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German Chancellor Merkel says in a serious stage of the COVID-19 pandemic

Merkel met with state leaders, says there are great challenges ahead for the winter months

  • What we do in coming days will be decisive for how we get through the pandemic.
  • We are in an exponential growth phase for infections
  • Germany must do everything it can to control the spread of the virus
  • German economy is not able to afford a second wave
Chalk Germany up as another country about to bring in tighter restrictions. Earlier on Wenesday French PM Macron introduced a fresh curfew to Paris, and 8 other cities in the country. 9pm to 6am, which could last for up to 6 weeks.

Major indices close lower for the 2nd consecutive day

NASDAQ leads the way lower

The major indices close lower for the 2nd consecutive day. The NASDAQ index was the weakest

of the majors today.

Some highlights:
  • S&P and NASDAQ index is trading lesson 3% from the all-time high
  • Stocks have their first 2 day losing streak since September 18
  • The Dow industrial average turned back for 2020
  • UnitedHealth care was the biggest drag on the Dow
  • Russell 2000 of small-cap stocks fell by -0.93%
The final numbers are showing:
  • The S&P index fell -23.32 points or -0.66% to 3488.61. The high price reached 3527.94. The low price extended to 3480.55
  • The NASDAQ index fell -95.166 points or -0.80% to 11768.73. It’s high price reached 11939.91. The low price extended to 11714.35
  • The Dow industrial average closed down -165.83 points or -0.58% to 28513.98. The high price reached 28792.56. The low extended to 28461.73.

US considers placing China’s Ant Group on the trade blacklist

Ant Group owns Alipay

The US State Dept has submitted an application for the Trump administration to put China’s Ant Group on the trade blacklist, according to sources cited by Reuters.
That would be a significant escalation in the trade war, which is morphing into more of a tech war.
By some measures, the Ant Group is the largest Fin Tech company in the world. It owns Alipay and these other subsidiaries:
  • Alipay – a mobile wallet app supports make and accept payments
  • Huabei (Ant Credit Pay) – a virtual credit card type of product that facilitates credit payments
  • MYbank – a private online bank that lives entirely on the cloud
  • Jiebei (Ant Cash Now) – a consumer loan service
  • Ant Fortune – a comprehensive wealth management app
  • Ant Insurance Services
  • Zhima Credit – an independent credit filling and scoring service for individuals
  • Ant Financial Cloud – a cloud service for financial institutions
  • ZOLOZ – a global biometric-based identity verification platform
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