By Hideyuki
Sano , Chibuike Oguh
TOKYO/NEW
YORK (Reuters) - Global shares stepped back on Wednesday as soft U.S. retail
sales fuelled worries that rising coronavirus cases could stifle a still
fragile economic recovery, dampening the euphoria from vaccine trial
breakthroughs.
U.S. S&P500 futures shed 0.3% in Asian trade on Wednesday, a day
after S&P500 index lost 0.48%, while Europe’s Euro Stoxx 50 futures eased
0.2%.
Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.76%, while MSCI’s broadest index of
Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed, drawing support from
better handling of the pandemic in much of the region.
“Given the rapid gains over the last 10 days or so, a correction was
inevitable,” said Hirokazu Kabeya, chief global strategist at Daiwa Securities.
Global stocks, measured by MSCI’s broadest gauge of world equities, have
risen more than 11% so far this month.
The retail sales report released by the U.S. Commerce Department showed
spending decelerating as the holiday shopping season approaches, amid a lack of
fresh fiscal relief from Washington.
A skittish mood also swept investors as several U.S. states began
restricting gatherings and mandating face-coverings after more than 70,000
Americans were hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19 as of Monday, according
to a Reuters tally of public health figures.
---- U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome
Powell noted the current surge in coronavirus cases is a big concern, and the
economy will continue to need both fiscal and monetary policy support.
“The soft U.S. retail data is showing the impact of dwindling fiscal
support. But the inconvenient truth is that governments no longer have lots of
money to spend like they did earlier this year,” said a trader at a major
Japanese bank.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-global-markets/world-shares-slip-after-u-s-retail-sales-dampen-vaccine-euphoria-idUKKBN27X368
Buffett's Berkshire bets on Big
Pharma, invests in four drugmakers November 16,
2020 9:19 PM Updated an hour ago By Jonathan
Stempel
(Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire
Hathaway Inc BRKa.N said
on Monday it has begun investing in the stocks of four large drugmakers,
betting on an industry that could benefit when the world begins emerging from
the coronavirus pandemic.
In a regulatory filing detailing its
U.S.-listed stock holdings as of Sept. 30, Berkshire disclosed $5.7 billion
(£4.3 billion) of new healthcare stakes, including more than $1.8 billion each
in Abbvie Inc ABBV.N ,
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co BMY.N ,
Merck & Co MRK.N and
$136 million in Pfizer Inc PFE.N .
Shares of the drugmakers rose in after-hours
trading.
The filing signals where Buffett and his
portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler see value. Buffett normally
handles large investments for Berkshire’s $245.3 billion stock portfolio himself.
“COVID-19 has made us think differently
about healthcare,” said James Armstrong, president of Henry H. Armstrong &
Associates in Pittsburgh, which owns Berkshire stock.
“The sector has become more efficient as big
drug companies partner with smaller, inventive rivals,” Armstrong added. “But
you will always need companies with scale for manufacturing and distribution,
including vaccines with global application.”
Berkshire did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-investment-funds-berkshire/buffetts-berkshire-bets-on-big-pharma-invests-in-four-drugmakers-idUKKBN27W2TU?il=0
Finally, a warning for President elect Biden from
history.
Kissinger Warns Biden of
U.S.-China Catastrophe on Scale of WWI Peter Martin November 16, 2020, 2:38 PM GMT
·
·
Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said the
incoming Biden administration should move quickly to restore lines of communication
with China that frayed during the Trump years or risk a crisis that could
escalate into military conflict.
“Unless there is some basis for some cooperative action,
the world will slide into a catastrophe comparable to World War I,” Kissinger
said during the opening session of the Bloomberg
New Economy Forum . He said military technologies available today would make
such a crisis “even more difficult to control” than those of earlier eras.
“America and China are now drifting increasingly toward
confrontation, and they’re conducting their diplomacy in a confrontational
way,” the 97-year-old Kissinger said in an interview with Bloomberg News
Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. “The danger is that some crisis will occur
that will go beyond rhetoric into actual military conflict.”
The diplomat who paved the way for President Richard
Nixon’s historic 1972 trip to China said he hoped that the shared threat of the
Covid-19 pandemic would provide an opening for political discussions between
the two countries when Biden takes office on Jan. 20.
“If you can look at Covid as a warning, in the sense that
in practice it is dealt with by each country largely autonomously, but its long-term
solution has to be on some global basis,” Kissinger said, “it should be dealt
with as a lesson.”
U.S.-China relations are at their lowest in decades,
despite the two sides reaching a “phase one” trade deal at the start of the
year. Since then, the virus outbreak that began in Wuhan, China, has gone
global, killing more than 1.3 million people and crushing economies around the
world.
As President Donald Trump stepped up his criticism of
China, blaming it for the spread of the virus and the death toll in the U.S.,
each side also has ramped up moves the other sees as hostile.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-16/kissinger-warns-biden-of-u-s-china-catastrophe-on-scale-of-wwi
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 northern
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.
Northern Eur-Asia turned snowy fast in
mid-October. The Arctic sea ice
expansion was slow, and from a very low level at the end of September, but with
the vastly expanded snow cover, sea ice formation sped up.
While the Kara and Laptev sea ice initially
sped up, especially in the Laptev Sea which is virtually back to normal, the
Kara Sea ice is still well below normal, as is the snow cover of Finland, Sweden
and Norway. The outcome, I’m going back to my earlier instinct of a normal to warmer
western European winter.
Arctic
and Antarctic Sea Ice.
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
Covid-19 Corner This
section will continue until it becomes unneeded.
Pfizer Reaches Milestone; Daily
Record in Tokyo: Virus Update Bloomberg News November
17, 2020, 11:25 PM GMT Updated on November 18, 2020, 5:29 AM GMT
Pfizer Inc.’s chief executive officer said its coronavirus
vaccine reached a key safety milestone and the
drugmaker is preparing to seek an emergency-use authorization, adding to signs
of progress in efforts to halt the disease.
Tokyo is set to raise its alert to the highest level while Japanese
broadcaster FNN reported that a record 493 coronavirus cases were
confirmed in the capital on Wednesday. South Australia imposed a six-day
lockdown.
More U.S. states imposed restrictions to tamp down an
unrelenting surge in cases while Los Angeles County will impose new
restrictions to fight a rapid increase in infections. New York’s
hospitalizations increased by the most since the peak of the pandemic in April.
Key Developments:
Global Tracker : Cases reach 55.5 million; deaths 1.34 millionCovid vaccines barrel toward
finish line in 300-day science test Final hurdle in the Covid-19
vaccine race is bureaucracy Biden’s virus advisers press
for access , say delay is dangerous Bloomberg is mapping coronavirus cases
across the U.S. As vaccine nears, reasons
for hope and caution:
QuickTake Vaccine Tracker : Encouraging
breakthroughs offer hope More
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-17/pfizer-hits-safety-milestone-tokyo-to-raise-alert-virus-update?srnd=coronavirus
Russia says coronavirus mutations
appearing in Siberia as deaths hit record daily high November 17,
2020 10:05 AM By Reuters Staff
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Mutations in the coronavirus are
appearing in Siberia, the head of Russia’s consumer health watchdog said on
Tuesday, as the country reported a record daily high of 442 deaths from
COVID-19.
“We see certain changes...in Siberia which allow us to assume that in
this region it is forming its own version with specific mutations,” Anna
Popova, head of Rospotrebnadzor, was quoted as saying by news agencies.
Popova did not give details on how contagious or deadly the mutation was
considered to be but said it would not make the virus more dangerous.
Post-registration trials of Russia’s second COVID-19 vaccine, developed
by Siberia’s Vector Institute, were now underway, Popova confirmed. Authorities
said last week they were due to begin last Sunday.
Mutations of the coronavirus could not influence the vaccine’s
effectiveness, the Vector Institute’s director general, Rinat Maksyutov, was
quoted as saying by TASS.
A U.S. study in September found little evidence that mutations in the
virus have made it deadlier, saying that the severity of COVID-19, the disease
caused by the virus, was more strongly linked to patients’ underlying medical
conditions and genetics.
Clinical trials of the vaccine, called EpiVacCorona, could now be
carried out with volunteers over the age of 60, a state register showed and the
institute’s director said trials with children would begin in December, TASS
reported.
A six-month Phase III trial started on Monday, involving 180
participants, according to the register.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-russia-cases/russia-says-coronavirus-mutations-appearing-in-siberia-as-deaths-hit-record-daily-high-idUKKBN27X10A?il=0
South Australia orders six-day
statewide lockdown against fresh virus outbreak
November
18, 2020
4:50 AM By Swati
Pandey
SYDNEY (Reuters) - South Australia announced
a six-day lockdown of the state on Wednesday to stamp out a fresh coronavirus
outbreak that has now expanded to 22 cases, warning the strain of virus was
highly contagious with a 24-hour infection rate.
As of midnight, a series of wide-ranging
mobility restrictions will be imposed on homes and businesses for six days to
allow “breathing space” for contact tracing, South Australia state Premier
Steven Marshall said.
“We need this circuit breaker, this
community pause,” Marshall said. “We are going hard and we are going early.
Time is of the essence and we must act swiftly and decisively.”
The virus strain in the new cases was
“highly contagious with short incubation period and limited symptoms”, he said.
“We have one chance, one chance, and will be
throwing all our resources at it because we know the consequences of getting it
wrong,” Marshall said.
Epidemiologist were unsure whether this was
a genetically mutated virus strain.
---- The
short incubation period “doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a new strain,” he said.
“Sometimes when you get a very, very high dose of virus you would become sick
sooner. It could just be that.”
South Australia state government did not immediately respond to
questions from Reuters about the specific strain.
The lockdown will mean people will be restricted from going outside of
their homes, with only one person per household allowed to leave each day, but
only for specific purposes.
More
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-australia/south-australia-orders-six-day-statewide-lockdown-against-fresh-virus-outbreak-idUKKBN27Y0F2?il=0
Germany's confirmed coronavirus
cases rise by 17,561 to 833,307 - RKI November 18, 2020 4:35 AM
BERLIN (Reuters) - The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany
increased by 17,561 to 833,307, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for
infectious diseases showed on Wednesday.
The reported death toll rose by 305 to 13,119, the tally showed.
U.S. FDA approves first COVID-19
test kit for home use November 18, 2020 3:25 AM
(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday it had
approved the first COVID-19 self-testing kit for home use that provides results
within 30 minutes.
The single-use test, made by Lucira Health, has been given emergency use
authorization for home use with self-collected nasal swab samples in
individuals aged 14 and older who are suspected of COVID-19 by their health
care provider, the FDA said.
“While COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been authorized for at-home
collection, this is the first that can be fully self-administered and provide
results at home,” FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn said.
The kit can also be used at hospitals and point-of-care settings but
samples should be collected by a healthcare provider if the individuals who are
tested are younger than 14 years, the health regulator said.
Although a recent string of positive news from Moderna Inc and Pfizer
Inc on their potential vaccines has raised hopes in combating the disease,
testing still is a key factor in controlling the spread of the virus.
“We look forward to proactively working with test developers to support
the availability of more at-home test options,” said Jeff Shuren, the director
of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.
The United States crossed 11 million total infections on Sunday, just
eight days after reaching the 10 million mark.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-usa-testing/u-s-fda-approves-first-covid-19-test-kit-for-home-use-idUKKBN27Y0AS?il=0
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
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.
Call me sceptical
about this happening any time soon, but if it worked how long before it became weaponised?
UK government
looking at harvesting solar power in space
by Mark Tyson on 16 November 2020, 13:11
The
UK government has announced that
it has commissioned research into space-based solar power (SBSP) systems.
Sparking this surprising announcement it sees potential for an unlimited
constant zero carbon power source using very large solar power satellites and
a system which can beam the energy to ground-based receivers connected to the
national grid.
Interestingly the official government press release admits the idea behind
the SBSP system comes from science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov, who wrote
about this concept back in 1941. The idea seems to be a sound one but
economics and technology have just started to catch up with it, namely; low
cost commercial space launches, lightweight solar panels, and advances in
wireless power transmission. Some other inherent advantages of SBSP are that
the sun never sets in space, and if the UK can pioneer this technology it
could be a boost to GDP.
The commissioned study seeks to find out whether SBSP is truly viable,
sustainable, and safe. Assessing the project from an engineering and
economics standpoint will be the Frazer-Nash Consultancy. It is already
foreseen that assembling the massive satellites in space will be one of the biggest
challenges as it will be beyond the scale of anything before.
SBSP will have a target operational date of 2050, but it
must be more than just successful in its own right. The consultancy will have
to make sure it offers advantages above other viable forms of renewable
energy. Safety gets a mention too and I wonder what would happen to a plane
or flock of geese (for example) that passed through the high-frequency
high-energy radio wave beam being sent to earth. Also could hackers redirect
these energy beams and wreak destruction
upon their targets at the speed of light?
In 2019 the UK already passed an important milestone in
electricity generation – it generated more electricity from low carbon
sources like wind, solar and nuclear power than it did from fossil fuels.
https://hexus.net/ce/news/general/146884-uk-government-looking-harvesting-solar-power-space/
A permanent Governor of the European Central Bank would be one of
the greatest men in Euroland. He would be a little `monarch` in every City; he
would be far greater than the Elected Leaders. He would be the personal
embodiment of the ECB; he would be constantly clothed with an almost indefinite
prestige. Every nation in business would bow down before him and try to stand
well with him, for he might in a panic be able to save almost anyone he liked,
and to ruin almost anyone he liked. A day might come when his favour might mean
prosperity, and his distrust might mean ruin. A position with so much real
power and so much apparent dignity would be intensely coveted.
With Apologies to Walter Bagehot. Lombard Street. 1873.
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