Baltic Dry Index. 1503 +80 Brent Crude 91.15
Spot Gold 1828
Coronavirus Cases 02/04/20 World 1,000,000
Deaths 53,100
Coronavirus Cases 09/02/22 World 401,181,478
Deaths 5,782,809
The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental or spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.
John Stuart Mill.
[Someone tell Justin T., Joe B., and a host of UK SARS “experts.”]
In the casinos, a new bull market rally or a new bear market exit rally?
In the oil market, some tiny inflation relief on the prospect of the USA rejoining the Iran deal President Trump reneged on.
In Ottawa, the extreme left wing BBC World Service has upgraded the trucker mandate protest to an “insurgency.” They’re going all out too, for Ukraine being invaded by Russia in 2014, forgetting who overthrew who in Kiev that year.
On Staten Island,
New York, some Covid deer. Buy more vaccines is the message being promoted. Ignore the better news in the Covid section.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index surges 2% as Chinese tech stocks bounce; SoftBank Group shares soar more than 5%
- Shares in Asia-Pacific rose in Wednesday trade.
- By Wednesday in the city, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong soared 1.97% as Chinese tech stocks bounced back from their Tuesday losses.
- Shares of SoftBank Group surged more than 5% after the Japanese conglomerate on Tuesday announced plans to take Arm public following the collapse of a planned sale of the unit to Nvidia.
SINGAPORE — Shares in Asia-Pacific rose in Wednesday trade, with stocks in Hong Kong leading gains regionally.
By Wednesday in the city, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong soared 1.97% as Chinese tech stocks bounced back from their Tuesday losses. Shares of Alibaba jumped 6.12% while Tencent gained 2.21% and Netease advanced 3.92%.
Mainland Chinese stocks also rose, with the Shanghai composite up 0.4% and the Shenzhen component advancing 0.681%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 gained 1.06% while the Topix index climbed 0.97%. Shares of SoftBank Group surged 5.21% after the Japanese conglomerate on Tuesday announced plans to take Arm public following the collapse of a planned sale of the unit to Nvidia.
Elsewhere, the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia climbed 0.79% as bank stocks jumped: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) surged 5.32%, Westpac gained 2.38%, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group advanced 1.74% while National Australia Bank rose 1.84%.
CBA on Monday announced a jump in its first-half profit and also a share buy-back worth 2 billion Australian dollars ($1.43 billion).
South Korea’s Kospi also advanced 0.73%.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 1.28%.
Overnight stateside, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 371.65 points to 35,462.78 while the S&P 500 advanced 0.84% to 4,521.54. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.28% to about 14,194.46.
Meanwhile, investors await the release of U.S. consumer inflation data expected Thursday for clues on how the Federal Reserve could react to the rising price pressures.
In buy more over-priced vaccine news, more doom and gloom from the vaccine every three months sect.
Unfortunately, none of the current vaccines work very well against the omicron variant, though natural infection from omicron seems to best the best “vaccine” around.
Discovery of Omicron in New York deer raises concern over possible new variants
By Barbara Goldberg February 8, 2022 10:10 PM GMT
NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - The discovery of the Omicron variant in white-tailed deer in New York has raised concerns that the species, numbering 30 million in the United States, could become hosts of a new coronavirus strain, a lead researcher said on Tuesday.
Blood and some nasal swab samples from 131 deer captured on New York's Staten Island revealed that nearly 15% had virus antibodies. The finding suggested that the animals had previous coronavirus infections and were vulnerable to repeated reinfections with new variants, researchers led by Pennsylvania State University scientists said.
“Circulation of the virus in an animal population always raises the possibility of getting back to humans, but more importantly it provides more opportunities for the virus to evolve into novel variants,” said Suresh Kuchipudi, a Penn State veterinary microbiologist.
"When the virus completely mutates, then it can escape the protection of the current vaccine. So we'd have to change the vaccine again," Kuchipudi said.
The discovery - the first time Omicron was detected in a wild animal - comes as a surge in COVID-19 infections fueled by the variant are abating among the U.S. human population.
While there is no evidence that animals are transmitting the virus to humans, most coronavirus infections were reported in species that had close contact with a person with COVID-19, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In August, the U.S. government said it found the world's first cases of COVID-19 in wild deer in Ohio, expanding the list of animals known to have tested positive for the disease.
The finding was based on samples collected from deer months before the heavily mutated variant Omicron emerged to replace the previously dominant Delta variant in people in countries around the world.
The USDA had previously reported COVID-19 in animals including dogs, cats, tigers, lions, snow leopards, otters, gorillas and minks.
Pfizer Beats Q4 Earnings Forecast, Sees $54 Billion In 2022 Covid Sales; Stock Slides
Pfizer said combined sales of its Covid vaccine and treatment drugs would rise to $54 billion this year, around half of its total projected revenues.
Martin Baccardax February 8 , 2022
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) - Get Pfizer Inc. Report posted better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings Tuesday, and forecast $54 billion in vaccine and treatment sales for the coming year, as it continues to outpace rivals in Covid treatment developments.
Pfizer said adjusted earnings for the three months ending in December were pegged at $1.08 per share, a 157% increase from the same period last year and well ahead of the Street consensus forecast of 87 cents. Group revenues, Pfizer said, surged 104% to $23.8 billion, a figure that fell just shy of analysts' estimates of an $24.1 billion tally.
Looking into the 2022 financial year Pfizer said its sees adjusted earnings in the region of $6.35 to $6.65 per share, compared to the Refinitiv forecast of $6.69, and revenues of between $98 billion and $102 billion.
Sales of Pfizer's Comirnaty vaccine are expected to top $32 billion a $1 billion improvement from its prior forecast, while revenues from its recently-approved Covid pill Paxlovid are forecast to come in at $22 billion.“In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, we committed to use all of the resources and expertise we had at our disposal to help protect populations globally against this deadly virus, as well as to offer treatments to help avoid the worst outcomes when infections do occur," said CEO Albert Bourla. "We put billions of dollars of capital on the line in pursuit of those goals, not knowing whether those investments would ever pay off."
"Now, less than two years since we made that commitment, we are proud to say that we have delivered both the first FDA-authorized vaccine against COVID-19 (with our partner, BioNTech (BNTX) - Get BioNTech SE Report) and the first FDA-authorized oral treatment for COVID-19,” he added.
Pfizer shares were marked 5.5% lower in early Tuesday trading following the earnings release to change hands at $50.26 each, a move that would trim the stock's six-month gain to around 9.3%.
Late last year, Pfizer said it will sell around 10 million of its Paxlovid treatment, which won Emergency Use Approval (EUA) by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration on December 22, to the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
At $530 per tablet, the cost is around 25% cheaper than the $700 price agreed with Merck & Co. (MRK) - Get Merck & Co., Inc. Report in October to buy 1.7 million doses its 'molnupiravir' treatment of "mild-to-moderate Covid in adults who are at risk for progressing to severe forms of disease, or hospitalization.
No comments:
Post a Comment