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As Senate Weighs Biden’s Commerce Choose, Right here’s What to Watch

As Senate Weighs Biden’s Commerce Pick, Here’s What to Watch

WASHINGTON – The commercial division has taken on a new role in recent years and has extensive powers over issues such as technology exports and climate change. On Tuesday, President Biden’s candidate to run the sprawling agency, Gina M. Raimondo, will appear before the Senate Trade Committee for a confirmation hearing. Ms. Raimondo, the current governor of Rhode Island, is a moderate Democrat and former venture capitalist.

Here are five things to consider when the hearing starts at 10 a.m.

Senators from both parties are likely to ask Ms. Raimondo how she intends to use the powers of the Department of Commerce to counter China’s growing domination of cutting edge and sensitive technologies, such as advanced telecommunications and artificial intelligence.

The Trump administration extensively used the Department’s agencies to crack down on Chinese tech firms, often turning to the entity list, which allows the United States to prevent companies from selling American products and technologies to certain foreign firms to sell without first obtaining a license. Dozens of companies have been added to the Department of Commerce’s list, including telecommunications giants like Huawei and ZTE, which many American lawmakers see as a threat to national security.

“You can be pretty sure members are calling for a hard line,” said William Reinsch, a trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who was a senior trade official during the Clinton administration.

The Department of Commerce was also tasked with setting out President Donald J. Trump’s US ban on Chinese-owned TikTok and WeChat social media apps – actions that were later stopped by a court order – and investigating bans on other Chinese apps . Mr Biden said he viewed TikTok’s access to American data as “seriously worrying,” but it is unclear how the new administration will address these issues.

However, the Commerce Department has other roles that some tech experts claim have been underutilized in the Trump administration, such as the role it plays in setting global technology standards that private companies must operate under. China has taken an increasingly active role in global standards-setting bodies in recent years and helped ensure adoption of technologies made in China, Reinsch said, and senators could urge Ms. Raimondo on the matter.

Mr. Biden has highlighted Ms. Raimondo’s role in promoting small businesses as Governor of Rhode Island – both before and during the pandemic.

As trade secretary, she would appoint certain agencies that could help get companies into trouble and advance the Biden administration’s goals of building domestic industry and revitalizing American research and development.

These include economic development programs and manufacturing partnerships that the Department of Commerce offers to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as its core mission of promoting American exports.

The department could also play a bigger role in expanding high-speed internet access to rural and low-income communities. This is a particularly critical issue as the pandemic has forced a lot of commerce and online schooling. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency of the Department of Commerce, leads the government’s broadband access efforts.

Updated

Jan. 25, 2021, 9:55 p.m. ET

Ms. Raimondo could ask questions about the department’s planned role in enforcing trade rules. It has a responsibility to impose tariffs on foreign countries that are found to be wrongly subsidizing and valued their goods, making them cheaper to sell in the United States.

The Trump administration also began to view countries’ manipulation of their currency – which can further reduce the cost of a product abroad – as some kind of foreign subsidy, and introduced the first tariffs to counter this. This move is popular with trade unions and many Congressional Democrats, but it has roused foreign allies and it is unclear how aggressively the Biden administration will pursue policy.

Another likely question for Ms. Raimondo concerns the tariffs Mr. Trump imposed on foreign steel and aluminum, ostensibly to protect U.S. national security. Mr Biden, Ms. Raimondo and others have to decide whether to maintain or remove these tariffs, which are supported by metalworking unions but are deeply unpopular with foreign governments and other industries whose prices have risen as a result.

President Trump and his deputies at the Commerce Department cited controversial efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from the state census conducted by the Census Bureau, which is then used to determine Congressional representation and federal funding.

These efforts, which would have given the Republicans more political power, failed after numerous legal challenges and delays in calculating the data. Democrats sharply criticized the effort, calling it unconstitutional.

Senate committee members can ask Ms. Raimondo to confirm how the Census Bureau will calculate its future population data and when the census will provide the latest figures.

Like some of Mr. Biden’s other nominees, Ms. Raimondo has seen some backlash from progressive Democrats who have criticized her close ties with venture capital and big technology companies. Prior to running for political office, Ms. Raimondo was a founding associate at Bain Capital-backed investment firm Village Ventures and co-founder of her own venture capital firm Point Judith Capital.

Some progressives have also condemned certain actions she has taken as governor of Rhode Island, including clashes with unions during a revision of state pension plans and extending liability coverage to nursing homes and healthcare facilities during the pandemic. However, Democrats who support Ms. Raimondo’s swift endorsement are unlikely, if at all, to push too hard on these issues.

Some Republicans have referred to an ethical complaint by the Republican Party of Rhode Island against Ms. Raimondo complaining that the state awarded a $ 1 billion contract to a gaming company called International Global Solutions Corporation without a tender process. A lobbyist for the group was also an official for the Democratic Governors Association, which Ms. Raimondo ran. However, that complaint was dismissed in 2020 and the Raimondo press office has labeled the problem a partisan attack.

Overall, Ms. Raimondo’s potential controversies appear tame compared to her predecessor, financier Wilbur Ross, who was embroiled in a scandal over his role in the department’s census and weather forecasting, and over myriad investment relationships with overseas companies .

Ms. Raimondo’s financial disclosure forms released earlier this month also appear undisputed, showing an annual salary of $ 150,245 from the state of Rhode Island, plus cash, investment accounts and other assets of $ 2.9-7.5 million, mainly Investment funds.

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Is Dubai’s celebration over? File Covid instances spark fears of recent lockdown

Is Dubai’s party over? Record Covid cases spark fears of new lockdown

Fireworks emanated from the Burj Khalifah tower in Dubai during the New Year’s Eve celebration on December 31, 2020, which attracted thousands of tourists and saw relaxed restrictions on social gatherings, allowing up to 30 people per household to gather. AFP via Getty Images

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – On the surface, Dubai’s party scene feels more alive than ever – bustling restaurants and bars, beaches and hotel pools inhabited by laid-back residents and tourists enjoying the winter sun.

However, daily record breaking Covid-19 infections in the Middle East’s commercial and vacation hub have made the chatter of a possible new lockdown inevitable.

“It’s getting really bad. How long did you think you could get away with it?” Farah S., a Dubai attorney, told CNBC.

According to the United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Health, the new cases recorded on Monday hit a daily high in the country of 3,591. When the country imposed its strictest lockdown in March and April, which left orders for home and closed borders completely, daily cases were less than a tenth that number.

Just last week the 3.3 million desert emirate – whose economy depends heavily on tourism and hospitality – began making changes that believe the government’s message that everything is under control.

On January 21, the authorities ordered all hospitals in Dubai to suspend unnecessary operations for a month. Around the same time, a policy was passed suspending all “entertainment” activities in restaurants and bars. The limit for weddings, social events and private parties has been reduced from 30 to 10 people. As of January 27, restaurants and cafés will require more space between the tables and fewer people per table.

Customers and equipment in gyms now need to be 3 meters apart, as opposed to the previous 2 meters, although this 2 meter requirement has often not been applied very sensibly.

Dubai fired the head of its health department on Sunday and replaced Humaid al-Qutami, who had held the office since 2018, with a new representative. The authorities did not provide a reason for the replacement and did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Some Dubai residents have claimed that hospitals are running out of intensive care beds, although this has not been confirmed as hospitals and health officials failed to respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Over the weekend, the UAE Ministry of Health posted a post on its Instagram story entitled “URGENT EMPLOYMENT” offering fixed-term contracts for intensive care nurses in Dubai, as well as Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah. This came just days after the order to cease non-essential operations.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, 281,546 cases with 798 deaths have been confirmed in the United Arab Emirates so far. The death rate of 0.3% is well below the global average.

A safe haven for 2020

After the Emirate of Dubai, which, in contrast to the more conservative capital Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, pursued a strategy of openness, kept its cases well below 2,000 per day for the entire year 2020, it turned out to be a pandemic success story.

It was certified as a “Safe Travel” destination by the World Tourism Council last summer and attracted celebrities and influencers. There has been a surge in occupancy at hotels and theme parks, and tourists from all over the world flocked to Dubai for a sense of missing normalcy. The wearing of masks continued to be ubiquitous and testing is widespread.

It has only been in the past two months that the city has hosted golf and polo tournaments, shopping and film festivals, and concerts to promote its image as safe and welcoming ahead of the long-awaited 2020 World’s Fair, postponed to October 2021 due to the pandemic.

However, the new and highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus, first identified in the UK, is believed to have sparked the recent surge in cases as thousands of UK tourists came in over the holidays to avoid the UK’s tough lockdown. Since December 30th, the daily numbers have more than tripled within a month.

Women sunbathers sit on a beach in the Gulf emirate of Dubai on July 24, 2020, while the Burj al-Arab Hotel can be seen behind it. After a painful four-month hiatus in tourism that ended in early July, Dubai is paying off as a safe travel destination with the resources to ward off coronaviruses.

KARIM SAHIB | AFP via Getty Images

Andy Pearson, a British engineer living in Dubai, blames large numbers of tourists whom he believes do not meet local safety requirements.

“The police should do more checks on party areas to make sure people are obeying the rules,” he said. “Tourists don’t care because they can just go home – they ruin it for the rest of us.”

The Dubai Media Office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether a lockdown is imminent or what other changes will be made to counter the rise in cases.

Countries are putting barriers to cases in the UAE and testing concerns

Another red flag came last Thursday when Denmark announced a five-day suspension of flights from the UAE on suspicion that the Covid tests carried out on travelers before they departed Dubai were not reliable.

“We cannot ignore such a suspicion,” said the Danish transport minister, adding that at least one citizen had returned from Dubai with the variant recently discovered in South Africa, among several others whom he described as positive for Covid.

The United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Health pushed back the announcement, claiming that all accredited testing centers in the United Arab Emirates operate to international standards and are regularly checked. According to the UAE authorities, talks are ongoing between the two countries.

Earlier this month, the UK and Israel introduced quarantine requirements for travelers from the UAE. The United Arab Emirates had previously been on the UK Safe Travel Corridor, which negated the need for quarantine times for arrivals.

The Covid-19 case numbers relate to the entire country and do not indicate where the infections are concentrated. But while Dubai welcomes tourists – some require negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results before boarding and others receive tests on arrival – Abu Dhabi still requires that anyone flying into the emirate be quarantined for ten days on arrival is provided. Participants from Dubai to Abu Dhabi are also required to provide a number of negative PCR test results.

Nationwide vaccination boost

The developments come as the UAE nationwide vaccination campaign is in full swing. This is the second fastest rollout in the world after Israel.

China’s Sinopharm vaccine is available nationwide for free to all residents aged 16 and over, while Dubai’s launch of Pfizer BioNtech vaccine, which began in late December, was announced as late on Saturday. The Dubai authorities attribute the delay to a “global shortage”.

Still, the UAE wants to achieve its goal of vaccinating half of its population by the end of March. Emergency approval was announced last week for the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, for which Phase 3 studies are still ongoing in Abu Dhabi.

Certain industries now mandate weekly PCR testing for unvaccinated employees. Some local residents believe that a pressure campaign to promote vaccination is being carried out. For many who live in Dubai, this step – and other restrictions – is welcome.

“I think they should be banned for two weeks,” said Sara El Dallal, an education advisor based in Dubai. “Restrictions have been in place since last week, and yet the numbers haven’t gone down.” She noted that state schools have been keeping their classes online since early January.

Melissa Webb, a Dubai-based yoga teacher, infected herself with the virus after returning from a family visit to the UK over Christmas. However, she tested negative upon arrival in Dubai, only to test positive three days later when attempting to enter Abu Dhabi. She told her story as a warning story.

“Of course I was happy about six months of normalcy, but since Christmas I’ve felt very nervous again,” she said.

“But I recognize the need for the economy to remain open, otherwise we won’t be able to live here much longer anyway.”

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Twitter Bars MyPillow C.E.O. Mike Lindell: Stay Enterprise Updates

Mike Lindell, the executive director of MyPillow, helped fund a bus tour promoting Donald J. Trump's false electoral claims.

Here’s what you need to know:

Recognition…Erin Scott / Reuters

Twitter said it had permanently banned Mike Lindell, the CEO of bedding company MyPillow and close ally of former President Donald J. Trump, from his service.

Monday night’s move followed numerous tweets from Mr Lindell promoting debunked conspiracy theories about election fraud.

Mr. Lindell’s Twitter account, which had nearly 413,000 followers, has been permanently banned “for repeated violations of our Civic Integrity Policy,” said Lauren Alexander, a Twitter spokeswoman, in an email.

Corporate America has been quick to try to tone down the allegations made by Mr. Lindell, a major Republican donor and one of the loudest voices supporting Mr. Trump’s claims of electoral fraud in the November 3rd election. Kohl’s and Bed Bath & Beyond removed MyPillow products from their stores last week.

Mr. Lindell is also facing legal action over his allegations of electoral fraud against Dominion Voting Systems, the company at the center of one of the more outlandish conspiracy theories about electoral fraud.

The suspension of his account is the latest in a series of high profile bans on Twitter as the company permanently banned Mr. Trump from service for fears it would use the platform to incite more violence like storming the Capitol this month.

Following the attack on the Capitol, Twitter announced it had updated its rules to more aggressively monitor false or misleading information about the presidential election. As part of this move, Twitter suspended the accounts of more than 70,000 people who promoted content related to QAnon, a pro-Trump fringe group that the FBI has identified as a domestic terrorist threat.

Ms. Yellen is the first woman to hold a top position in the Treasury in her 232-year history.Recognition…Leah Millis / Reuters

The Senate confirmed Janet L. Yellen as Treasury Secretary Monday and put her at the forefront of addressing the fallout from the pandemic while advocating for President Biden’s economic agenda.

Ms. Yellen, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was sustained by 84 votes to 15, with support from Republicans and Democrats. She is the first woman to hold the top job at Treasury in its 232-year history.

With the confirmation, she will now be in the middle of negotiating a potential $ 1.9 trillion economic aid package, which is the primary mission of Mr. Biden’s efforts to revitalize the economy. The size of the plan has already been questioned by some Democrats and Republicans.

Ms. Yellen was a clear advocate of continued government support to workers and businesses, and publicly warned that a lack of assistance to state and local governments could slow the recovery, much like it did after the great recession.

At her confirmation hearing and in written replies to lawmakers, Ms. Yellen reiterated Mr. Biden’s view that Congress must “act big” to keep the economy from stalling and defended the use of borrowed money to finance another aid package and families worse off.

“The auxiliary bill at the end of last year was just a deposit to get us through the next few months,” said Ms. Yellen. “We still have a long way to go before our economy fully recovers.”

Shoppers wait in front of a GameStop on Black Friday. An online community of traders appears to be driving the store's share price higher.Recognition…Go Nakamura for the New York Times

Little ones win in an epic competition between Wall Street traders betting against stocks and legions of petty investors.

On Monday, shares of ailing video game retailer GameStop rose, adding to a recent rally that rose shares by more than 300 percent in January alone and is a blatant example of the growing power of small investors in certain financial markets.

Stocks of companies like GameStop are breaking away from the factors that traditionally go into evaluating a company’s valuation – like growth potential or earnings. Analysts believe the company will post a loss from continuing operations of $ 465 million in 2020, on top of the $ 795 million it lost in 2019.

What seems to be fueling this surge is an online community of traders who gather in places like Reddit’s “Wall Street Bets” forum and exaggerate individual trades. Lately they have made buying short-term call options on GameStop stock – an aggressive bet that the stock will go up – a preferred position.

Market analysts and scholars say that a rush of new money on such short-term call options can create a kind of feedback loop that drives up underlying stock prices, as brokerage firms selling the options have to buy stocks themselves in order to hedge the contracts.

In the case of GameStop, these small investors have faced a different group of speculators. The company’s struggles have also made it a preferred target for short sellers betting on a stock to fall by selling stocks they don’t actually own. Short sellers benefit when a stock has fallen and they can buy back the same stock at a lower price.

With GameStop stocks rising, these investors are obviously losing a lot of money. And their rush to get out of trading by buying stocks can also result in a price spike known as a short squeeze.

On Monday, Wall Street Bets’s small traders and messaging site Discord encouraged each other to hold onto their positions while the short sellers raced to the exits.

“Am I late to get on the GME missile?” Wrote a Wall Street Bets commentator just after 10am

“No, buy the dip,” answered another.

At Discord, the message was clear.

“GME ONLY UP,” wrote one commentator.

Budweiser's Covid-19 awareness advertisement features two health workers who have been vaccinated.Recognition…Budweiser, via Associated Press

Budweiser, the beer giant whose commercials featuring Clydesdale horses, croaking frogs, and victorious pups made him one of the most popular Super Bowl advertisers, is skipping this year for the first time in 37 years to focus on raising awareness the Covid-19 vaccine.

Budweiser, an Anheuser-Busch company, announced Monday that it would donate portions of its advertising budget this year to the Ad Council, a nonprofit marketing group at the forefront of a $ 50 million commercial blitz to combat skepticism about coronavirus Vaccines. Instead of often posting a zippy big game commercial as it did in the weeks leading up to the game on February 7th, the beer company published its 90-second online vaccination ad entitled “Bigger Picture”. (Anheuser-Busch will continue to have a prominent role throughout the game, with ads for some of his other beer brands.)

Other Super Bowl stalwarts, including Coca-Cola, Hyundai, and Pepsi, will also be absent from the screen. When the pandemic disrupted the sports industry, many companies were reluctant to pay CBS around $ 5.5 million for a 30-second slot during a game that some feared could be delayed or even canceled.

In the Budweiser Covid-19 vaccination advertisement, actress Rashida Jones urges viewers to “turn our strength into hope” while the tune of “Lean on Me” is shown as inspiring images of the pandemic. Ms. Jones, who recorded her narrative while isolated from other people in a Hollywood facility, said in an interview that “obviously people want to be entertained, they want to see funny commercials,” but “the most important thing is that we do this next prioritize phase. “

The Super Bowl advertising season, which typically extends beyond weeks of airing of teasers, celebrity revelations, YouTube debuts, and celebratory live events, is more subdued as companies struggle to find an appropriate tone after a year of marketing missteps to accept.

“You can’t pretend everything is okay,” Ms. Jones said. “People can feel when brands use a moment.”

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Pizza Hut to launch Detroit-style pizza as its turnaround continues

Pizza Hut to launch Detroit-style pizza as its turnaround continues

Pizza Hut Detroit Double Pepperoni Pizza

Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut is jumping on the Detroit-style pan pizza trend, which is set to continue its turnaround in 2021 after strong sales growth last year.

Starting Tuesday, the Yum Brands chain will be selling four different types of Detroit-style pizza for a limited time. Prices start at $ 10.99.

Detroit style pizza is characterized by its rectangular shape, thick crust, cheese all through, and tomato sauce that covers the cheese and other toppings. The pizza has grown in popularity over the past decade when Michiganders opened pizzerias elsewhere in the US. Privately owned and headquartered in Detroit, Little Caesars was the first national pizza chain to bring the trend to the masses in 2013.

Buddy’s Pizza is credited with making the dish with blue steel pans from local automobile factories 75 years ago. In 2018, CapitalSpring, a private equity firm specializing in restaurant brands and franchisees, invested an undisclosed amount in Buddy’s to capitalize on the trend through nationwide expansion.

“Detroit-style pizza is the fastest growing trend in pizza,” said David Graves, chief brand officer of Pizza Hut US. “It’s not just a Midwestern thing anymore.”

He added that Pizza Hut customers expect the chain to give their own views on food trends and asked them for a Detroit-style pizza.

“I’ve never seen our franchisees so excited about a launch,” said Graves.

The chain has spent more than a year perfecting their own version, even creating a new tomato sauce that is only used for this type of pizza.

The Detroit Double Pepperoni contains 80 slices of hot peppers, more than half of which are hollow hot peppers. The Double Cheesy Pizza offers two types of cheese, while the Meaty Deluxe comes with bacon, Italian sausage and hollow hot peppers. The Supremo pizza consists of green peppers, Italian sausage and red onions.

It will start when the demand for pizza approaches a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Pizza Hut and its competitors Domino’s Pizza and Papa John’s saw sales growth in the same business in the US in the second and third quarters of 2020. For Pizza Hut in particular, the crisis has helped accelerate the transition to more delivery and take-out sales and fewer dine-in customers.

Yum’s shares were roughly unchanged over the past year, which translates to a market value of $ 31.8 billion. The company’s US locations have recovered relatively quickly from the coronavirus pandemic, but international restaurants have recovered more slowly.

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How Choices Buying and selling May Be Fueling a Inventory Market Bubble

How Options Trading Could Be Fueling a Stock Market Bubble

The stock market is near record highs and optimism is high. Coronavirus vaccines are finally being hugged. Interest rates are at historic lows. And the Democrats who control Washington are expected to pour another trillion dollars into the still troubled economy.

However, it is becoming more and more difficult to miss signs that investors are going too fast and too far.

The most recent signal comes from the somewhat dark stock options market, where traders with brokers can place bets on a stock going up or down. Speculation has reached frantic levels that have not been seen since the dot-com boom ended two decades ago. This craze has a growing impact on the regular stock market.

“When you wager on sports, the number of people on one side of the bet can only affect the odds, not the outcome,” said Steve Sosnick, chief brokerage strategist at Interactive Brokers in Greenwich, Connecticut. “With options, the result can actually change.”

Over the past year, and even during the deep uncertainty that shook the market at the start of the pandemic, individual investors – often with little experience – poured into the market. What attracted them is different: free trade, extra money from aid payments or even an itch when most sports leagues are closed.

Options trading hit a record in 2020 with around 7.47 billion contracts traded, according to Options Clearing Corporation. That was 45 percent more than the previous record of 2018.

Much of this money comes from small traders hoping to make quick wins that will expire quickly by buying “calls” – betting on emerging markets.

The offset is reflected in the so-called put-call rate, which shows how many contracts bet on profits compared to those that bet on losses from put options. On Friday, the 50-day moving average for this ratio was 0.42, close to its lowest level in two decades. The last time it was this long was in 2000, meaning options investors are more optimistic or greedy than in over two decades.

The combination of the sudden growth in options trading and the unbridled optimism of buyers is a market-moving force in itself.

Business & Economy

Updated

Jan. 25, 2021, 6:32 p.m. ET

A person who wants to bet that a stock price will go up can buy a call option from a brokerage firm. This contract gives the buyer the right – but not the obligation – to buy a share at a certain price at a later date. If the share price is higher on that date, the buyer can buy the shares through the contract and then sell them for a profit.

But just as the buyer can benefit from a rising stock price, the dealer who sold the contract will lose.

Brokerage firms make money by charging for products and not predicting where stock prices are going. To hedge your risk on a particular contract, buy a calculated percentage of the stocks that you would have to sell if the buyer made money on the bet.

But when stock prices rise, brokers need to buy more stocks to keep their hedges balanced. Buying more shares will help drive share prices higher.

In other words, rising stock prices will fuel demand for stocks even further, all because of market dynamics – not a fundamental view that the company’s business prospects are improving.

“In this situation, traders intensify price movements,” said Andrea Barbon, assistant professor of finance at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, who recently wrote a co-wrotea paper that analyzed the relationship between options markets and market volatility .

The result can be an options market that has itself become a generator of price momentum and stocks that seem increasingly disconnected from fundamental fundamentals such as corporate earnings expectations.

“The basics are not the driving force. That doesn’t matter anymore, ”said Charlie McElligott, a market analyst at Nomura Securities in New York. “It is the size and growth of the options market as this lottery ticket vehicle that is currently being expanded with the retail hype.”

The overwhelming optimism of stock option investors – and the possibility that they are fueling a feedback loop of rising stock prices – is one of the reasons some analysts fear a bubble may form in the market.

As a rule, when the story is a guide, such bubbles don’t last. The rush in 2000 was followed by a downturn of around two and a half years when the stock market fell 40 percent.

The downturn doesn’t have to be this steep. In August, the put-call rate rose sharply when the upward movement took hold. Shares suddenly fell in early September, and the S&P 500 fell more than 7 percent in three weeks. The sell-off was led by the same giant tech companies – including Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet, Google’s parent company – who led much of the market’s month-long rally.

Few analysts saw a fundamental reason for the decline.

“There is usually a lot of speculation going on,” said Sosnick.

Right now, however, there is little evidence that investors have felt fed up.

Since the sharp setback for tech stocks in September, retailers have doubled their interest in buying single stock options, which has become especially popular with online amateurs who gather on Reddit and Discord to share ideas and see screenshots of supposed profits and guts Wrench losses.

The momentum is likely to continue until the markets fade and these newly-minted traders suffer painful losses that for many will be the first in an extremely short career as an investor.

“Are these the types of people who have the ability, acumen, and pain tolerance to stay disciplined and not create a rush of new investors out the door?” Mr. McElligott asked.

If they flee, it will only add to a fall.

“It can get flammable there,” he said.

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This can ‘not be our solely set of pictures,’ says physician

Moderna working on booster shots for South African strain

Former Obama administration official Dr. Kavita Patel told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that the number of Covid or booster vaccinations people need “depends on what we see with these strains and how much they escape the immune system”.

Moderna announced on Monday that it was working on updating its Covid vaccine. The company’s researchers said its current shot may be less effective against the South African tribe, also known as the 501Y.V2 variant. The variant is 50% more contagious and has been detected in more than two dozen countries.

Patel, who served in the Obama administration as political director for the Bureau of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, told host Shepard Smith that the announcement of Moderna’s vaccine came as no surprise.

“We all suspected that this would not be our only recording, whatever we get this year,” said Patel. “I think it suggests something or a booster at least possibly every few years.”

The Minnesota Department of Health announced Monday that the state has a confirmed case of the highly communicable P.1 variant, also known as B.1.1.248. It was first discovered in northern Brazil in mid-December.

The mutated strains of Covid have led to important measures to combat the spread of the virus. President Joe Biden has reimposed travel bans from nearly 30 countries, including the UK, Brazil and South Africa, to curb new variants. Dr. Anthony Fauci described the travel ban on Monday’s Today Show as “prudent”. He added that travelers must show a negative Covid test before getting on a plane flying to the United States

Despite the new strains of Covid, Patel told host Shepard Smith that “hopefully the worst is behind us” when it comes to the pandemic.

“It looks like we’ve gone past the crest or the climax of that post-vacation spike that we were really worried about,” said Patel during an interview Monday night. “Could we see something worse anytime soon? Very unlikely given that we have two incredibly effective vaccines available.”

Covid cases, hospitalizations and death rates have all been lower since their highs, according to a CNBC analysis of the Johns Hopkins data. There are 110,628 hospital admissions, the lowest in more than a month. The daily average of cases is down 31% in the past 2 weeks and is at its lowest level in 2 months. The daily average of deaths is 3,088, which is slightly below the most recent high 10 days ago, but still averages over 3,000 per day for 17 consecutive days. More than 73,000 Americans died this month. That’s almost the combined deaths in the US in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Patel noted that it is important to get current vaccines “into people’s arms as soon as possible” and that the vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and Novavax “will hopefully soon help arm our vaccine technology.”

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Grindr is fined $11.7 million below European privateness regulation.

Grindr is fined $11.7 million under European privacy law.

The Norwegian Data Protection Agency announced on Monday that it would punish Grindr, the world’s most popular gay dating app, 100 million Norwegian kroner, or about $ 11.7 million, for illegally disclosing private information about its users to advertising companies.

The agency announced that the app had transmitted the exact locations, user tracking codes and the name of the app to at least five advertising companies, with people in violation of European data protection law being essentially marked as LGBTQ without their express consent. Grindr shared users’ private data with MoPub, Twitter’s mobile advertising platform, among others, which, according to the agency, can exchange data with more than 100 partners.

Tobias Judin, head of the international division of the Norwegian Data Protection Agency, said that Grindr’s data mining practices have not only violated European data protection rights, but also seriously endangered users in countries like Qatar and Pakistan where consensual same-sex sexual acts take place could be illegal.

Recognition…Ilya Hendel

“If someone finds out that they are gay and knows their movements, they can be injured,” said Judin. “We’re trying to make these apps and services understand that this approach – not informing users, not getting valid consent to share their data – is completely unacceptable.”

The fine comes a year after European nonprofit groups filed complaints against Grindr and its advertising partners with data protection authorities. In testing last January, the New York Times found that the Android version of the Grindr app was exchanging location information that was so precise that it pinpointed reporters on the side of the building they were sitting on. In April, Grindr revised its user consent process.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Grindr said the company has received “valid legal approvals from all” of its users in Europe on multiple occasions and is confident that its “approach to protecting user privacy in social apps is top-notch”.

The statement added: “We are continuously improving our data protection practices with a view to evolving data protection laws and regulations and look forward to a productive dialogue with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority.”

The company has until February 15 to comment on the ruling before it is final. The Norwegian agency said it was investigating whether the advertising companies that received user data from Grindr also violated European data protection law. “

Privacy experts said the ruling would have far-reaching implications beyond dating apps.

“Not only does this set limits for Grindr,” said Finn Myrstad, director of digital policy at the Norwegian Consumers’ Council, one of the groups that made the complaints, “but it sets strict legal requirements for an entire industry that benefits from collecting and sharing . ” Information about our preferences, location, purchases, physical and mental health, sexual orientation, and political views. “

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Minnesota confirms first identified U.S. case of extra contagious Covid variant initially present in Brazil

Minnesota confirms first known U.S. case of more contagious Covid variant originally found in Brazil

The Minnesota Department of Health announced Monday that it had confirmed the first known U.S. case of a contagious variant of coronavirus originally found in Brazil.

The Brazilian strain was found by the Ministry of Health’s variant monitoring program, according to a press release. The department collects 50 random samples each week for genome sequencing.

The patient with the Brazil variant is a resident of the Twin Cities metropolitan area who recently traveled to Brazil, according to state health officials. The person fell ill the first week of January and the sample was collected on January 9, the state said.

“We are grateful that our testing program helped us find this case, and we thank all Minnesotans who seek tests when they feel sick or otherwise have reason to have a test,” said Jan Malcolm, Minnesota health commissioner , in a statement. “We know that like all viruses, the virus will continue to evolve even as we work hard to defeat COVID-19.”

Previously, President Joe Biden had expanded travel restrictions to Europe, the UK and Brazil to curb the spread of Covid-19, especially as new strains of the coronavirus are identified.

Health officials are concerned that the Covid-19 vaccines currently on the market may not be as effective against new, more contagious strains of the coronavirus. Moderna said Monday it was working on a booster shot to protect against another strain found in South Africa.

The Brazilian strain, designated P.1, was first identified in four travelers from Brazil who were tested during a routine screening in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It contains a number of additional mutations that the CDC says can affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies.

State health officials also said Monday they had found two more cases of the B.1.1.7 virus, commonly known as the British variant, through last week’s variant surveillance tests. Of the two new cases of the British variant discovered by the health department, both are residents of the Twin Cities metropolitan area and both reported recent trips to California.

“These cases illustrate why it is so important to limit travel as much as possible during a pandemic,” said epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield in a statement. “If you must travel, it is important to be on the lookout for symptoms of COVID-19, follow public health instructions to get tested before you travel, take careful protective measures and quarantine while you are traveling, and after Test trip. “

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Moderna Says Vaccine Nonetheless Protects In opposition to Virus Variants

Moderna Says Vaccine Still Protects Against Virus Variants

Moderna’s vaccine is effective against new variants of the coronavirus that have emerged in the UK and South Africa, the company said on Monday. However, it appears to be less protective against the variant discovered in South Africa, so the company is developing a new form of the vaccine that could be used as a booster shot against this virus.

“We’re doing it today to be ahead of the curve if we have to,” said Dr. Tal Zaks, Chief Medical Officer of Moderna, in an interview. “I consider it an insurance policy.”

He added, “I don’t know if we need it and I hope we don’t.”

Moderna reported results from a study using blood samples from eight people who had received two doses of the vaccine and two monkeys who had also been immunized.

The British variant did not affect the amount of neutralizing antibodies – the type that can deactivate the virus – produced after vaccination. But with the South African form there was a six-fold decrease in those levels.

Even so, the company said, these antibodies remain “above levels expected to be protective”.

Moderna collaborated on the study with the Vaccine Research Center of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.

The results have not yet been published or peer-reviewed but have been submitted to bioRxiv, which publishes preliminary studies online.

The company’s action is part of a race to fight a changing virus that has already wreaked havoc around the world and is now threatening to mutate in ways that make the fight even more difficult.

Several new variants of the virus have emerged, with mutations that are worrying scientists. A form first discovered in the UK is about twice as contagious as the virus identified in China a year ago, and researchers have begun to suspect it could be more deadly too.

Other variants with different mutations have emerged in South Africa and Brazil, and preliminary laboratory studies suggested that these forms may have some level of resistance to the immunity that people develop after recovering from infection or with Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccinated were vaccinated.

The British variant has been found in at least 20 states, but the Brazilian and South African versions were not discovered in the United States.

Dr. Zaks said the new version of the Moderna vaccine, which targets the South African variant, could be used as a booster if needed a year after receiving the original vaccine.

The need for such a booster can be determined by doing blood tests to measure antibody levels or by observing the population of vaccinated people to see if they will develop the new variant.

“We don’t have any data on the Brazilian variant yet,” said Dr. Zaks. “We expect it to come close to the South African, if at all. This is the one with the greatest overlap. New tribes will continue to emerge and we will continue to evaluate them. “

Noting that it took Moderna 42 days to make the original vaccine, he said the company could make a new vaccine, “hopefully a little faster this time, but not by much”.

Talks with regulators about what would be required to make a new version of the vaccine available to the public were just beginning.

“It’s early,” said Dr. Zaks.

This evolving story will be updated.

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Pfizer sending fewer Covid vaccine vials to account for additional doses

Pfizer sending fewer Covid vaccine vials to account for extra doses

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer’s board of directors, on Monday defended the company’s move to send fewer vials of its Covid-19 vaccine and count six doses per vial instead of five. This is the best way to ensure the extra dose is used.

When the company started shipping vaccine bottles last month, pharmacists found that they could often extract an extra dose from each vial, which on paper only held five doses. That discovery meant the United States could actually receive more doses of the vaccine than the $ 200 million the Department of Defense bought under its deal with Pfizer.

“The bottom line is that this is a very scarce resource. We have to make sure that every dose is used,” Gottlieb said Monday in CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. “The only way to do this is to market this as a six-dose vial and have the right equipment ready to extract that sixth dose, which is what Pfizer is actually doing.”

The New York Times reported Friday that Pfizer executives in recent weeks have successfully urged Food and Drug Administration officials to revise the wording of the vaccine’s emergency approval to officially include the sixth dose for the federal treaty.

Some pharmacists were confused by the extra doses or didn’t have the correct syringes to extract them and threw them away.

“During this pandemic that is killing many people around the world, it is important that we use all available vaccines and vaccinate as many people as possible. To keep an extra dose in each vial that could be used to vaccinate more people would be one Tragedy, “said company spokeswoman Amy Rose.

Gottlieb said Monday the move will help the US speed up the distribution of vaccine doses, adding that Pfizer can now deliver 120 million doses of the vaccine in the first quarter of 2021, up from 100 million before the labeling change.

However, the move puts pressure on U.S. pharmacists to extract six doses from each vial, which requires some special syringes called low dead space syringes. The US government, which ships kits of syringes and vaccine doses, has signed a contract with syringe manufacturers such as Becton Dickinson, the world’s largest syringe maker, to ensure supplies to local authorities.

However, Becton Dickinson is unable to significantly increase the US supply of syringes, Reuters reported earlier Monday, doubting how many vials the US can extract six doses from.

Gottlieb said the vaccines will only qualify as six-dose vials, which will also give local authorities the correct syringes to extract the final dose.

Gottlieb noted that when Pfizer applied for approval of his emergency vaccine, he knew that six doses could be taken from each vial, but revising the wording of the application would have delayed approval of the vaccine. The company therefore applied for approval with the intention of revising the wording later to reflect the six-dose vials.

He added that it took the U.S. FDA longer than regulators in other countries to make the change. Authorities in the UK, Switzerland and Israel have already revised the wording of their approvals for the Pfizer vaccine to take into account that each vial contains six doses.

Gottlieb, the former head of the FDA, clarified that the change should not be applied retrospectively, which means that all vials previously shipped will be counted as containing five doses.

But “at some point you had to set up the accommodation to properly account for the doses,” said Gottlieb.

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, genetic testing startup Tempus, health technology company Aetion Inc., and biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.