#Tesla now has a diluted market cap of $516 billion against $25 billion sales & zero EBIT; the rest of the auto industry globally totals $803 billion against $2.3 trillion sales and $100 billion EBIT. Shades of 1999 in 2020, supersized.
Archives of “September 1, 2020” day
rssJapan politics – chief cabinet secretary Suga to declare candidacy for PM position
Japanese Prime Minister Abe is resigning due to health issues.
Suga is reportedly set to announce his candidacy for the top job on Wednesday.
I said yesterday that of the candidates Suga is likely the ‘steady-hand’ candidate for markets. his role as chief cabinet secretary has had him addressing media (and therefore markets) throughout Abe’s prime ministership.
GBP – UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak is considering a 5p hike in fuel duty
UK press reporting
- FUEL duty could be increased by up to 5p by Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
- He is considering ending a ten-year freeze on the tax in his autumn Budget to help pay for Covid-19.
One for the UK folks – go and fill up the car before bed!
AstraZeneca plans its vaccine test on 50,000 enrolment
AstraZeneca Plc has begun a large-scale human trial of its coronavirus vaccine in the US
Earlier reports said the company planned to test on 30K but the latest is it’ll be a test on over 50k. 30k in the US, 20k elsewhere around the globe.
In the US the tests are being conducted with the assistance of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health as one of the sites for the human trials. The plan is to begin trials with the volunteers on Tuesday, with tests to accelerate following the September 7 US Labor Day holiday.
How the tests will be conducted, in brief:
- adults aged 18 years or over
- from diverse racial, ethnic and geographic groups who are healthy or have stable underlying medical conditions, including those living with HIV, and who are at increased risk of infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus
- participants are being randomized to receive two doses of either AZD1222 or a saline control, four weeks apart
- twice as many participants receiving the potential vaccine than the saline control
- trial is assessing the efficacy and safety of the vaccine in all participants, and local and systemic reactions and immune responses will be assessed in 3,000 participants.
- late-stage clinical trials are ongoing in the UK, Brazil and South Africa and trials are planned to start in Japan and Russia.
Adds the company (bolding is mine):
- Results from the late-stage trials are anticipated later this year, depending on the rate of infection within the clinical trial communities.
- In July 2020, interim results from the ongoing Phase I/II COV001 trial were published in The Lancet and showed AZD1222 was tolerated and generated robust immune responses against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in all evaluated participants.
Silver consolidation may be done as it climbs to 13-day high
Silver outpaces gold
The silver bugs are proving to be resilient.
Gold is consolidating but silver may be in the midst of another breakout. The rally today may have punched a path higher from the bull flag pattern on the chart.
Despite the technical break at the moment, I’m skeptical of precious metals in the short-term. Markets are giving Republicans a better chance of holding the Senate and that raises the odds of a divided Congress. With a Biden presidency, that would lead to tighter fiscal policy and unwind some of the recent gains.
In the short-term, which out for the Aug 18 high of $28.47.
Thought For A Day
