Tag: January

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World News

Melvin Capital, hedge fund that guess in opposition to GameStop, misplaced greater than 50% in January

Melvin Capital, hedge fund that bet against GameStop, lost more than 50% in January

A GameStop Corp. store in Rome, Italy on Thursday, January 28, 2021.

Alesia Pierdomenico | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Hedge fund Melvin Capital Management lost 53% in a record rally on GameStop and other stocks the fund was betting on in January, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC.

The heavy losses are due to retail investors launching popular short hedge fund targets, including the troubled video game retailer. GameStop’s shares ended up 400% last week and returned 1,625% total return this year. The stock closed the session on Friday at $ 325.

It was still trading below USD 10 in October. CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin reported last week that Melvin Capital closed its short position in GameStop on Tuesday afternoon after heavy losses.

Citadel and Point72 invested nearly $ 3 billion in the fund to prop up its finances. Point72 was down 10% in January, according to a source with knowledge of fund returns. Point72 declined to comment.

Citadel’s flagship fund lost less than 1% on its investment in Melvin Capital last week, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC. Citadel’s overall performance for the month was not immediately clear.

Melvin’s assets under management now stand at more than $ 8 billion – including emergency funding – up from around $ 12.5 billion at the beginning of the year after certain current investors tied up additional capital late the month.

The fund’s liquidity is strong and the use of leverage is at its lowest level since the fund was launched in 2014, according to the source.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Melvin’s losses in January.

GameStop’s activities over the past week have expanded to other popular short destinations, including Bed Bath & Beyond and AMC Entertainment. Retail investors turned to Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum to discuss various trades. The forum more than tripled its membership in just one week, north of 7 million.

In the midst of the short squeeze, Robinhood and other brokers restricted trading in some of the most volatile names, causing frustration among users who were unable to trade at will.

Robinhood said in a blog post that Wall Street’s central clearinghouse required the company’s deposit requirements to be increased tenfold per week to help ensure smooth execution of trades in securities with unprecedented volatility.

The rapid surge in GameStop shares has led some lawmakers to ask regulators to intervene.

“We need an SEC that has clear rules on market manipulation and then has the backbone to enforce those rules,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Told CNBC on Wednesday. “To have a healthy stock market, you have to have a cop on the beat.”

Subscribe to CNBC Pro to access our live pro talk “How to Navigate the Reddit Market Mania” with Fundstrat’s Tom Lee.

– CNBC’s Patti Domm contributed to the coverage.

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Health

U.S. experiences document variety of Covid deaths in January

U.S. reports record number of Covid deaths in January

Lila Blanks holds the coffin of her husband Gregory Blanks, 50, who has died of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), before his funeral in San Felipe, Texas, USA, on January 26, 2021.

Callaghan O’Hare | Reuters

The United States started 2021 with the deadliest month of the coronavirus pandemic yet.

The January death toll has already surpassed the previous record number of deaths in December, according to Johns Hopkins University, when over 77,400 people died of Covid-19 in the United States. According to the data, the pandemic has killed more than 79,200 people so far this month.

In the past seven days, the country has reported an average of more than 3,300 deaths from Covid-19 per day, according to Hopkins, up 12% from a week ago.

There is hope that the death toll will slow in the coming weeks. The number of new cases reported daily in the US, which epidemiologists use as a leading indicator of whether the outbreak is increasing or decreasing, has steadily declined in recent days as an increase from interstate travel and holiday celebrations appears to be easing.

The U.S. reported about 146,600 new cases Tuesday, bringing the Hopkins average from seven days to just over 166,300 and about 17% from a week, according to Hopkins.

The number of people currently hospitalized with Covid-19 in the United States is also falling, but remains worryingly high. More than 108,900 people were hospitalized with the disease on Tuesday, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project, which was set up by journalists in the Atlantic. That’s not the high point of the more than 130,000 hospital patients reported earlier this month.

However, the potential spread of new, contagious strains of virus in the US, coupled with a slower-than-expected vaccine adoption, threatens to reverse advances in combating the outbreak.

First discovered in the United Kingdom and become the dominant strain there, the B.1.1.7 strain of the virus has been found in a number of states in the United States. Epidemiologists say the strain appears to be spreading more easily, and British officials have said it could also be more deadly.

As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 293 cases related to this strain of the virus had been found in the United States, mainly in Florida and California.

Earlier this week, the Minnesota Department of Health confirmed the first known US case of another strain of the virus that was originally discovered in Brazil. Another so-called worrying variant, named 501Y.V2 or B.1.351 depending on the epidemiologist, was first discovered in South Africa and worries scientists, since vaccines and drugs against this strain seem to be less effective. No cases related to this strain have been discovered in the United States

To curb the spread of the virus and especially the importation of new strains, President Joe Biden banned most non-US citizens traveling from South Africa from entering the US earlier this week, and increased travel restrictions for Europe, the UK and Brazil.

The president painted a dire picture of the outbreak, saying on Monday that the US “will see between 600,000 and 660,000 deaths before we start turning the corner on a large scale”.

While Biden urges people to wear masks and follow public health measures like social distancing, he is working to push the adoption of the Covid vaccines and blaming the Trump administration for the initially slow pace. On Monday, he said the US could surpass 1.5 million vaccinations per day, compared to its previous target of 1 million per day, which the last administration had almost reached.

“Time is of the essence,” he said earlier this week. “We are trying to get at least 100 million vaccinations in 100 days and move in the next 100 days where we are way beyond that to get to the point where we can get herd immunity in a country.” of over 300 million people. “

On Tuesday, he said the government was working to buy an additional 200 million doses of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines, increasing US supply from 400 million doses to 600 million, although that won’t speed up the pace of vaccinations anytime soon. He also said the administration will increase the number of cans shipped to states each week by about 20%. Some states have stated that they are able to vaccinate more people but are limited by the supply.

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Health

Neglect ‘Dry January’ and Different New 12 months’s Resolutions

Forget ‘Dry January’ and Other New Year’s Resolutions

“The world is on fire,” said Asia Wong, clinical social worker and director of counseling and health services at Loyola University in New Orleans. “Why are you trying to lose 20 pounds?”

Last year Rebecca Fletcher, a teacher in Wirral, England, said she went without alcohol for the whole month of January.

After indulging in Prosecco over the holidays, she decided to repeat that success.

Ms. Fletcher, 49, said she gave up after two weeks.

“I’m sorry, dry January. It just doesn’t work, ”she said on Twitter, posting a photo of a glass of Pinot Grigio. “It’s not you. Since I am.”

Ms. Fletcher said her attempt to sober up for a month was thwarted by the surge in Covid-19 cases, which led the government to order a full lockdown and created confusion in schools, where teachers and students are constant were unsure when to return to the classroom. And political instability in the United States didn’t help, she said.

“It just feels like anywhere, it’s stressful,” Ms. Fletcher said. “Not to mention it’s England, of course, and it rained hard for three days.”

You shouldn’t be too hard on yourself, say the experts.

Sarah Wakeman, an addiction medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said the all-or-nothing approach to substance discontinuation could make people feel ashamed or disappointed.

“This is an unprecedented time,” she said. “We all have to allow ourselves a little grace.”

And while a promise to stay sober for a month can be a great way for a person to assess why they are drinking and what they like or dislike about drinking, there are downsides to cutting off alcohol completely for a set period of time .

This approach “might make some people drink heavier once they start drinking again,” said Dr. Wakeman. “For example, someone may feel reassured that they have been able to stop drinking and have less to watch out for the rest of the year.”

Nathian Shae Rodriguez, a professor of journalism and media studies at San Diego State University, made two promises to himself in December: say “no” more often and answer emails faster.

“I’m a first-generation Mexican-American professor, a queer-of-color professor, and that in and of itself involves a lot of invisible work that people don’t recognize,” he said.

Students seek him for advice and faculty members often ask him to speak at lectures on gay and immigrant rights or ask him to join committees, Professor Rodriguez said.

The vows he made for 2021 felt like a simple and necessary time gift to himself.

“I was on the swing for the first few days,” said Professor Rodriguez, 39. He politely declined various requests to sit on committees and write letters of recommendation from students he did not know well.

Then came January 6th and the siege of the Capitol. The students were scared and confused and searched for him on social media wherever he was active. Professor Rodriguez said gay students from conservative families particularly felt unrelated.

“They needed confirmation that everything would be fine,” he said. Saying no felt impossible.

An effective way to come up with a solution is to remember that you have 11 months left to meet your goals, said Ms. Wong, the social worker.

“This is a good time to take stock,” she said. “This is a good time to think and say, ‘If I could change things, what would I change?'”

Then she added, “Commit to this as a year-round plan.”

Humans are hardwired to deal with stress through escape and reward, said Judy Grisel, a professor of psychology at Bucknell University and a behavioral neuroscientist.

Ideally, this escape should be through movement, such as running or walking.

But often, especially in January in the northern hemisphere, when the days are still short and warmer regions are cold and bleak, fleeing means having a drink, sitting in front of the TV or taking a smartphone and mindlessly scrolling through social media.

People believe that if they just have to exercise, they can break out of bad habits, she said.

Movement, she said, “is an untapped resource.”

Dr. Grisel described a friend who quit smoking by running around the block every time he craved a cigarette. It’s harder to take this advice when it’s freezing outside, she admitted.

“I think that’s part of the January problem,” said Dr. Grisel. “It’s so dark and cold that we don’t want to move. This is a very difficult time, probably the most difficult time to change. “

So the movement we choose can be very small: play a guitar or call a friend, she said.

“My favorite thing to do is pick up trash,” said Dr. Grisel. “I just grabbed a plastic bag and went to the side of the road to pick up trash. It helps that I move and can see the change on the street. “

And we have good news. The days for this half of the world are getting longer, the sun sets later, and a geologist has found a rock formation that looks like Cookie Monster. Things are looking up.

Categories
Health

New York Mayor de Blasio needs to immunize 1 million residents in January

New York Mayor de Blasio wants to immunize 1 million residents in January

A FDNY EMS Fire Department employee receives a COVID-19 Moderna vaccine amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, United States. December 23, 2020.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

New York officials plan to vaccinate 1 million residents against Covid-19 in January. The federal government and drug manufacturers need to accelerate the production and distribution of the vaccine.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday the city will use schools, pop-up clinics and “whatever it takes” to reach 1 million people in a month.

“We know New York City can vaccinate 1 million people in January and really get this thing going,” de Blasio told CNN. “Every time we vaccinate someone, we’ve come one step closer to the coronavirus in terms of its terrible impact on society.”

IIt’s an ambitious goal considering the city only received 390,425 doses of vaccine and, according to the city, could only administer about 78,000 shots.

“This thing isn’t moving the way it needs to be in the US,” said the mayor. “New York City will show that we can speed this up and vaccinate people at record speed. And we want the whole country to be a part of it because we have to move faster to fight the coronavirus if we want to recover.”

The U.S. government has fallen far short of its original target of delivering at least 20 million Covid vaccine shots before the end of the year – something federal officials have admitted is disappointing. The US has so far distributed 12.4 million doses of vaccine and vaccinated only 2.8 million people with the first Pfizer or Moderna two-shot schedule, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. officials say the data is 72 to 96 hours behind due to state and local delays. Even so, it’s still a fraction of the Trump administration’s original goal.

The slower-than-expected adoption of Covid vaccines has been disappointing, said the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, opposite CNN on Thursday.

“We agree that this number is lower than we had hoped,” Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor to the government’s Operation Warp Speed ​​vaccination program, told reporters on Wednesday. “We know it should be better and we’re working hard to make it better.”

De Blasio’s explanation comes from the fact that health officials in Colorado and California have discovered a new strain of the coronavirus in a few cases in those states. The new variant, which de Blasio said has not yet been found in New York, was first identified in the UK and appears to be far more contagious.

It also comes as the city prepares for its annual New Years Eve celebrations, albeit without the usual crowds. Only a few hundred people, instead of the usual thousands, will be in Times Square with masks and by invitation only for the midnight ball drop for the kick of 2021. De Blasio said the one year that unites all Americans in this divided country is “We want to get rid of the hell of 2020.”

Categories
World News

Shares prepared to shut out highly effective 2020 as dangers loom in January

Dow rebounds, rising more than 100 points as new stimulus proposal unveiled

Traders work on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

NYSE

At the end of trading next Thursday, the bull market will be ready to run through 2021, but likely at a slower pace.

January is the month Wall Street tradition says sets the tone for the year – “this is January, this is the year,” as the saying goes. This January could be challenging as the spreading pandemic slows the economy and the all-important Georgia Senate runoff takes place on January 5th.

Joseph Biden is sworn in as president on January 20th.

“It’s a year-end autopilot market,” said Sam Stovall, CFRA chief investment strategist. Three out of four years there will be a year-end Santa rally in the market, but Stovall is also waiting to start trading in the first five days of January for signs of how the market might trade in 2021.

If the market is higher in the first five days, history shows the S&P 500 is up 82% for the full year, with an average gain of 12.5%.

“There are things that we might be worried about in January. If it were real worries, the market would already react or already step on water,” said Stovall. “What scares me is that the market is building itself. It’s a correction in the search for a catalyst and we don’t yet know what the catalyst is.”

Some strategists expect a pullback earlier in the year, but the consensus is that the market will end higher in 2021. The average expectation for the S&P 500 by the end of 2021 is 4,056, according to a CNBC poll of strategists.

Stovall said the market has gotten expensive and there are signs of foam. The 12 month value for money for S&P 500 companies is 41% premium versus the average multiple of 16.7 dating back to 2000.

“I don’t really believe that the first few days of January should set the direction for the market for the year’s balance sheet,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist, State Street Global Advisors. “If indeed [stocks] Doing a rally is more of a sign of strength. But if they hiccup I wouldn’t throw in the towel. “

The outcome of the Georgia races is a wild card for stocks and regardless of the outcome, it could trigger a market reaction. Should there be a surprise and the Democrats win both seats, the Senate would be split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. This would mean the elected Vice President Kamala Harris cast the votes.

Some strategists say the market could sell out if the Democrats win, as investors fear the party would have the votes to pass the Biden-favored tax hikes. On the flip side, a GOP win could spark a relief rally.

But Stovall said the market could rebound towards a Democratic victory if investors considered the prospect of a bigger infrastructure and stimulus package, favored by the Democrats.

Arone said uncertainty over the current $ 900 billion stimulus package approved by Congress last week could be cause for concern if President Donald Trump decides to veto or not sign the bill.

The president criticized the package, saying individuals should be given more than the $ 600 that would go to many adults and children as part of the relief.

The law extends unemployment benefits to millions of Americans, and those benefits will expire on December 31st unless signed up.

“We face deadlines rather than just being a political matter,” said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. “There are actual deadlines for services that expire. Because of the deadlines, the market assumes that they will be exceeded.”

But the concern will hang over the market until it is resolved.

Quiet trading is expected in the coming four-day holiday week. There are few economic reports; Jobless claims on Thursday are being closely monitored. The following week, the December jobs report is expected to show a weaker labor market, with some estimates suggesting only about 100,000 jobs or fewer added.

9 month old bull

The S&P 500 starts the final week of the year up around 15% for 2020, but from the March low, the index has risen around 65%. The bull market turned nine months old this past week.

According to CFRA’s Stovall, that nine-month gain is more than double the average nine-month gain of 32.2% for all bull markets since WWII. Over the remainder of the bull markets, their average growth was only 20.3%, showing a slowdown in the profit rate.

“After those typical jackrabbit starts, the bull market advance rates typically slowed and saw lower average annual rates for the remaining bull market runs,” noted Stovall. Based on previous bull markets, he said returns could slow to around half of their current profit for the remainder of the bull run.

Calendar for the week ahead

Tuesday

9:00 am S&P / Case-Shiller real estate prices

Wednesday

8:30 a.m. Advanced Leading Indicators

9:45 am Chicago PMI

10:00 a.m. Pending home sales

Thursday

8:30 a.m. unemployment claims

Friday

New Year

Markets closed

Categories
Business

New York Gov. Cuomo warns a January financial shutdown is feasible as Covid instances soar to springtime information

New York Gov. Cuomo warns a January economic shutdown is possible as Covid cases soar to springtime records

Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York State, speaks at a press conference in New York City on September 8, 2020.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

New York’s non-essential stores could be forced to close again in January if the state doesn’t tackle escalating coronavirus cases that have soared in recent weeks to record highs not seen since the spring, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday.

“Of course, a shutdown in January is possible,” said Cuomo at a press conference in Albany. “But there is a big but,” he said, spelling the word letter by letter “BUT”.

Whether the state will again impose an economic lockdown depends on what New Yorkers do in the remaining vacation and whether new Covid-19 infections decrease or increase, he said.

According to a CNBC analysis of data compiled from data from Johns Hopkins University, New York has been struggling with an average of 10,294 new infections per day for the past week, up more than 7% from the previous week. That’s more new cases every day than the state did in the spring, when the hospital systems in New York City and elsewhere were overwhelmed with patients.

Cuomo didn’t say what a second shutdown would look like. He imposed another ban on indoor dining in New York City on Monday but said he wanted to keep public schools open and has not yet made a decision on whether to close non-essential stores.

“It’s up to us. What will happen in three weeks? What will happen in four weeks? You tell me what you are going to do in the next three or four weeks and I will tell you what will happen,” he said.

At the current rate of spread of the virus, New Yorkers should be prepared for a second shutdown, similar to the one Cuomo issued this spring when unnecessary shops and schools closed and people were told to stay home to avoid the spread of Covid -19 stop, Mayor Bill de Blasio warned.

He said it was “increasingly necessary to just break the back of the second wave, to keep this second wave from growing, to prevent it from taking lives, not to threaten our hospitals,” de Blasio said during a press conference Monday .

Cuomo urged New Yorkers to take “personal responsibility” in order to slow the spread of the virus, especially during the holiday season. The state is now concerned about what the governor calls “living room sprawl”. This is because nationwide contact tracing data has shown that nearly 74% of new Covid-19 cases are from households and social gatherings.

“Nobody knows what New Yorkers will do until Christmas or how they will behave during Christmas week,” said Cuomo. “The numbers are not predestined. The numbers reflect what we are doing.”

The governor also urged that state hospitals move into “crisis management mode,” which means that health systems must work with neighboring hospital systems to “share” the burden of patients and provide resources to hospitals in areas with high Covid-19 Transfer installments.

According to a CNBC analysis of data from the Covid Tracking Project run by journalists from The Atlantic, the New York average is more than 5,400 people hospitalized, an increase of more than 25% from the previous week.

“Balance the load so hospitals aren’t overwhelmed by what we’ve seen in the past,” said Cuomo.

The state has started delivering its initial allocation of Covid-19 vaccines to frontline health workers. The state has received 87,750 doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine so far and plans to receive an additional 80,000 doses in the next few days, Cuomo said.

“That goes for residents of nursing homes,” said Cuomo. New York could receive an additional 346,000 doses of vaccine from Moderna if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration clears the emergency for emergencies this week.

“Slow down the spread, manage the hospitals, give the vaccine,” Cuomo said.

Categories
Entertainment

Motion pictures and TV Exhibits Leaving Netflix in January 2021

Movies and TV Shows Leaving Netflix in January 2021

Towards the end of the year, Netflix is ​​cleaning up its catalog of films and shows. It is true that many new originals will come to us in January – too Cobra Kai Season three and Fate: The Winx Saga – There are some titles that are leaving the streaming service. Fortunately, it’s not as extensive as last month. Among the titles are some solid comfort films like Mary Poppins returns, which will make a new home at Disney +, as well as the heartwarming Hallmark series When the heart calls. See what’s left of Netflix in January and add them to your watchlist while you can.

Categories
Health

Dr. Fauci says Covid vaccine trials on pregnant ladies and younger children might start in January

Dr. Fauci says Covid vaccine trials on pregnant women and young kids could begin in January

Drug makers and U.S. regulators plan to start clinical trials in January testing the safety of Covid-19 vaccines in pregnant women and young children, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases.

These two groups were excluded from the initial clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccines until researchers were able to determine that the vaccine was relatively safe in healthy adults before testing in more susceptible populations.

Fauci noted on Thursday in a discussion sponsored by Columbia University on Thursday that pregnant women have not been included in clinical trials of Covid vaccines. It is not clear whether the omission means that pregnant women cannot receive an approved vaccine until further safety data are collected.

Studies on pregnant women will be done in later studies, he said.

“It won’t necessarily concern efficacy, but we will be investigating safety and immunogenicity to bridge efficacy in the adult non-pregnant population,” he said at Columbia University’s Grand Rounds 2020 event. “The same goes for the pediatric population. These studies are expected to begin in mid-to-late January.”

Doctors have noted an increased risk of complications in pregnant women who contract Covid-19, said Aron Hall, chief of Covid at the CDC.

“The first indication is that there may be a higher risk of premature delivery,” he said Thursday on the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products.

While young children are less likely to die of Covid-19 when they get it, there is an increased risk of developing what is known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, researchers have found. It is an inflammatory disease that can affect several organ systems throughout the body, including the heart, lungs, and brain.

Fauci’s comments came as the FDA’s Vaccine Advisory Board is weighing whether to recommend Pfizer’s emergency approval of the Covid vaccine.

Data on Pfizer’s vaccine has shown it to be remarkably effective in preventing disease among study participants, and the FDA is expected to approve emergency use as early as Friday.

The UK drug and health products regulator, which last week approved Pfizer’s vaccine for wide use in adults, warned against giving it to pregnant or breastfeeding women.

Dr. Doran Fink, associate director of the FDA’s vaccines and related products division, said Thursday there was “very limited data on use in pregnancy”.

“We recognize that among the groups first prioritized for vaccine use under an EEA, there will be many women of childbearing potential, including women who are knowingly or unknowingly pregnant,” he said on the Meet on Thursday afternoon. “We really do not have any data that suggest any specific risks to pregnant women or the fetus, but neither do we have any data that would justify a contraindication to use in pregnancy at this time.”

He added that pregnant women and women of childbearing age are “free to make their own choice” under what is known as an emergency permit.

The FDA advised manufacturers, including Pfizer, to conduct DART studies or developmental and reproductive toxicity studies before including pregnant women and “women of childbearing potential who do not actively avoid pregnancy” in vaccine studies, Pfizer said – Speaker Jerica Pitts CNBC. DART studies are done in animals to assess the potential risks of a vaccine to a developing fetus.

“Pfizer recognizes that the development of a potential SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for wide use is critical to halting the pandemic, including potential use in pregnant women,” Pitts said in a statement. “Pfizer is currently conducting DART studies and plans to provide available data to the agency.”

Pfizer admitted at the FDA’s vaccine meeting Thursday that according to a presentation there was no information about the effects of the vaccine on pregnant women. Company officials told the advisory board that they expected preliminary results from its DART studies by mid-December.

The company also noted that there is also a lack of information on the effects of the vaccine in children and adolescents under the age of 16. The FDA advisory panel will vote on its non-binding recommendation later Thursday, and the FDA is expected to do so soon.

– CNBC’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.