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The clock is turning
What will happen if the TikTok divestiture is not approved today? We can make predictions, but it’s hard to say because the decrees are open. The CFIUS could agree to the terms of the deal and recommend Trump submit final approval (he gave the deal his “blessing” in September) or could support a 30-day extension as the app continues to respond. national security issues. Another result is that TikTok misses the deadline and Attorney General William Barr is taking “whatever steps are necessary” to have Trump’s order carried out in court. The final consideration could see the deal slipping into a Biden administration and he may not care about enforcement in the same way Trump does. TikTok has 100 million users in the United States alone and is one of the fastest growing social media services in the world.
Moderna in the spotlight on vaccines
Moderna actions (NASDAQ: ARNM) are 5% higher in pre-market commerce after accumulating enough COVID-19 cases in its vaccine trial to analyze the effectiveness of the shot. Preliminary results could be released soon, with the biotech company saying it could turn the data over to an independent watchdog within days. The vaccine, which uses mRNA technology similar to that of Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), will likely prove to be very effective, and likely mirror Pfizer’s announcement earlier this week with a shot that appears to be over 90% effective, said Drew Weissman, an immunologist and mRNA expert at the University of Pennsylvania.
Go further: Pfizer executives are selling shares for millions of dollars.
Is the rotation complete?
Dow Jones contracts fell 0.5% for a second day, with S&P 500 futures, while the Nasdaq climbed 0.5% after producing a 2% gain Wednesday. “People are waking up to the reality of how long it will take to deploy a vaccine. I am not a medical expert, but it seems unlikely that we will be going back to the pre-Covid world very quickly,” Sebastian Mackay said , fund manager at Invesco. Nervousness over the new coronavirus restrictions is also hitting sentiment, with New York imposing a 10 p.m. curfew on bars and restaurants and Joe Biden’s coronavirus czar backing a four to six week lockdown (see below). On the economic front, new data on unemployment benefit claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET and Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) and Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) will report its profits after the market closes.
Biden coronavirus advisor talks about lockdown
A four to six week lockdown could bring COVID-19 back under control and get the U.S. economy back on track until a vaccine is approved and distributed, said Michael Osterholm, who advises President-elect Joe Biden on the coronavirus. His plan, however, depends on the government presenting another relief program. “We could pay a flat rate right now that covers all wages, lost wages of individual workers to losses suffered by small businesses to medium-sized businesses or to city, state and county governments,” he said. , after warning earlier this week that the country is heading towards “COVID hell”.
Accumulate records
Singles Day, a major business event in China, saw e-commerce giants Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and JD.com (NASDAQ: JD) rack up around $ 115 billion in sales on their platforms, both setting new records. Small caveat: This year’s event ran from November 1 to midnight November 12, instead of the usual 11/11 24 hours (which represents “bare branches” that are lonely and unattached). As GMV numbers continue to show signs of recovery after the coronavirus pandemic, the event has been overshadowed by the sharp drop in Alibaba and JD.com stock prices due to the release by Chinese regulators draft antitrust rules (see below).
Go further: JD.com wants a network of 5 million retail stores.
No more crackdown on Big Tech
China’s internet industry saw a massive sell-off of $ 260 billion on Wednesday after Beijing signaled its firmer intention to curb big tech by drafting a slew of new anti-monopoly laws. “We believe that the potential implementation of the new antitrust regulations has negative implications for large Internet companies with dominant positions in all segments,” Morgan Stanley said in a research note. “That said, competition has already intensified in recent years, with ‘incumbents’ (eg Alibaba, Tencent) losing market share to ‘disruptors’ (eg Pinduoduo, Bytedance), so that the consequences are likely to be less significant given the reduction in segment dominance compared to a few years ago. “See a full breakdown of impacts by company.
IEA lowers outlook for crude demand
A day after OPEC slashed its forecast for global oil demand, the IEA is hopping on the bandwagon because “the task of rebalancing the market will progress slowly unless the fundamentals change.” “With a COVID-19 vaccine unlikely to come to the rescue of the global oil market for some time, the combination of weaker demand and growing oil supply provides a difficult backdrop for the meeting of the countries of OPEC + “, according to the agency. The IEA now expects global oil demand to contract by 8.8 million barrels per day this year, reflecting a downward revision of 0.4 million barrels from the month’s estimate last, but raised its estimates for 2021.
Go further: The IEA sees record new renewable energy capacity.
To extend or cut?
OPEC + is also evaluating crude production in the light of vaccine developments and wonders about opening the taps in January as initially planned. While a breakthrough announced this week by Pfizer (PFE) could boost fuel demand, the logistical challenges of deploying a vaccine to billions of people mean it will not materially change oil market conditions over the course of time. the next six months. A planned increase in production will likely be postponed, while the presidents of Russia and OPEC have even mentioned the option of further cutting production, although the idea has yet to garner broad support among officials. other members. We still have three weeks before the group meets to make a final decision, so expect more news from the oil space. The alliance currently keeps around 7.7 million barrels per day offline, or 8% of global production.
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