The company added 2.2 million paid
subscribers globally during the quarter that ended Sept. 30, missing Wall
Street's target of 3.4 million and its own forecast. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/3jhdq7e
Earnings per share also landed below analyst
expectations at $1.74. The consensus forecast was $2.14, according to IBES data
from Refinitiv.
Shares of Netflix, one of the biggest
gainers this year as people stayed home amid the pandemic, dropped nearly 6% to
$494 in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
“Domestic subscribers were nearly flat,
which highlights Netflix’s saturation in the U.S.,” said Ross Benes, analyst
with eMarketer. With domestic additions slowing, revenue growth will likely
come from price increases, he said.
October
21, 20205:01
AM By Leika
Kihara
TOKYO
(Reuters) - Bank of Japan board member Makoto Sakurai said on Wednesday the
central bank must take “swift and appropriate” action if the coronavirus shock
delays the country’s economic recovery.
If the pandemic takes longer than expected to contain, more companies
could be pushed under, saddling commercial banks with bad loans and threaten
Japan’s financial system, he said.
“At present, financial institutions have sufficient capital so there is
no big concern over Japan’s banking system. But we need to be prepared to take
swift action, with a close eye both on the economy and the banking system,”
Sakurai said in a speech to business leaders in Fukui prefecture.
The remarks came ahead of the BOJ’s rate review next week, when the
central bank is likely to cut its growth and price forecasts, but leave
monetary settings unchanged.
They also underscore a growing concern in the BOJ over the additional
pain COVID-19 could inflict on commercial banks, many of which are suffering
from years of ultra-low interest rates.
“If Japan’s economic recovery is delayed, that could hurt growth and the
banking system. As such, it’s critical for us to act swiftly and appropriately
as needed in coordination with the government and other central banks,” Sakurai
said.
Japan’s economy suffered its biggest postwar slump in the second
quarter. Analysts expect any rebound to be modest as uncertainty over the
outlook weigh on consumption and capital spending.
Sakurai said while Japan’s economy was likely to gradually recover, it
remained in a severe situation.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-boj/boj-member-says-swift-action-needed-if-covid-19-delays-economic-recovery-idUKKBN27607Q
Cathay Pacific to slash
workforce, end Cathay Dragon brand due to pandemic October 21, 20201:25
AM
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Cathay
Pacific Airways Ltd 0293.HK
The airline would also seek changes in conditions in its contracts with
cabin crew and pilots as part of a restructuring that would cost HK$2.2 billion
(219 million pounds), it told the stock exchange.
Overall, it will cut 8,500 positions, or 24% of its normal headcount,
but that includes 2,600 roles currently unfilled due to cost reduction
initiatives, Cathay said.
“The global pandemic continues to have a devastating impact on aviation
and the hard truth is we must fundamentally restructure the group to survive,”
Cathay Chief Executive Augustus Tang said in a statement.
---- Singapore Airlines Ltd SIAL.SI QAN.AX
Cathay, which has stored around 40% of its
fleet outside Hong Kong, said on Monday it planned to operate less than 50% of
its pre-pandemic capacity in 2021.
After receiving a $5 billion rescue package
led by the Hong Kong government in June, it had been conducting a strategic
review that analysts expected would result in major job losses.
The airline said it was bleeding HK$1.5
billion to HK$2 billion of cash a month and the restructuring would stem the
outflow by HK$500 million a month in 2021, with executive pay cuts continuing
throughout next year.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-cathay-pacific-layoffs/cathay-pacific-to-slash-workforce-end-cathay-dragon-brand-due-to-pandemic-idUKKBN27601L
Finance Job Vacancies in London
Plummet 54% Year-on-Year By Viren
Vaghela October 19, 2020, 12:00 AM GMT+1 Updated on October 19, 2020,
9:02 AM GMT+1
·
·
Job vacancies in London’s finance industry slumped 54% in
the third quarter compared to 2019 as uncertainty around coronavirus, Brexit
and bank profits discouraged hiring.
City firms were advertising 3,810 roles in the three months
through September, according to data from recruitment firm Morgan
McKinley published Monday. While this is a fraction of the opportunities
available in previous years, the total has risen from 2,490 three months
earlier, when the U.K. was under stricter lockdown measures.
“Businesses and job seekers are struggling with the impact
of the pandemic and worried about what a second wave will mean,” said Hakan
Enver, managing director at Morgan McKinley U.K. “But we also can’t forget
about Brexit. There are concerns for the long-term recovery and the free flow
of capital and equivalence for U.K. financial services that need to be
clarified.”
Jobs Plunge
City of London third-quarter finance position openings
fall 54% from 2019
Source: Morgan McKinley
The fall in vacancies comes amid growing
job losses across the U.K. and a backdrop of global cuts in the banking
industry, which is grappling with ultra-low interest rates and rapid
technological change.
Companies are adapting to working through the pandemic and
gaining an understanding of their recruitment needs compared to the start of
lockdown, according to Enver, whose firm recruits across banking and finance,
commerce, industry and professional services.
“Businesses have no plans to roll back remote working, with
many firms even suggesting it on a permanent basis,” he said, with some making
it “part of their compensation packages.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-18/finance-job-vacancies-in-london-plummet-54-year-on-year?sref=RJ2RlMrh
BlackRock Says Scale of
Restructuring May Exceed 2008 Crisis By Denise Wee October 20, 2020, 6:54 AM GMT+1 Updated on October 20, 2020,
9:30 AM GMT+1
·
·
BlackRock Inc. says that the scale of
restructuring needs globally could exceed the previous peak that followed the
2008 global financial crisis.
“One big reason is the significant growth in sub-investment
grade debt,” the company’s research arm, BlackRock Investment Institute, said
in a note dated Oct. 19. The amount of outstanding debt with ratings below
investment grade, including loans and private credit, has more than doubled to
$5.3 trillion since 2007, according to the asset manager.
As the overall cost of borrowing fell, companies loaded up
on debt. This has left many vulnerable as their revenues came under pressure from
Covid-19 related disruptions.
BlackRock isn’t
the only one warning of the risks of company failures. Despite low rates, U.S.
corporate bankruptcies posted their worst
third quarter ever.
Read more:
Father of the Z-Score Predicts Surge in ‘Mega’ Bankruptcies (2)
While supportive fiscal and monetary policies have helped
companies raise capital and lower borrowing costs, “not all borrowers have
benefited equally” and smaller firms have lacked access to the public markets,
BlackRock said in the note.
Many companies may need to turn to private credit to
restructure post Covid-19, according to the asset manager, and this offers
potential return diversification for investors. Since 2007, private
credit has been especially fast-growing, expanding to $850 billion by
financing companies that would previously have looked to banks or the public
high-yield market, it added.
More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-20/blackrock-says-scale-of-restructurings-could-exceed-2008-crisis?srnd=premium-europe
Finally, as goes America so goes the
world? Or should that be as goes India?
Shoppers plan to visit fewer
stores than ever this holiday season, survey says Published Tue, Oct 20 202012:01 AM EDT
A new survey predicts shoppers will visit fewer stores than ever this
holiday season, ratcheting up the pressure on retailers to capture customers.
Consumers are planning to visit just 5.2 retail stores on average,
consulting firm Deloitte found in its annual holiday survey. That’s down from
seven last year, 6.9 in 2018 and 5.7 in 2017. It marks a record low for the
survey, which polled 4,012 consumers from Sept. 9 to Sept. 15.
Part of the reason for the drop-off is because safety remains top of
mind for consumers, said Rod Sides, a vice chairman of retail and distribution
at Deloitte. The survey found that 51% of people are anxious about going
to stores this holiday season due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“If I can go fewer places and if I can
check [more] things off my list ... I think that’s going to bode well for mass
retailers,” Sides said in an interview. “We’re all used to going there, and
we’re used to their safety protocols,” he said about big-box chains, that sell
a little bit of everything, like Walmart and Target .
Meantime, consumers are planning to squeeze in their
spending in less time. That’s despite the doorbuster-like deals that kicked off
last week with Amazon ’s
48-hour Prime Day and rival sales events. Although retailers want to lengthen
the season, shoppers hope to complete their holiday purchases in 5.9 weeks,
Deloitte’s survey found. That’s 1½ weeks less than a year ago and down from 7.1
weeks in 2018.
Some shoppers are afraid of running out of money if they
start spending too early, Sides said. Or if they wait too long, they’re afraid
items won’t arrive at their doorsteps in time for Christmas.
People plan to travel just 9.6 miles on average to buy
gifts this season, Deloitte found. Sixty-nine percent of consumers would prefer
to shop close to home when they’re venturing out to stores and malls.
A
separate forecast is calling for foot traffic in retail stores to be down 22%
to 25% year over year during the six key weeks of the holiday season.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/20/shoppers-to-visit-fewer-stores-than-ever-this-holiday-season-deloitte.html
Virus, what virus? India gets
back to work Issued on: 20/10/2020 - 05:44
India is on course to top the world in coronavirus cases, but from
Maharashtra's whirring factories to Kolkata's thronging markets, people are
back at work -- and eager to forget the pandemic for festival season.
After a strict lockdown in March that left millions on the brink of
starvation, the government and people of the world's second-most populous
country decided life must go on.
Sonali Dange, for instance, has two young daughters and an elderly
mother-in-law to look after. She was hospitalised this year in excruciating
pain after catching the coronavirus.
But after the lockdown exhausted the family's savings, the 29-year-old
had to return to work at a factory where she earns 25,000 rupees ($340) a
month.
"Now that I have recovered, I am no longer so scared of the
disease," she told AFP amid the din of machinery at the Nobel Hygiene
plant east of Mumbai.
- Worst since 1947 -
The pandemic's confirmed fatality rate has been heaviest in richer
nations with older populations -- the US death toll is double that of India
despite having only a quarter of the population.
Poor countries have suffered far worse economic pain, with the World
Bank predicting 150 million people could fall into extreme poverty worldwide.
Many children in the developing world are now working to help their
parents make ends meet, activists say, while thousands of young girls have been
forced into marriage.
In Varanasi in northern India, 12-year-old Sanchit no longer attends
school and instead collects cloth discarded from bodies before cremation on the
city's ghats.
"On a good day, I earn around 50 rupees (70 US cents)," the
boy told AFP.
The IMF projects India's GDP will contract by 10.3 percent this year,
the biggest slump of any major emerging nation and its worst since independence
in 1947.
- Lockdown catastrophe -
When India went into lockdown, it was a human catastrophe, leaving
millions in the informal economy jobless, penniless and destitute almost
overnight.
No one wants to go back to that, said Gargi Mukherjee, 42, as she
shopped in the New Market area of Kolkata, thronging with festival-season
customers, many without face masks.
"For survival, people have to come out and do their jobs. If you
don't earn, you cannot feed your family," she told AFP.
Experts caution that the October-November season -- when Hindus
celebrate major festivals such as Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali -- may
trigger a sharp increase in infections, as consumers crowd markets to snap up
big-ticket items on discount.
"Of course corona is to be feared. But what can I do? I can't miss
the moments of Durga Puja," said housewife Tiyas Bhattacharya Das, 25.
"Durga Puja comes once in the year, so I cannot miss the enjoyment
of the shopping."
More
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201020-virus-what-virus-india-gets-back-to-work
But normality comes with a price.
India's coronavirus tally climbs
to 7.65 million October 21, 20205:39
AM
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India has recorded 54,044 new coronavirus infections,
taking its tally to 7.65 million, health ministry data showed on Wednesday.
The world’s second most populous nation also has the second highest
caseload, after the United States, which has a total of 8.2 million.
India’s death toll from the virus stood at 115,914, with 717 deaths in
the last 24 hours, the ministry said.
Infections in India have been on the decline since a September peak, but
experts have warned there could be a surge as the festival season approaches.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-india-cases/indias-coronavirus-tally-climbs-to-7-65-million-idUKKBN2760EX?il=0
Winter Watch .
The Arctic winter sea-ice expansion and
northern hemisphere snow cover. From around mid-October, the northern
hemisphere snow cover usually rapidly expands, while the Arctic ice gradually
expands back towards its winter maximum.
Over simplified, a rapid expansion of
both, especially if early, can be a sign of a harsher than normal arriving norther
hemisphere winter. Perhaps more so in 2020-2021 as we’re in the low of the
ending sunspot cycle, which possibly also influenced this year’s record
Atlantic hurricane season.
Adding to this year’s winter concerns,
a developing La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific. While the La Nina effect
on the winter weather of western Europe is weaker than that of an El Nino
pattern, which tends to make for a milder winter, a La Nina pattern tends to
make for a colder winter.
US National Ice
Center.
https://www.natice.noaa.gov/ims/
“Unbeing dead isn't being alive.”
E. E.
Cummings
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Lilly’s U.S. Plant Flagged; Cathay
Cuts 5,300 Jobs: Virus Update October
20, 2020, 11:37 PM GMT+1 Updated on October 21, 2020, 5:48 AM GMT+1
U.S. inspectors found quality-control problems at an Eli Lilly & Co. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.
Europe’s outbreak continued to spread. Germany, Greece and
the Netherlands hit daily case records, and Spain is weighing a curfew Manchester area
Amazon.com Inc. will let corporate employees work from home
Key
Developments:
Global Tracker :
Cases top 40.7 million; deaths exceed 1.1 millionSee the latest on the race
for a vaccine with Bloomberg’s tracker Singapore to try rapid virus
tests for large-scale gatherings U.S. discord deepens over vaccines, immunity
as virus rebounds Covid’s obesity link raises questions
for $3 trillion food industry Voters blame anyone but Modi
for India’s failure to fight virus https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-20/china-defends-vaccinations-cases-up-in-u-s-south-virus-update?srnd=coronavirus
Britain to pursue first COVID-19
human challenge trials Oct. 20, 2020 /
5:47 AM
Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The British government has signed a contract with a pharmaceutical
services company for the first COVID-19 human challenge study where healthy volunteers will
be exposed to the virus to test a vaccine.
The company Open Orphan on Tuesday announced the deal worth up to $13 million for its hVIVO
subsidiary to conduct the initial characterization study, which is expected to
be completed by May 2021, to identify the "most appropriate dose" of
COVID-19 volunteers can be exposed to in the trials.
The study, done in partnership with the Imperial College
London, will be conducted at the Royal Free Hospital's specialist research unit
in the British capital, Open Orphan said in the announcement.
"We are doing everything we can to fight coronavirus,
including backing our best and brightest scientists and researchers in their
hunt for a safe and effective vaccine," Alok Sharma, Britain's secretary
of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said in a statement.
"The funding announced today for these ground-breaking
but carefully controlled studies marks an important next step in building on
our understanding of the virus and accelerating the development of our most
promising vaccines, which will ultimately help in beginning our return to
normal life," Sharma added.
The Imperial College London said in a statement the study would recruit volunteers between
18-30 years old with no history of COVID-19, underlying health conditions or
issues, such as heart disease, diabetes or obesity, that pose risk factors to
the coronavirus.
The college said human challenge studies aid researchers in
establishing which vaccines are most likely to be effective and provide data on
the efficacy of vaccine candidates by testing them side by side.
"Human challenge studies can increase our
understanding of COVID-19 in unique ways and accelerate development of the many
potential new COVID-19 treatments and vaccines," said Dr. Chris Chiu of
the Department of Infectious Disease at the Imperial College London and lead
researcher on human challenge studies.
More.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/10/20/Britain-to-pursue-first-COVID-19-human-challenge-trials/8531603181812/
UNICEF stockpiling a half-billion
syringes for COVID-19 vaccine Oct. 19, 2020 /
12:43 PM
Oct. 19 (UPI) -- The United Nations Children's Fund said Monday it will stockpile
more than half-billion syringes by the end of 2020 in anticipation of a COVID-19 vaccine.
UNICEF said it plans to stockpile 520 million syringes in
warehouses as part of a broader plan for use through 2021.
Presuming there are enough doses of a COVID-19 vaccine,
UNICEF said it ultimately expects to deliver a billion syringes on top of 620
million it will supply for other vaccination programs.
"Vaccinating the world against COVID-19 will be one of
the largest mass undertakings in human history, and we will need to move as
quickly as the vaccines can be produced," UNICEF Executive Director
Henrietta Fore said in a statement. "In order to move fast later, we
must move fast now.
"By the end of the year, we will already have over
half a billion syringes pre-positioned where they can be deployed quickly and
cost effectively. That's enough syringes to wrap around the world one and a
half times."
UNICEF said it will work with global vaccine alliance Gavi,
which has created a COVAX Facility it says will use "collective purchasing
power" to negotiate prices for the vaccine.
In addition to syringes, UNICEF will buy 5 million
"safety boxes" to dispose of the syringes and needles. The agency
said it's also working with the World Health Organization to ensure the
vaccines are stored at the right temperature for potency.
More
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/10/19/UNICEF-stockpiling-a-half-billion-syringes-for-COVID-19-vaccine/9061603119749/
Next, some vaccine links
kindly sent along from a LIR reader in Canada. The links come from a most
informative update from Stanford Hospital in California.
World
Health Organization - Landscape of COVID-19 candidate vaccines . https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/draft-landscape-of-covid-19-candidate-vaccines
NY
Times Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker . https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-vaccine-tracker.html
Stanford
Website . https://racetoacure.stanford.edu/clinical-trials/132
Regulatory
Focus COVID-19 vaccine tracker . https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2020/3/covid-19-vaccine-tracker
Some other useful Covid links.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
resource centre
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Rt Covid-19
https://rt.live/
Covid19info.live
https://wuflu.live/
Centers for Disease Control
Coronavirus
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must
keep moving.”
Albert
Einstein
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC or DC
energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards.
Creating perfect edges in
2D-materials Date:
October 19, 2020
Source:
Chalmers University of Technology
Summary:
Ultrathin materials such as graphene promise a revolution in nanoscience and
technology. Researchers have now made an important advance within the field. In
a recent article they present a method for controlling the edges of
two-dimensional materials using a 'magic' chemical.
Ultrathin materials such as graphene promise a revolution in nanoscience
and technology. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have
now made an important advance within the field. In a recent paper in Nature
Communications they present a method for controlling the edges of
two-dimensional materials using a 'magic' chemical.
"Our method makes it possible to control the edges -- atom by atom
-- in a way that is both easy and scalable, using only mild heating together
with abundant, environmentally friendly chemicals, such as hydrogen
peroxide," says Battulga Munkhbat, a postdoctoral researcher at the
Department of Physics at Chalmers University of Technology, and first author of
the paper.
Materials as thin as just a single atomic layer are known as
two-dimensional, or 2D, materials. The most well-known example is graphene, as
well as molybdenum disulphide, its semiconductor analogue. Future developments
within the field could benefit from studying one particular characteristic
inherent to such materials -- their edges. Controlling the edges is a
challenging scientific problem, because they are very different in comparison
to the main body of a 2D material. For example, a specific type of edge found
in transition metal dichalcogenides (known as TMD's, such as the aforementioned
molybdenum disulphide), can have magnetic and catalytic properties.
Typical TMD materials have edges which can exist in two distinct
variants, known as zigzag or armchair. These alternatives are so different that
their physical and chemical properties are not at all alike. For instance,
calculations predict that zigzag edges are metallic and ferromagnetic, whereas
armchair edges are semiconducting and non-magnetic. Similar to these remarkable
variations in physical properties, one could expect that chemical properties of
zigzag and armchair edges are also very different. If so, it could be possible
that certain chemicals might 'dissolve' armchair edges, while leaving zigzag
ones unaffected.
Now, such a 'magic' chemical is exactly what the Chalmers researchers
have found -- in the form of ordinary hydrogen peroxide. At first, the
researchers were completely surprised by the new results.
More
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201019082919.htm
US Politics Betting Odds https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/us-politics
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but
more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
George
Bernard Shaw
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