poorer people most, wealth taxes are being debated from California to the U.K. as a tool both to pay down debt and address inequality.

5. Sunak May ‘Go Big’ On Stimulus Spending in U.K. Budget

Rishi Sunak can afford to follow the U.S. and “go big” on spending to bolster a post-pandemic recovery in the U.K., a Citigroup economist said as the chancellor of the exchequer prepares his annual budget. At the same time, the British measures should be “better targeted” than the ones President Joe Biden set out, according to Ben Nabarro, the bank’s U.K. economist. He warned that many years of deficits mean that the U.K. Treasury has less room for manoeuvre than the U.S. “We have the capacity to go big for sure, but at the same time, it’s important that we do keep a medium-term anchor on the public finances,” Nabarro said at a briefing on Tuesday organized by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London.

6. GS Opens Investing App to Anyone With as Little as $1,000

Goldman Sachs Group took another step toward going mainstream, launching an investing app for customers that want to put at least $1,000 to work. Investors using the service, which went live Tuesday, can put money into automated portfolios rather than individual stocks and bonds. The move expands the Marcus platform, which also offers a high-interest savings account. Goldman, which has traditionally served a wealthier client base, is taking steps to broaden its reach through new digital products. The investing platform features exchange-traded funds that focus on traditional stock and bond benchmarks, impact investments and smart-beta products designed by Goldman.

7. World’s Fastest Vaccine Pushes Return to Normal in Israel

Israel’s world-leading vaccination campaign is poised to achieve what millions in the country and many more outside it have desperately sought for a year: a return to normal life. In the six weeks since Israel began administering the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, about 80% of those at highest risk have been inoculated. As the numbers have grown, hospitals have reported a steady decline in seriously ill coronavirus patients and the rate of overall spread. The Pfizer vaccine led to 94% fewer symptomatic illnesses and 92% fewer critically sick cases, according to a study of 1.2 million people by Israel’s largest health maintenance organization. That success has spurred the government to ease restrictions on movement that have been in place for months.

8. Shots Are Helping Control Covid Worldwide: Virus Update

Vaccination drives have begun delivering results, with a report in the U.K. suggesting that people over age 80 — a high-priority group — were the most likely to test positive for Covid antibodies. That followed an Israeli study showing a 94% drop in symptomatic cases among the vaccinated. In Romania, which has immunized most of its health-care workers, infection rates in hospitals have plummeted 87% in recent weeks. U.S. cases and hospitalizations are also dropping dramatically. In Hong Kong, a panel recommended approval of Chinese developer Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s vaccine, paving the way for a second shot.

9. Gulf Fund Raises $75 Million for Mideast, North African Startups

A Gulf venture capital firm created a year ago has raised $75 million to deploy in startups across the Middle East, as rich Saudi companies and families seek to monetize on the boom in technology firms. Nuwa Capital, based both in Dubai and Riyadh, has finished the first round of investment in its Nuwa Ventures Fund I and targets reaching the $100 million mark this year. The appetite for tech firms has been increasing among Gulf investors as governments in the region step up efforts to steer their economies away from oil. 

10. Singapore Trims Deficit, Digs Deeper Into Reserves for Covid Aid

Singapore plans to rein in its budget deficit as the economy recovers while digging deeper into government reserves for a new S$11 billion ($8.3 billion) package to help households and businesses rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic. The new package comes after Singapore’s economy endured its biggest-ever contraction in 2020, with gross domestic product shrinking 5.4%. Growth is expected to rebound to 4%-6% this year, but the outlook remains challenging for some important sectors including aviation, transport and hospitality.

Curated from Bloomberg.com