Back in mid-September the news broker that SoftbNk was selling its UK chip designer Arm Holdings to Nvidia Corp
Bloomberg have the headline that Chinese firms are seeking a curb on the sale.
There are no further details provided.
Archives of “October 2020” month
rssCentral bankers want inflation People are paying a high price
New York Times report on Trump holding an account at a Chinese bank
The NYT have popped up an article with further on Trump’s tax filings:
- China is one of only three foreign nations – the others are Britain and Ireland – where Mr. Trump maintains a bank account
- The foreign accounts do not show up on Mr. Trump’s public financial disclosures, where he must list personal assets, because they are held under corporate names. The identities of the financial institutions are not clear.
It goes on:
- In response to questions from The Times, Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, said the company had “opened an account with a Chinese bank having offices in the United States in order to pay the local taxes” associated with efforts to do business there. He said the company had opened the account after establishing an office in China “to explore the potential for hotel deals in Asia.”
Seems reasonable.
The Chinese currency is now Asia’s strongest currency this year. The notion that the yuan is up purely on dollar weakness needs to be put to bed.
FT report that UK PM Johnson’s 3-year spending master plan to be ditched
Financial Times say that UK Chancellor Sunak has told the PM that current plans should not go ahead due to the chaos of Covid-19.
A decision to scrap the three-year review in favour of a stopgap single-year settlement would be a setback for Mr Johnson, who saw the event as a chance to map out his priorities for a post-Covid world.
Johnson and Sunak have been discussing whether anything can be salvaged from binned plan.
Here is the FT article link for more.
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Brexit trade talks appear to be floundering. Coronavirus outbreak infections surging. Lockdown accelerating, and resisted. Not a lot of good UK news about at present.
US major indices break losing streaks but close well off the highs
NASDAQ snaps 5 day losing streak. Dow and S&P break 4-day decline
The US major indices snapped their losing streaks but also close well off there intraday highs. The NASDAQ index had had a 5 day losing streak while the Dow and S&P declined for 4 straight days.
- S&P index closed up 16.23 points or 0.47% 3443.15. The high price reached 3476.93. The low extended to 3435.65.
- NASDAQ index closed up 37.613 points or 0.33% at 11516.49. The high price reached 11632.89. The low extended to 11471.23.
- Dow industrial average closed up 113.27 points or 0.4% at 28308.69. The high price reached 28575.03. The low extended to 28243.04
Netflix earnings released after the close and numbers were disappointing:
- The consensus EPS Estimate of 2.14 (up +45.6% Y/Y) . The actual earnings per share came in at $1.74
- Consensus Revenue Estimate is $6.38B (up +21.5% Y/Y). Revenues came in at $6.44 billion
- Analysts expect operating income of $1.29B
- Streaming paid net adds are expected to rise by 3.3M for the quarter. They came in much lower at 2.2MThe company guided to 2.5M.
- Netflix sees fourth-quarter streaming paid net change of 6 million vs estimates of 6.54 million
- See Q4 revenue of 6.57 billion vs. estimate 6.59 billion
- See 4Q EPS of $1.35 vs. $0.97 estimate
The price after the close is down close to 6%
Thought For A Day
European shares end the session with mixed results
Provisional closes for the major European indices
The European major indices are ending the session with mixed results. The German DAX fell -0.9%. The Spain’s Ibex increased by 1.0%. The provisional closes are showing:
- German DAX -0.9%
- France’s CAC, -0.1%
- UK FTSE 100, +0.15%
- Spain’s Ibex, +1.0%
- Italy’s FTSE MIB, +0.6%
Global equity drawdowns in excess of 10% since 2001. UBS
How likely are you to take a coronavirus vaccine if recommended to do so?
A survey overseen by the Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP) shows that 71.5% of participants would be very or somewhat likely to take a vaccine
The VCP is a global surveillance programme on vaccine trust funded by the European Commission and some pharmaceutical companies, and the survey here was conducted back in June with more than 13,000 participants from 19 countries.
The 19 countries surveyed are said to be among the top 35 countries affected by the pandemic in terms of cases per million population.
Anyway, the results show that 71.5% of participants would be very or somewhat likely to take a coronavirus vaccine but they would be less likely to accept one – only 61.4% – if it were mandated/recommended by their employers instead.
That said, the response by country presents some polarising opinions about a vaccine.
Almost 90% of participants in China said they would accept a vaccine, whereas in France the positive response rate is only 59% with the US and UK observing a 75% and 71% positive response rate respectively.
I would argue that this tells us little about the mood in the world now as the situation in June is far from how things are panning out currently. Coronavirus fatigue is real and a second wave is dawning upon Europe. It’s going to be a terrible winter everywhere.
All of that will play into considerations about a vaccine if and when the time comes.
However, the survey above also highlights some caution and hesitancy to trust any early ‘breakthroughs’ and that is part of human nature.
Russia’s vaccine story is a prime example of that and if anything, it also tells us that any positive progress from a medical perspective will need to be translated to a practical one where everybody in the world can have access to the vaccine in a timely manner.