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Health

What to know earlier than key FDA panel vote

What to know before key FDA panel vote

Vials of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) vaccine candidate are shown in an undated photo during the Phase 3 ENSEMBLE trial.

Johnson & Johnson | via Reuters

A key advisory body to the Food and Drug Administration is due to vote on Friday on whether to recommend Johnson & Johnson’s emergency approval of the Covid-19 vaccine to pave the way for a third preventive treatment to be distributed in the United States

A positive vote by the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Allied Biological Products will likely pave the way for the US agency to approve J & J’s emergency vaccine. The committee plays a pivotal role in getting vaccines approved in the U.S. and verifying that the shots are safe for public use. While the FDA does not need to follow the committee’s recommendation, it often does.

On similar inquiries from Pfizer and Moderna, the FDA approved these companies’ vaccinations the day after the committee of external medical advisors endorsed approval for the emergency. If J&J follows the pattern, a third vaccine could be approved on Saturday.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the US will need a range of drugs and vaccines to end the pandemic that has infected more than 28.3 million Americans and killed at least 505,899 people as of Thursday. Unlike Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, which require two doses three to four weeks apart, J&J only requires one dose, which makes logistics easier for healthcare providers. J & J’s vaccine, unlike the other two vaccines, can also be stored at refrigerator temperature for months.

Here’s what you can expect:

1. When do you vote?

The meeting is expected to take place from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Prior to voting, medical experts will evaluate J & J’s clinical trial data and provide their opinion on the vaccine, including whether the benefits outweigh the risks of being approved for emergency use. The company is asking the FDA to approve use of the vaccine in people 18 years and older. Pfizer’s has been approved for use in people aged 16 and over. The poor data in younger teenagers was a sticking point for the few advisory board members who voted against approval of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine in December.

2. What happens next?

The FDA will decide if J&J should clear the vaccine for emergency use. In the Pfizer and Moderna cases, the agency’s final decision came one day after the meeting.

Such approval by the FDA is not synonymous with full approval, which can usually take months longer. J&J, like Pfizer and Moderna, only submitted two months of safety data, but the agency typically takes six months for full approval

3. When will I get the vaccine?

Initially the doses would be limited. Jeff Zients, President Joe Biden’s Covid Tsar, told reporters Wednesday that the federal government expects to ship 3 to 4 million doses of J & J’s vaccine to states, pharmacies, and community health centers next week pending FDA approval .

The company expects to drop 20 million doses by the end of March, said Dr. Richard Nettles, vice president of medical affairs in the US, told the House legislature on Tuesday. J&J has signed a contract with the US government to supply 100 million doses of its vaccine by the end of June. Zients said the federal government will “do everything we can” to boost production.

4. Should I have the vaccine?

J & J’s vaccine provides 66% overall protection against Covid-19, compared to about 95% for Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccine. Some people have wondered if they should get the J&J vaccine because of the lower rate of effectiveness.

However, infectious disease experts point out that J & J’s results cannot be directly compared to the other two vaccines because it is a single dose and the company’s study was conducted when more infections emerged as well as new, more contagious variants .

The Chief Medical Officer of the White House, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Americans should take every approved vaccine they can get. He also notes that J & J’s vaccine prevented 100% of virus-related hospitalizations and deaths in its late-stage.

“The most important thing, more important than preventing someone from getting a pain and a sore throat, is preventing people from getting serious illnesses,” he told reporters when he called on Jan. 29. “This will relieve so much stress.” and human suffering and death in this epidemic. “

5. What are the side effects?

Analysis by age, race and comorbidity did not identify any specific safety concerns with the vaccine, according to an FDA report released on Wednesday.

Headache, fatigue, and muscle pain were some of the most common side effects in people who received the vaccination, the report said. There have also been reports of nausea, fever, and pain at the injection site. According to the report, there have been no reports of anaphylaxis, a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction.

The report identified a few cases of Bell’s palsy with half of your face drooping but “balanced” with the number commonly found in the general population. The FDA previously announced that the condition would be monitored in vaccine recipients after flagging it as a potential problem with Pfizer’s shots, and noted that this isn’t necessarily a side effect, but it is worth looking out for.

Medical experts say vaccine side effects are common and actually indicate that the shots are working as intended. The CDC recommends talking to a doctor about taking over-the-counter drugs if you experience pain or discomfort after the shot.

– CNBC’s Noah Higgins-Dunn contributed to this report.

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Business

Henry Blodget says Amazon’s Jeff Bezos gave him key management recommendation

Henry Blodget says Amazon's Jeff Bezos gave him key leadership advice

Henry Blodget, CEO of Insider Inc., told CNBC on Wednesday that Jeff Bezos provided invaluable advice when the Amazon founder invested in his burgeoning media company.

Bezos, who will step down as CEO of Amazon later that year, led a $ 5 million investment round in Blodget’s company in 2013. It was about six years old then and known as Business Insider. In an interview on Squawk Box, Blodget recalled a discussion with Bezos about how to divide his time between management and editing.

“I had been writing all along. I was an editor and one of the things I asked him right after his investment was, ‘Look, should I keep writing and doing TV and stuff or should I stay CEO? Because that Company has grown big enough that I really have to do one thing or another, “said Blodget.

Bezos replied that he really only had one inquiry as an investor, Blodget said. “He said, ‘I will ask you to remain CEO.’” On Wednesday, Blodget, a former Wall Street analyst, also described how he was pushing Bezos to the bottom. “”[Bezos] said, “Because you don’t even notice it, but every day you make dozens of small course corrections. They are all inventing a new model for journalism. You have an instinct as to where this is going. ‘”

According to Blodget, Bezos added, “When you bring in someone who has experience, you want to give them plenty of space to make their own decisions. These will take place over a long time and will change things. ‘He said, “I’m investing because I want you to make these course corrections.”

Insider Inc. was sold to German publisher Axel Springer in 2015 for a value of almost 450 million US dollars. Bezos sold his stake in the company in late 2016, Insider Inc. spokesman Mario Ruiz told CNBC. Blodget remains CEO, but left the role of editor-in-chief in 2017.

Blodget recalled the conversation the day after Amazon announced that Bezos would move from CEO to Executive Chairman later that year. Andy Jassy will take the reins from Bezos, who founded the e-commerce titan more than 25 years ago, turning him into a nearly $ 2 trillion global giant. Jassy, ​​a longtime lieutenant from Bezos, currently heads Amazon’s highly profitable cloud computing business.

The insider chief said he has confidence in Jassy and thinks Amazon will “be in good shape for a while”. It will likely be three to five years before outsiders can decide whether the CEO change will be “a big deal.” “

“With companies this size, they’re super tankers. They have tremendous momentum,” said Blodget. “You can change several of the people at the top and you won’t see the outside impact for a long time as the company will continue to do what it was raised to do.”

Prior to his tenure as head of media, Blodget reported on Amazon as a closely watched Wall Street internet analyst during the dot-com boom. In December 1998, while working for brokerage firm CIBC Oppenheimer, he announced a remarkable price hike on Amazon, and stocks rose 19% in the following session.

Blodget continued to work for Merrill Lynch, but his research was under scrutiny. He was finally banned from the securities industry in 2003 after an investigation into what the Securities and Exchange Commission called “the undue influence of investment banking interests on brokerage research analysts”. In a multi-million dollar settlement at the time, Blodget was denied or failed to admit the allegations made by the SEC.

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Business

Systemic change and local weather motion are key to reaching inexperienced objectives

Systemic change and climate action are key to achieving green goals

From geopolitical tensions to the coronavirus pandemic to trade disputes, modern life can often feel confusing, unsafe, and disjointed.

One area where there seems to be a new sense of oneness is the environment. Just last week, US President Joe Biden signed an ordinance resuming the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, undoing the Trump administration’s decision to exit the agreement.

The Paris Agreement marks a milestone at the COP21 summit in December 2015 and aims to keep global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and “make efforts” to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In a statement on Biden’s decision, the European Commission stressed the need for future cooperation and consensus. “The climate crisis is the crucial challenge of our time,” said the EU executive, “and it can only be tackled by uniting all of our forces.”

The role of finance

Politicians aren’t the only ones focusing on the environment. A panel discussion moderated by CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick discussed at length the role of the financial sector in efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change.

“Compared to 2015, there is exactly this undeniable and accelerating dynamic in the financial sector,” said Rhian-Mari Thomas, Managing Director of the Green Finance Institute.

“We are seeing huge inflows into … environmental, social and governance funds,” she said, adding that the magnitude of change is widespread.

“Aside from the exciting innovation we’re seeing and the pledges and commitments of individual financial firms and providers, we’re really seeing change on a systemic level,” she said.

UK investment manager trading organization, the Investment Association (IA), invested £ 7.8 billion (US $ 10.72 billion) in so-called “responsible mutual funds” between January and October 2020.

This, according to the Impact Assessment, represented 47.5% of total net money poured into funds and was four times higher than in the same period in 2019.

In October 2020 alone, more than £ 1 billion was invested in these funds, a figure the Impact Assessment dubbed the “highest monthly total on record”. Still, work remains to be done: the IA said the “total share of responsible mutual funds in managed industrial funds” was only 3.0% at the end of October.

Thomas reaffirmed her position on systemic change and referred to the network of central banks and supervisory authorities for greening the financial system (NGFS). The NGFS, launched in 2017, consists of central banks and supervisory authorities.

It consists of 83 members and 13 observers. The latter include institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the OECD, while members range from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank to the US Federal Reserve.

Thomas does not lose the presence of such great thugs. “All systemically important banks in the world and many other financial institutions are now overseen by members of the NGFS who are committed to ensuring that the financial services system is in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement,” she said.

The business challenge

While the bigger picture can change thanks to global initiatives and collaborations, how individual companies approach issues related to sustainability and the environment is also important.

Another member of the CNBC board, Markus Steilemann, CEO of Covestro, wanted to highlight the challenge facing his company, a major player in polymers.

“We have to master two transitions,” he said. “Number one is that our massive energy intake needs to become carbon neutral and carbon emissions neutral,” he added.

“And secondly, we have to master the transition to raw materials, that is, completely away from raw materials that come from coal, oil and gas towards renewable sources.”

Steilemann also emphasized the importance of operating a circular economy rather than a linear one, an idea that has become increasingly important in recent years.

“The materials that we bring out there do not have to end up in landfills – nor may they end up in the oceans … they have to be recycled,” said Steilemann.

“Second, we have to ensure that the raw material we use does not come from a linear business model and is not extracted from the ground.”

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World News

Former ambassador warns expiration of key nuclear treaty with Russia would make the U.S. ‘worse off’

Putin calls on public to take the coronavirus vaccine

The Biden government has urged the renewal of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia for five years, which expires on February 5. The nuclear deal regulates and limits how many nuclear weapons each country can have. Russian officials said Friday they welcomed the news.

Michael McFaul told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that the expiry of New START with Russia would “put the US in a worse position”.

“We would lose our ability to review, look inward and look at the Russian nuclear arsenal,” said McFaul, who served as US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. “Do you remember Ronald Reagan always saying,” Trust but check? “I say don’t trust, just check, and the new START contract allows us to do that. I think it’s the right decision by the new Biden team to renew it.”

Joel Rubin is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, where he has worked with members of Congress on various national security issues, including nuclear safety. He agreed with McFaul and told The News with Shepard Smith that the deal would stabilize relations between the two nuclear powers.

“The Trump administration has tried to leverage the delay in the renewal of the treaty but has received nothing in return, which puts the entire treaty at risk,” said Rubin, who was also the policy director for Plowshares Fund, the country’s leading nuclear security company Foundation, endowment. “We need stability between the US and Russia, which together own more than 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons. The renewal of New START will do that.”

Relations between Moscow and the US have been shaped by massive cyberattacks against federal authorities, interference in US elections and the recent arrest of Russian opposition leader Alexie Navalny. President Joe Biden will ask his Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, to review Russia’s interference in the 2020 election, according to the Washington Post.

McFaul told host Shepard Smith that he believes the reaction against Russia will likely be sanctions, but that the Biden administration has a choice when it comes to penalties against Russia.

“The simple thing is to sanction a number of unnamed colonels, FSB, the successor group to the KGB, and tick the box,” McFaul said. “The bolder move would be to sanction some of those who make the Putin regime possible, including some economic oligarchs who support Putin.”

Rubin added that the US should also work closely with European and Asian allies to pressure Russia to change and address its internal repression and aggressive international behavior, “rather than pushing them away and easing diplomatic pressure on Russia, like the Trump administration did. “”

McFaul told Smith he wasn’t sure President Joe Biden would want to spend the political capital to toughen up on Russia as the U.S. faces domestic political issues, including Covid and an economic crisis. McFaul added, however, that he believes Biden could do both.

“I think you could run and chew gum at the same time. I think you should be able to do both at the same time, but we’ll have to wait and see what they do,” McFaul said.

Rubin told The News with Shepard Smith that the time had come for the US to be “persistent” on Russia and President Vladimir Putin.

“We should not be afraid of Moscow, nor should we go to Moscow, nor should we expect that we can improve relations between the US and Russia through the diplomacy of children’s gloves,” said Rubin.

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Health

Pfizer Says Its Vaccine Works In opposition to Key Mutation in Contagious Variants

Pfizer Says Its Vaccine Works Against Key Mutation in Contagious Variants

Pfizer and BioNTech announced on Friday that their Covid vaccine is effective against one of the mutations in the new contagious variants in the UK and South Africa.

Independent experts said the results were good news, but warned that each of these coronavirus variants have several different potentially dangerous mutations that have not yet been studied. So it’s possible that one of these mutations could affect the effectiveness of the vaccine.

“It’s the first step in the right direction,” said Dr. John Brooks, the chief medical officer of the Covid-19 emergency department at the Centers for Disease Control. “I hope the additional work that comes out in the future matches this insight.”

The new variant, known as B.1.1.7, first gave cause for concern in December when British researchers found it was rapidly becoming more common in people with Covid-19. Since then, it has appeared in 45 countries.

Subsequent research has confirmed that it has the ability to spread more easily from person to person. On Friday, Public Health England published a new study on B.1.1.7 in which researchers estimated that the variant is 30 to 50 percent more transmissible than other forms of the virus.

The viral line that leads to B.1.1.7 has accumulated 23 mutations. Of particular concern to scientists are eight mutations that affect the gene for a protein called spike on the surface of coronaviruses. That’s because the viruses use the spike protein to capture human cells. It is possible that one or more of them will help B.1.1.7 enter cells more successfully.

One of these mutations, known as N501Y, is of particular concern. Experiments have shown that it allows the virus to bind more tightly to cells. And it has appeared in other lines of the coronavirus as well, including a variant identified in South Africa in December. This variant, named B.1.351, quickly spread across the country and has so far expanded to a dozen other countries.

In the new study, which went online Thursday and has not yet undergone a formal scientific review, researchers from the University of Texas Medical Department conducted an experiment to see if the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was against viruses with the N501Y mutation works. They found that in cells in the laboratory, the mutated virus could not infect human cells mixed with antibodies from vaccinated people. The antibodies clung to the coronaviruses, preventing them from entering cells. Despite the N501Y mutation, the experiment showed that the antibodies produced by the vaccine were still able to bind to the viruses.

“This indicates that the key N501Y mutation found in the emerging variants in the UK and South Africa does not create resistance to the immune responses induced by the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine,” the companies said in a press release .

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Politics

Asian American Christians could possibly be key to victory

Asian American Christians could be key to victory

Georgia Democratic Senate candidates Raphael Warnock (R) and Jon Ossoff (L) clash their elbows during a “It’s Time to Vote” drive-in rally on December 28, 2020 in Stonecrest, Georgia.

Jessica McGowan | Getty Images

When Helen Ho founded Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta in 2010, she made public relations a central part of the organization’s civic engagement.

Growing up in Korean-American churches in South Carolina and Georgia, she understood the importance of religious groups to Asian Americans and Pacific islanders.

“When I was growing up, the Church was literally the only nonprofit that my parents gave money to,” said Ho, former executive director of the Georgia bipartisan advocacy group.

In American politics, the most prominent religious voter blocs have historically been Christians: white Evangelical voters, who were largely a Republican stronghold, and black Protestant voters, who mostly joined the Democrats.

Religious Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders or AAPIs in Georgia and across the country are not a monolith. Their beliefs include Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other traditions. Amid a black and white political and religious divide, Asian American Christian communities represent untapped voter networks for political parties.

In the Georgia Senate runoff election, Democrats increased the reach of AAPI voters overall in hopes of resuming the high turnout that helped turn the state blue in November. Incumbent GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler will run a runoff against Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock on January 5th to determine which party controls the Senate.

Faith was at the top of the runoff elections. Warnock is the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. preached. Ossoff talks about his Jewish upbringing on the campaign. Perdue is a Methodist and Loeffler is a Catholic; The two have addressed conservative Christian voters.

But candidates on both sides of the aisle have largely overlooked the role of religion for Asian-American voters in helping them decide what is likely to be a thin line election.

Belief among Asian Americans

Asian American voters made up only about 3% of the Georgian electorate in 2019, but a historic surge in AAPI voters helped lead President-elect Joe Biden to victory in the state, according to Democratic data firm TargetSmart.

A 2012 study by the Pew Research Center found that a large number of Asian Americans in the US, approximately 42%, identify as Christians. The proportion of Christians among Koreans rises to 71% and among Filipino Americans to 89%.

Churches provide community centers and support networks for Asian Americans. Faith institutions are embedded in the growing AAPI communities in Georgia, and particularly in the Atlanta metropolitan area, said Helen Jin Kim, professor of religious history at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, who also partners with local faith leaders and Asian-American advocacy groups.

“These church common rooms are really important when it comes to voting behavior, but they are often overlooked,” Kim said. “AAPIs are part of a diverse group of religious communities and it is important to be able to connect with these spaces as well.”

James Woo, communications manager and Korean outreach director for Advancing Justice-Atlanta, said AAPI churches are “the go-to place for us to share news with a larger community,” about impartial voter registration and voting efforts.

“Particularly for Asian immigrants and first-generation refugees who may not be part of the ‘mainstream’ or English-language press, they can get information about their society either through their faith group or through their home language press,” Ho said.

Political organization

During the 2018 midterm elections, Ho helped organize an early election campaign between Korean-American churches in the Atlanta area, inspired by the tradition of the black churches in the south.

However, there was less contact with AAPI communities from political groups through a religious appeal.

Ivanka Trump and Senators Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and David Perdue (R-GA) wave to the crowd at a campaign rally on December 21, 2020 in Milton, Georgia.

Elijah Nouvelage | Getty Images

Unlike other groups of Christian voters, Asian-American Christians have not consolidated under either party, said Janelle Wong, a political scientist at the University of Maryland and author of Immigrants, Evangelicals and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change.

This is in contrast to the political affiliations of white Protestant voters and black Protestant voters. Before the 2020 presidential election, 78% of white registered voters supported GOP President Donald Trump, while 90% of black registered voters supported Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, the Pew Research Center found.

Wong’s research found that AAPI Christian voters are more conservative than Asian Americans, who do not identify as evangelical but are more liberal than their white evangelical counterparts. Asian-American evangelicals often join the Republican Party on some social issues such as abortion, but the Democrats on issues such as immigration, health care, and race.

Political and social views also vary between different communities because the Asian-American identity encompasses a wide range of races, cultures, and experiences.

“For Democrats, in a way, there’s more thematic focus, but there’s not much mobilization,” Wong said. “Until recently, there hasn’t been the same concentrated effort among the Democrats for Asian Americans with religious backgrounds or Asian Americans as a whole.”

The Georgia Senate is expiring

The Perdue Campaign, Warnock Campaign, and Georgia Democratic Party did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comments to contact Asian American Christian communities. The Loeffler campaign referred CNBC to the Georgia GOP, which released a press release on their updated Asia-Pacific-American advisory board but did not provide details on how to contact AAPI Christian communities.

The Ossoff Campaign has hosted dozens of AAPI faith events over the year, including targeted contacts with Ismaili communities, visits to mosques, and virtual events and meetings with AAPI faith leaders.

Cam Ashling, Osoff’s AAPI constituency director, “has made engaging AAPI voters in Georgia a key element of the campaign to mobilize AAPI voters across the state,” the campaign said.

Ashling hosted a call with Korean-American pastors in Augusta and, according to the campaign, partnered with a coalition called AAPI Christians for Biden.

AAPI Christians for Biden said it had a press conference scheduled for December 17 with Korean-American pastors from Atlanta to support the Democratic Senate candidates ahead of the runoff elections. According to one of the organizers, the Ossoff campaign said it couldn’t participate while on a bus tour and showed an interest in doing something in the near future.

The Warnock campaign worked with the coalition ahead of the scheduled press conference, the organizers said, but the event failed the day before. The Warnock campaign announced in an email that there was a planning conflict.

Rev. Byeong Han, a pastor with the Korean Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, was one of the speakers scheduled for the press conference. There are certain restrictions on the partisan activity of the churches in order to maintain their tax exemption status. However, these restrictions do not apply to impartiality or religious leaders acting in their personal capacity.

Han said that while some of his pastors in Korean and Asia-American ministries are concerned about discussing politics, he firmly believes that civic engagement is important for AAPI Christians.

“Ever since I came to this church, I have been encouraging my ward to do their voter registration and vote,” Han said. “I usually tell my members that this is not about politics. This is about the rights and responsibilities of citizens.”

Han hopes that more Asian American Christian communities will continue to participate in the political process.

“Asian Americans are very important in this election and beyond,” Han said. “So let’s step up, don’t step back.”

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World News

Goldman says bitcoin is monitoring copper, a key proxy for international development

Goldman says bitcoin is tracking copper, a key proxy for global growth

An illustration of bitcoin on euro banknotes.

Nicolas Economou | NurPhoto via Getty Images

Goldman Sachs analysts have found a surprisingly similar trend between the world’s most valuable virtual currency and a base metal with a reputation as a barometer for the global economy.

Bitcoin and copper prices have been on a rift for most of this year, reaching record highs amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“Both institutional investors and high net worth individuals avoid cryptocurrencies because of their inherent transparency problems, while speculative retail investments lead to Bitcoin acting as an overly risky commodity,” said Goldman Sachs analysts in a research report published on Thursday.

“Since the depths of the initial lockdown, Bitcoin has closely followed the rise of copper, a key indicator of global growth,” they added.

Bitcoin prices have skyrocketed. The volatile cryptocurrency, which reminded many market participants of a similar rally in 2017, surged above $ 20,000 for the first time in its history on Wednesday.

According to crypto market data provider Coin Metrics, the company has since topped $ 23,000 before cutting its profits to around $ 22,899 on Friday. In mid-March, during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Bitcoin was trading below $ 5,000.

Bitcoin’s increasing popularity has made it a widespread asset, much like fiat currencies.

The smelter will melt copper on July 23, 2020 in Jinhua, Zhejiang, China.

TPG | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Meanwhile, copper prices topped $ 8,000 a ton on Friday, their highest level since February 2013. Three-month copper prices on the London Metal Exchange have since reduced profits, trading at $ 7,991 during midday trading.

The commodity has increased by more than 28% since the start of the year, which is the fourth positive year in five years.

Copper’s 2020 bull run coincides with a rally among other stocks and risk assets over the past few weeks, with market sentiment improving on positive news about Covid-19 vaccines.

Copper – sometimes also Dr. Called Copper – has the reputation of a barometer for the world economy among market observers. The base metal is viewed this way for its wide range of end uses – both in construction and in consumer products such as automobiles and consumer products.

Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs said it was “very likely” that copper prices would test the 2011 highs of $ 10,170 by the first half of 2022.

“Bitcoin is the reflation trade in retail”

Goldman Sachs analysts not only identified the mirrored rally of bitcoin and copper in recent months, but also believed that bitcoin and gold could “coexist”.

“Gold’s recent underperformance against real rates and the dollar has made some investors concerned that Bitcoin is replacing gold as the inflation hedge of choice,” the US investment bank said.

“While there is some substitution, we do not see the growing popularity of Bitcoin as an existential threat to gold’s status as a currency of last resort.”

The bank added, “From our perspective, Bitcoin is trading in retail reflation while gold is a defensive asset with long-term preservation of real capital.”

– CNBC’s Katrina Bishop contributed to this report.

Categories
Business

Costco CEO says brick-and-mortar stays key at the same time as e-commerce grows

Costco CEO says brick-and-mortar remains key even as e-commerce grows

Craig Jelinek, CEO of Costco, told CNBC on Monday that the company’s physical stores will continue to be of vital importance, despite the wholesaler seeing a surge in e-commerce sales during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our entire online business will continue to grow. Will we be difficult? No, we will not,” said Jelinek to “Closing Bell”. “We will simply continue to attach importance to high-quality goods and quality goods and deliver them either via the warehouse, stationary trade or electronic trade.”

Before the pandemic, Costco had made a name for itself for its personal shopping experience, with cheap items on its food court like the hot dog and soda combo for $ 1.50. However, many Costco members turned to their website this year, resulting in strong online sales growth that many competitors saw as well.

For the 13 week period ending November 29, Costco’s total comparable revenue increased 14.5%. In particular, e-commerce increased by 82% compared to the same period in the previous year. A similar trend emerged in the company’s fourth quarter. Online sales increased 91% over the previous year.

“We will continue to grow this business,” said Jelinek, noting some of the technology investments the company had made. In March, for example, Costco acquired $ 1 billion worth of Innovel Solutions, which provides last-mile delivery services. It was owned by the company that has Sears and Kmart businesses.

“We see a great opportunity to build our last mile business with large ticket items and bulk items. … Our clothing business continues to grow online,” added Jelinek.

Even so, it remains an essential part for the retailer to have members shop in the store, Jelinek said. “It’s still important to physically get people into stores. I still think brick and mortar retail isn’t going to go away. We want to keep getting people into stores and there’s no better way to do it than a $ 1.50 price. ” Dog and a Roast Chicken “for $ 4.99, he said.

During the pandemic, Costco saw customers stock up on items like toilet paper, which resulted in a limit on the number of purchases. Jelinek said Costco began monitoring some of shoppers’ inventory behavior this fall as coronavirus cases rise in the US and state and local officials reintroduce public health restrictions. However, he said it was “not quite as much” as it was this spring during the first wave of the pandemic.

“They are still buying extra toilet paper, toiletries, and the like to keep making sure they are in place as some of those items … will continue to be a long-term need,” Jelinek predicted that some of the increased buying patterns will “likely be in the middle of next year if I had to guess “could persist.

Costco’s shares closed the session slightly on Monday at $ 374 apiece. The stock is up 27% since the start of the year.