Category: World News

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Societe Common earnings this autumn 2020

Societe General earnings q4 2020

LONDON – Societe Generale exceeded analyst expectations on Wednesday with a “significant improvement” in business in the second half of 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic.

The French bank posted a net profit of 470 million euros in the fourth quarter. Analysts were expecting a net profit of 252 million euros for the quarter and a loss of 822 million euros for the year. The French lender ended 2020 with a net loss of € 258 million.

“The good news is that we have stabilized income from capital market activities at € 1 billion. Overall, the second main reason is the quality of the loan portfolio, which has not deteriorated,” said Frédéric Oudéa, head of the group’s executive officer, told CNBC on Wednesday.

He added that “the third aspect is the very high CET 1 ratio that allows us to effectively resume the dividend with a lot of convenience.”

Further highlights for the last quarter of 2020:

  • Sales amounted to 5.8 billion euros, a decrease of 6% compared to the previous year.
  • Operating expenses decreased 3.4% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
  • The CET 1 rate, a measure of the solvency of banks, was 13.4% compared to 12.7% in the previous year.

Oudéa said in a statement that “the fourth quarter results provide further confirmation of the recovery in our businesses seen in the third quarter after a start to the year marked by the effects of the Covid crisis.”

The lender posted a € 1.26 billion loss in the second quarter as Europe struggled with the first wave of coronavirus. However, Societe Generale returned to profit in the following two quarters.

Drop in client activity

Despite expectations in the fourth quarter, Societe Generale recorded a decline in customer activity in the bond and currency business. This contributed to a 94.1% annual decline in net income in Global Banking and Investor Solutions.

Speaking to CNBC, Oudéa said: “We are back in this general transition. The start of the year is very encouraging and I expect revenues to return to normal in the coming months.”

The French bank set up loan loss provisions of EUR 367 million in the fourth quarter.

Going forward, Oudéa said we continue to expect “continued economic recovery” as the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine continues, and he hopes 2021 will be a year of recovery.

Dividend and share buyback

The French bank has announced that it will distribute a cash dividend of EUR 0.55 per share in accordance with European regulations. The European Central Bank has asked lenders to be cautious with dividend distributions and share buybacks at least until September in light of the ongoing economic crisis.

In this context, Societe Generale announced that it would buy shares worth around 470 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2021, provided that the ECB’s recommendation is not extended.

The French bank has also announced that its risk costs will decrease in 2021.

The stock is down over 43% in the past 12 months.

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Chirlane McCray, N.Y.C.’s first woman, will get a vaccine shot and says ‘there actually is nothing to be afraid of.’

Chirlane McCray, N.Y.C.’s first lady, gets a vaccine shot and says ‘there really is nothing to be afraid of.’

New York first lady Chirlane McCray was given a Covid-19 vaccine at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn Tuesday afternoon as New York health officials attempt to eradicate severe racial inequality in the introduction of the vaccine.

Ms. McCray, who is 66 years old, meets the state’s current age requirements that allow New Yorkers over 65 to receive the vaccine. Her husband, Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is 59 years old, does not.

So far, residents of Black and Latino have received far fewer doses of vaccine than residents of White, although color communities are hardest hit by the virus. The city’s demographics are incomplete, but the latest data available shows that of the nearly 375,000 city residents who received a vaccine dose and whose race was recorded, about 46 percent were white, 16 percent Latin American, 16 percent Asian, and 12 percent black.

Latino and Black residents were particularly underrepresented: the city’s population is 29 percent Latinos and 24 percent black.

The city health department has been working to encourage New Yorkers Black and Latino to get vaccinated in hopes of addressing vaccine hesitation, given the history of unethical medical research in the US. But Mr de Blasio said last week that he and his wife, who is black, would not receive the vaccine until they met state approval criteria, citing a desire to reassure New Yorkers that the process was fair and equitable .

“People need to see that people they know, trust and respect are getting the vaccine,” de Blasio said at a press conference. “You also need to know that priorities are respected and those who need them most get them first.”

After Ms. McCray received her shot, the Eligible New Yorker encouraged her to sign up for vaccine appointments – although access to those appointments, which are listed on dozen of different websites, was one of the barriers to the fair distribution of the vaccine.

“There’s really nothing to worry about,” Ms. McCray said of the vaccination. “We want to do this for our families, we want to do it for our loved ones, and of course we want to do it for our city.”

As of Tuesday, New York City had given more than a million doses of the vaccine. Mr de Blasio had hoped to give so many doses in January alone, but blamed a lack of supply for the slower pace.

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GameStop breaks beneath $50 a share as brief squeeze involves an finish

GameStop breaks below $50 a share as short squeeze comes to an end

The GameStop Corp. logo on a smartphone and the Robinhood website on a laptop.

Tiffany Hagler-Geard | Bloomberg | Getty Images

GameStop, the figurehead of a recent speculative retail frenzy, fell below $ 50 apiece on Tuesday as the massive short squeeze took effect and investors posted gains.

The brick and mortar video game retailer fell 20% to $ 47.81 per share Tuesday after falling 80% last week and posting its worst weekly performance ever. At an all-time high on Jan. 28, the stock was trading at $ 483 per share.

GameStop stepped into the spotlight two weeks ago when an army of retail investors who coordinated trading on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum rose its stock 400% in just a week. The brief press caused great pain to hedge funds betting against GameStop, while the mania forced several online brokers to restrict trading in a number of highly volatile names.

According to S3 Partners, short interest in GameStop as a percentage of stocks available for trading fell from more than 130% two weeks ago to around 50% on Friday. So most of the short bets have been covered and short sellers have little strength to keep the squeeze going.

Trading volume also fell sharply this week as retail momentum slowed.

Some on Wall Street compare GameStop’s brief print to that of Volkswagen in 2008, when the German automaker briefly became the largest company in the world.

Other stocks that have seen speculative trading activity are also rallying. AMC Entertainment is down 20% this week after falling 48% last week. Koss is down 11% this week and 68% the week before.

Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief when it turned out that the frenzy was limited within a handful of names and seemed to have subsided. Many had feared that this could spill over into other areas of the market and further affect investor confidence.

“We know financial conditions are supportive and investors have become more enthusiastic … but that doesn’t mean the stock market is in a speculative bubble,” said Kristina Hooper, Invesco’s chief global markets strategist.

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Our bodies once more pile up in Bolivia as Latin America endures an extended, lethal coronavirus wave.

Bodies again pile up in Bolivia as Latin America endures a long, deadly coronavirus wave.

In Bolivia, bodies are piling up at home and on the streets, reflecting the terrifying images of last summer when a deadly spike in coronavirus infections overwhelmed the country’s fragile medical system. Bolivian police say they recovered 170 bodies of people believed to have died from Covid-19 in January and health officials say the intensive care units are full.

“If 10 or 20 patients die, their beds will be full again in a matter of hours,” said Carlos Hurtado, a public health epidemiologist in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s largest city.

The virus resurgence in Bolivia is part of a larger second wave across Latin America where some of the toughest quarantine in the world is giving way to pandemic fatigue and economic worries.

The International Monetary Fund announced on Monday that it was revising its 2021 growth forecast for Latin America and the Caribbean from 3.6 percent to 4.1 percent. The fund warned that in some cases the surge could jeopardize an economic recovery that is likely to take longer than other parts of the world, and forecast regional production will not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023.

As the number of new cases falls, deaths remain at record highs in many parts of the region, just as some governments are starting vaccination efforts.

In Brazil and Mexico, an average of more than 1,000 people have died from Covid-19 every day for weeks. Its total pandemic death toll is second only to that of the United States. Deaths in Brazil have reached their summer peak, while in Mexico they are far higher than any previous high, although they have started to fall in the past few days.

In Bolivia last summer, the New York Times revised mortality figures suggested the country’s actual death toll was nearly five times the official figure, suggesting that Bolivia had suffered one of the worst epidemics in the world. According to a Times analysis, about 20,000 more people died from June to August than in previous years – a large number in a country of about 11 million people.

Bolivia currently reports an average of 60 coronavirus deaths per day, approaching last summer’s numbers. Experts believe the higher mortality rate is caused by the contagious virus variants that originate from neighboring Brazil and elsewhere, but they lack the tools to analyze the viruses’ genetic code.

Despite the rising death rate, the Bolivian authorities failed to implement quarantine measures to contain the first wave of the virus a year ago. Officials in Bolivia and other Latin American countries are hailing their emerging vaccination programs as a reason to avoid lockdowns, although few countries in the region outside of Brazil have sourced significant numbers of doses.

Only 20,000 doses of vaccine have arrived in Bolivia, although the government plans to vaccinate eight million people by September.

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Tesla’s China gross sales greater than doubled in 2020

Tesla Model 3 reportedly explodes in Shanghai parking garage

Model 3 vehicles manufactured by Tesla China are on display during a delivery event at its facility in Shanghai, China on Jan. 7, 2020.

Aly Song | Reuters

BEIJING – Tesla’s sales in China more than doubled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The electric car maker’s sales in China of $ 6.66 billion last year accounted for about a fifth, or 21%, of the $ 31.54 billion.

In 2019, Tesla achieved sales of $ 2.98 billion in China, which is only 12% of total sales of $ 24.58 billion.

The US remained Tesla’s largest market. Revenue rose 20% to $ 15.21 billion last year and accounted for about half of total revenue.

Tesla started ramping up production at its Shanghai plant last year and selling China-made cars in the local market.

The company’s Model 3 was the top-selling electric car in the country in 2020, according to China’s Passenger Car Association. The automaker also began shipping a new model, a China-made Model Y, to local customers that year.

However, Tesla faces competition in the local market from Chinese electric car startups like Nio and Xpeng, while government scrutiny has increased.

On Monday, the Chinese State Administration of Market Regulation announced on its website that it and four other government departments recently spoke with Tesla’s local subsidiaries about an increase in consumer reports of vehicle problems.

Among several incidents that have garnered attention on Chinese social media in recent weeks, a Model 3 reportedly exploded in a parking garage in Shanghai in January. Last week, Chinese authorities said Tesla had to recall more than 36,000 cars due to a touchscreen failure.

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George P. Shultz, High Cupboard Official Below Nixon and Reagan, Dies at 100

George P. Shultz, Top Cabinet Official Under Nixon and Reagan, Dies at 100

After two years in the Budget Office, Mr. Shultz became Minister of Finance in June 1972. Last year, Nixon made the dollar unilaterally convertible into gold. This forced the rest of the world to move from a system of fixed exchange rates for national currencies to a flexible system. Exchange rates were no longer the way governments did monetary policy. Mr. Shultz traveled the world making sure the dollar remained all powerful.

He resigned from the Nixon administration in May 1974, three months before the president fell from grace, as the last original cabinet member of Nixon. Before his death, he was the oldest living member in Nixon’s inner circle and, along with former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger, one of the last.

After 25 years in science and government, Mr. Shultz joined the Bechtel Corporation (now the Bechtel Group), one of the world’s largest engineering and construction companies, which served as president from 1974 to 1982. He received nearly $ 600,000 a year (about $ 2 million in today’s money) to run his global and domestic operations, including the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the Washington Washington Subway, Riyadh King Khalid International Airport , Saudi Arabia, and much of the infrastructure of the Saudi government.

During his reign in Washington, Mr. Shultz tried to keep a secret out of print: that he had a tiger tattoo on his rump, an inheritance from his student days at Princeton University. When asked about the tattoo, Phyllis Oakley, a State Department spokeswoman, replied, “I am unable to comment.”

George Pratt Shultz was born on December 13, 1920 in Manhattan, the only child of former Margaret Lennox Pratt and Birl E. Shultz, an official of the New York Stock Exchange. He grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, and came to Princeton in the fall of 1938.

He was in his final year in economics in 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th. After graduating, he joined the Marines and witnessed combat in the Pacific. He joined the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after receiving a PhD in industrial relations there in 1949. His area of ​​expertise was labor economics.

In 1955, he took a year off to serve as an officer in the Council of Economic Advisers to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, chaired by Arthur F. Burns, who later headed the Federal Reserve Board.

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Tesla buys $1.5 billion in bitcoin and plans to begin accepting it as fee for merchandise

Tesla buys $1.5 billion in bitcoin and plans to start accepting it as payment for products

Tesla announced Monday that it had purchased $ 1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, according to a report with the SEC.

The company said it bought the bitcoin in order to “have more flexibility to further diversify and maximize the returns on our cash.” In addition to the purchase, Tesla announced that it would accept payments in Bitcoin in exchange for its products. This would make Tesla the first major automaker to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment.

The move immediately raised questions about CEO Elon Musk’s behavior on Twitter over the past few weeks, where he has been credited with raising the prices of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin by posting positive news about them and bringing more people to buy has encouraged.

Bitcoin prices soared to new highs on the Monday after Tesla’s announcement, hitting a price of at least $ 43,200. The Tesla share rose in premarket trading by more than 2%. Tesla warned investors about the volatility in Bitcoin price in its SEC filing.

Tesla’s move on Monday means investing a significant percentage of his money in the investment. The company had more than $ 19 billion in cash at the end of 2020. This is evident from the most recent submission.

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Cheng Lei, Australian Journalist for CGTN, Is Arrested by China

Cheng Lei, Australian Journalist for CGTN, Is Arrested by China

Chinese investigators formally arrested an Australian journalist who worked for Chinese state television on suspicion of divulging national secrets, the Australian Foreign Minister said Monday. This is likely to increase tensions between the two countries.

Journalist Cheng Lei was hosting a business show on China Global Television News (CGTN) when she was arrested in August. The Chinese Foreign Ministry later announced that Ms. Cheng had been charged with a national security crime, but did not provide any further details.

“The Chinese authorities have announced that Ms. Cheng has been arrested on suspicion of illegally delivering state secrets overseas,” Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a brief statement on Monday. She gave no further details.

“We expect basic standards of justice, procedural justice and humane treatment to be met in accordance with international norms,” ​​added Ms. Payne.

Ms. Cheng, 45, was born in the southern Chinese province of Hunan and immigrated to Australia with her parents as a child. Her arrest on such a politically charged accusation comes while the two countries have clashed in a series of disputes that have dragged relations to the lowest point in decades.

“I don’t think it’s about the bilateral relationship, although it doesn’t help them,” said Geoff Raby, a former Australian ambassador to Beijing who has written about the deteriorating relationship, of Ms. Cheng’s arrest. China’s definition of state secrets is very broad, he said, adding, “acquittals are rare in such cases.”

Australia’s ability to secure Ms. Cheng’s release through diplomacy appears appallingly limited.

In recent years, Canberra has tried to discourage Beijing from engaging in influence-building activities on Australian soil, including the country’s large population of migrants from China. The Australian government has also angered China by blocking the potential involvement of Chinese tech giant Huawei in building the Australian 5G network.

Last year, Australia called for an international investigation into the causes and course of the coronavirus pandemic, which is enraging China, which has been looking into questions about its guilt at the origin of the outbreak.

China, in turn, has restricted imports of Australian goods such as wine, coal and barley. The Chinese government has not called these actions political retaliation, but few in Australia believe it.

Ms. Cheng’s 11-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son are cared for by their mother in Melbourne, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday.

“I have a feeling that the children do not fully understand the situation, so it is likely to be quite difficult for the children to wonder what is going on,” Louisa Wen, a niece of Ms. Cheng, told the broadcaster.

“We don’t understand anything about the case,” said Ms. Wen. “But we know she has been in detention for five and a half months and her conditions are deteriorating.”

Prior to Ms. Cheng’s case, Yang Hengjun, another Australian with Chinese heritage, was charged with espionage in China. Mr. Yang, a writer and businessman also known as Yang Jun, has been detained in China since early 2019 and charged with espionage last year.

Two Canadians – Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman – are also awaiting trial in China for espionage. Her supporters said Beijing used her as a farmer to force Canada to refuse to extradite a Huawei executive, Meng Wanzhou, to the United States, where she is charged with fraud.

Ms. Cheng’s case has been linked to those of two Australian journalists who abruptly left China in September for fear of arrest. After a diplomatic standoff, journalists – Michael Smith, the China correspondent for The Australian Financial Review; and Bill Birtles, a correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, were interviewed by Chinese security officials, including about Ms. Cheng.

Haze Fan, a Chinese employee of Bloomberg News in Beijing, was arrested in December in the Chinese capital on suspicion of “criminal activity that endangers national security,” according to Bloomberg

Ms. Cheng first worked in Australia and China. As a CGTN journalist, she appeared keen to foster better relations between the two countries and had highlighted China’s economic success story.

“Passionate speaker on China history,” says the introduction on her Twitter account.

However, last year when the coronavirus pandemic was worst in China, Ms. Cheng made critical comments on Chinese government officials on her Facebook page. She mocked a Communist Party cadre who said citizens should be grateful.

“Even in China, where the satire pool never runs out, this is too rich,” she wrote. “In China, the belief ‘do what I say, not like me’ is deeply rooted in public office. “Serve the people” are the slogans. The reality is the opposite. “

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Inventory futures increased following finest week since November

Stock futures higher following best week since November

US stock index futures rose in overnight trading on Sunday as key averages appeared to accelerate gains after the best week since November.

Dow-linked futures contracts rose 75 points, or 0.27%. The S&P 500 futures were up 0.3% while the Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.33%.

The S&P 500 closed at a record high on Friday, posting its fifth consecutive positive session for the first time since August. The Dow also has its longest daily winning streak since August, while the Nasdaq Composite posted its fourth positive session in five years on Friday. The tech-heavy index also closed at a record high.

“We are still in a bull market in the early stages of an economic recovery that is gaining momentum,” said Michael Wilson, chief US equities strategist at Morgan Stanley, in a statement to clients on Sunday. “We continue to recommend stocks with the biggest uptrend ahead of an improving economic environment as the vaccines are distributed and normal activities resume,” he added.

All three major averages finished the week in the green, each having their best week since November as fears that a handful of stocks could lead to a bottleneck that led to wider market contagion eased. The Russell 2000 is now on its longest daily winning streak since May, up 7.7% last week for its best weekly performance since June.

“Stocks continue to rise and should be around 4,000 for the S&P 500,” said JC O’Hara, chief marketing engineer at MKM Partners. “The trends remain positive … the severity of the spike should continue to attract quick money, but longer term patient money will be on the sidelines until a withdrawal develops,” he added.

The Senate and House of Representatives each passed a budget resolution on Friday that launched the reconciliation process that would allow President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion bailout to get through the Democratic-led Senate by a simple majority.

The package includes stimulus checks worth $ 1,400, additional unemployment benefits, and Covid-19 vaccination and test funds.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that the US could return to full employment by 2022 if Biden’s stimulus plan was passed.

“There’s absolutely no reason why we should have a long, slow recovery,” Yellen said during an interview on CNN’s State of the Union. “I would expect to get full employment again next year when this package is passed.”

Meanwhile, there is another busy week with 78 S&P 500 components on deck set to report quarterly results. Names on deck include Cisco, Twitter, Yelp, Uber, MGM, Mattel, GM, Coca-Cola, and Disney.

On the coronavirus front, contagious variants continue to spread in the United States. On Friday, Virginia health officials reported the state’s first case in South Africa to be first identified in South Africa. On Sunday, South Africa stopped distributing AstraZeneca’s vaccine due to its minimal effectiveness against the strain first identified in the country.

Vaccine rollout continues in the United States. “Stiefel locally is becoming more and more efficient at distributing the vaccine, and positive trial data has raised hopes that a third emergency vaccine will soon be available,” said Ryan Detrick, chief marketing strategist at LPL Financial. “When more of the population receives their vaccinations, economic activity can pick up and recruitment of highly competitive service occupations can resume.”

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Glacier Bursts in India, Leaving Extra Than 100 Lacking in Floods

Glacier Bursts in India, Leaving More Than 100 Missing in Floods

NEW DELHI – A Himalayan glacier broke, causing sudden, massive flooding in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand on Sunday, destroying two dam projects and forcing authorities to try to evacuate villages and save more than 100 lives.

Trivendra Singh Rawat, the prime minister of Uttarakhand, said seven bodies had been recovered and that about 125 people, including many workers on the two largely swept away hydropower projects, were not reported.

“An avalanche came and completely broke the Rishiganga power plant project and almost all of the workers there are missing,” said Ashok Kumar, the Uttarakhand police chief. “When the water came downriver, we alerted the people.”

The scenes were reminiscent of floods in Uttarakhand in 2013, when heavy rain for several days led to landslides in which thousands of people were killed and entire villages were washed away.

But the latest disaster has also aroused fears about what is to come. Scientists who said a glacier breaking in the middle of winter was a result of climate change have warned that rising temperatures are melting Himalayan glaciers at an alarming rate. The glaciers that provide water to tens of millions of people may have largely disappeared by the end of the century, according to a recent study.

The Chamoli district in Uttarakhand appeared to be hardest hit by the flowing Dhauliganga River. Amit Shah, India’s interior minister, said the country’s disaster relief teams had been flown in. Hundreds of soldiers and members of the Indian-Tibetan border police were also there, other officials said.

Videos on social media showed violent water fluctuations down the mountain canyons, washing away bridges, and what hydroelectric power stations looked like one of the dams.

Officials said 35 people were working on the Rishiganga power plant project, which was closer to the swept glacier, and 176 others were working on a second project about three miles downstream.

Ratan Singh Rana, 55, from Raini village near the Rishiganga Project, said the water flowed down the mountain around 10:30 a.m.

“I was sitting on the floor of my house,” he said. “I saw black liquid flowing from the Nanda Devi mountainside – with a lot of noise downwards – as if a volcano had erupted.”

“It was only 20-25 meters from us,” he added. “We ran uphill about 250 meters and kept crying and shouting, ‘Bhago, bhago! Bachao, bachao! “He said, using the Hindi words for” run “and” save us! ” “

Mr. Rana said the muddy water swept large boulders and ice downstream. His daughter and granddaughter were trapped in the house, and mud debris locked the main entrance. You managed to save her from the back of the house.

“We thought the whole world would drown in it,” he said. “I thought that today is the end, that we would leave this world today.”

Late on Sunday afternoon, the worst damage from the flooding appeared to be over.

Prime Minister Mr Rawat visited Chamoli and posted a video on Twitter indicating that water flow had slowed. He expressed hope that some of the missing could be saved. Local media reports say 16 people trapped in a tunnel have so far been rescued.

“Our particular focus is on rescuing the workers trapped in the tunnels,” he said.

The disaster led critics to point fingers at the government for building a dam near the glaciers at a time when the area is so vulnerable to climate change.

Uma Bharti, a former minister of water resources and river development in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, said she had warned against placing a hydropower project on the river near the Himalayas.

“This incident, which occurred near Rishiganga in the Himalayas, is both worrying and cautionary,” Ms. Bharti said on Twitter. She said she warned that the Himalayas “is a very sensitive area and therefore these projects on the Ganges and its tributaries should not be built.”

Anil Joshi, an environmentalist who studies the Himalayan region, said the swept-away dam was built on India’s second highest mountain just a few kilometers from the Nanda Devi Glacier.

“At this point, a glacier avalanche is indicative of climate change,” Joshi said, referring to how the episode happened during the winter cold. “Changes in temperature caused glaciers to detach and damaged the dam in Rishiganga.”

Mr Joshi said he had difficulty understanding why the government built the dam so close to the glacier. “Now this water is flowing at cyclone speed.” he said.