Categories
Health

5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens February 12, 2021

Here are the top news, trends, and analysis investors need to get their trading day started:

1. Wall Street wants another positive week

Traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Source: The New York Stock Exchange

US stock futures fell on Friday, the day after a mixed session in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell slightly from its previous record high while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq made new record highs. All three stock benchmarks tracked their second consecutive positive week to continue February’s strength. To date, the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are up 4.8%, 5.4% and 7.3% respectively for the month. The Dow and S&P 500 broke two-month winning streaks in January, while the Nasdaq rose for the fourth straight year in January.

2. The booming Disney + is helping to offset the theme park’s slump

Bob Chapek, CEO of the Walt Disney Company and former head of Walt Disney Parks and Experiences, speaks during a media preview of the 2019 D23 Expo in Anaheim, California on August 22, 2019.

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Disney’s shares rose roughly 2% in premarket trading after the company posted adjusted earnings of 32 cents per share in the first quarter. Analysts had expected a loss of 41 cents per share. Revenue declined 22% year over year to $ 16.25 billion, but beat estimates. Disney saw a slump in theme park attendance and box office results due to Covid, but the success of its streaming video service continued. Disney + had more than 21 million subscribers for the quarter for a total of 94.9 million.

3. White house to address travel and education issues

A traveler wearing a face mask is seen at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, United States on February 2, 2021.

Ting Shen | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

According to Reuters, the airline’s top CEOs are due to meet with the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator virtually on Friday to discuss travel-related issues. The meeting comes as airlines, unions and industry groups strongly protest the possibility of requiring pre-departure Covid testing for domestic flights.

A 3rd grade at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in southeast Washington, DC, February 5, 2021.

Evelyn Hockstein | The Washington Post | Getty Images

The CDC plans to release new guidelines on Friday on how to reopen U.S. schools as safely as possible. The pressure to reopen or expand personal learning has been mounting for months as students and parents tire of distance learning. Reopening schools is a top priority for the Biden administration.

4. The US secures 200 million more Covid vaccine doses

President Joe Biden speaks during a visit to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, on February 11, 2021.

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

The White House has signed contracts for 100 million additional doses of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine and 100 million more doses of Moderna. During Thursday’s tour of the National Institutes of Health, President Joe Biden said the US will now have enough two-shot vaccines to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of July. Biden is trying to speed up the pace of vaccinations after a slower-than-expected rollout under former President Donald Trump. Around 34.7 million out of roughly 331 million Americans have received at least their first dose of vaccine, according to the CDC.

5. In Trump’s impeachment proceedings, it is the defense’s turn

Former President Donald Trump’s defense team members David Schoen (center left), Michael van der Veen (center) and Bruce Castor (center right) will meet in the Senate on Thursday, February 3, before the start of the third day of the impeachment process in the Capitol on 11, 2021.

Bill Clark | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

Trump’s impeachment defenders will delve into why the former president shouldn’t be convicted of inciting the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol last month. You are ready to admit that the violence was just as traumatic, unacceptable and illegal as the democratic prosecutors have described it. But you also want to argue that Trump has nothing to do with it. The argument will likely appeal to Republican senators who want to condemn the violence without condemning the former president.

– Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow CNBC’s blogs about the markets, the pandemic and Trump’s impeachment.

Categories
Health

5 issues to know earlier than the inventory market opens February 11, 2021

Here are the top news, trends, and analysis investors need to get their trading day started:

1. Dow aims to contribute to Wednesday’s record high

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

NYSE

Dow futures rose Thursday, the day after the 30-stock average hit an intraday all-time high and closed on a record in a volatile session. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq failed to hold their all-time highs during the day on Wednesday and closed a little lower.

The Department of Labor will be absent at 8:30 a.m. CET with its weekly report on new jobless claims. Economists expect 760,000 new jobless claims claims in the past week. That would be 19,000 less than the previous week, which at 779,000 was the lowest initial damage since late November.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said monetary policy must remain “patiently accommodative” on Wednesday to support the economy, which is still facing labor market challenges. The employment picture is “far away,” said the central bank chief to the Economic Club of New York.

2. PepsiCo exceeds expectations; Uber has mixed results

Pepsi soft drinks are on display in a supermarket in San Francisco, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Investors once again focused on the result. Disney tops the list of major companies reporting quarterly results after Thursday’s closing bell. Before the market opened, PepsiCo reported earnings of $ 1.47 per share for the fourth quarter, a penny better than estimated. Revenue rose 8.8% to $ 22.46 billion, exceeding expectations. The PepsiCo share fell slightly in the pre-market.

A traveler checks his phone next to an Uber sign at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California on August 20, 2020.

Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images

Uber shares fell 4% on the Thursday prior to going public, the morning after the company reported an unexpectedly small loss of 54 cents per share in the fourth quarter. However, sales fell 16% to a below-expected $ 3.17 billion. Uber’s hail business was slowly recovering while the delivery business was booming.

3. Cannabis stocks jump into a Reddit trade reminiscent of GameStop

Dry cannabis flowers in the packaging room at Aphria Inc.’s diamond factory in Leamington, Ontario, Canada on Wednesday, January 13, 2021.

Anne Sakkab | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Cannabis stocks soared as the Reddit crowd, which started GameStop, stepped in. Tilray shares rose nearly 51% on Wednesday, seeing the stock jump more than 670% year-to-date. Tilray’s short stake wasn’t nearly as high as GameStop’s, according to FactSet, at 22.5% of the stocks available for trading at the end of January. Tilary gained another 10% on the Thursday before the market. Tilray is no stranger to a short squeeze rally. The stock gained more than 1,400% between July and September 2018, but those gains didn’t last.

4. Dating app company Bumble will start trading after going public

When 31-year-old Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd goes public with her dating app company on Thursday, she will become known not only for her youth, but also as one of the few founders to take her company off the ground. Bumble, whose board of directors is 73% women, valued its offering at $ 43 per share Wednesday night, raised $ 2.2 billion and valued Bumble at around $ 8 billion. The stock market reaction will serve as the litmus test for companies founded by women, which make up only 7.4% of Fortune 500 CEOs. That’s an all-time high, but it’s still an amazing low.

5. House Impeachment Manager to continue her case against Trump

The property managers will set out their case against former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment on Thursday. Trump’s lawyers are expected to start their defense by the end of the week. The terrifying security video of last month’s deadly riot in the U.S. Capitol, including scenes of rioters looking for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then Vice-President Mike Pence, was unveiled on Wednesday as a key exhibit by Democratic lawmakers pursuing the case, why Trump should be condemned to initiate the siege.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow CNBC’s blogs about the markets, the pandemic and Trump’s impeachment.

Categories
Politics

Home opens probe into safety failures in lethal U.S. Capitol assault

Members of the U.S. Capitol Police attempt to fend off a crowd of U.S. President Donald Trump’s supporters while one of them tries to use a flag like a spear as the supporters storm the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

Leah Millis | Reuters

The Democratic-run House of Representatives sent a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray and other agency chiefs on Saturday for information on intelligence and security deficiencies that led to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and forcing lawmakers to go into hiding.

Four House Committee Chairs signed the letter calling for documents and briefings from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Counter-Terrorism Center, and the Director of National Intelligence on what was known prior to the attack.

“This still-emerging story is about the amazing courage of some US Capitol Police and other officials, dizzying betrayals by violent criminals, and obvious and high-level mistakes – particularly in relation to intelligence and security preparedness,” the committee wrote.

The letter was signed by the Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., The Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., The Chairman of the Justice Committee, Jerry Nadler, DN.Y. and Chair of the Supervisory Committee Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y.

The investigation comes because lawmakers – and especially the Democrats – are demanding more information on how a crowd of President Donald Trump’s supporters broke into the so-called “People’s House,” which has its own police force, and is delaying certification Election victory of President-elect Joe Biden by several hours.

The Inspectors General of the Ministry of Justice, Defense, Homeland Security and Home Affairs have launched reviews of their agency’s actions related to the attack.

Supporters of US President Donald Trump protest in front of the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.

Stephanie Keith | Reuters

In the letter, lawmakers quoted press coverage that the U.S. Capitol police had been warned that Trump supporters were attempting to forcefully enter the Capitol.

NBC News reported Jan. 10 that the FBI and the New York City Police Department had provided the Capitol Police with information of threats of violence for the electoral college vote.

The Washington Post reported Jan. 12 that an FBI field office in Virginia had warned of the attack that extremists were planning a “war” on the way to Washington.

“Security and logistical preparations before January 6th were inconsistent with the prospect of serious and widespread violence. According to media reports surfaced in recent days, federal and other agencies previously owned information – and may have shared it with some Parties shared and other information predicting a serious security threat to the congressional session to confirm election results, ”wrote the committee chairmen.

The US Capitol Police are seen with “less lethal” weapons as they confront a crowd of supporters of US President Donald Trump as they storm the US Capitol building in Washington, USA, January 6, 2021.

Leah Millis

“These latter reports, if worked on, could have resulted in more extensive planning of the event and the infusion of far greater security and other resources,” they added.

Capitol Police officials said they did not see FBI intelligence services prior to the attack.

The committee chairs identify three broad lines of investigation that they will pursue.

The first is what the intelligence community and law enforcement agencies knew before, during, and after the attack. Lawmakers also said they would examine whether foreign powers had a role in exploiting the crisis.

The second point the committees examine is whether current or past holders of national security clearances participated in the insurrection.

The committees are also soliciting information on government policies in response to the attack, including measures to prevent those involved in crimes from traveling.

“The committees expect and appreciate your full cooperation on this matter – and, of course, recognize that resources must be appropriately and promptly devoted to efforts to counter ongoing threats to the transfer of power, including the presidential inauguration and related activities “wrote the committee chairman.

Categories
Business

China Opens Antitrust Investigation Into Alibaba

“This is an important step in strengthening anti-monopoly oversight on the Internet,” said the article posted on the newspaper’s website Thursday morning. “This will have a positive impact on regulating an orderly sector and promoting long-term healthy development of platforms.”

Political insiders and investors in China have speculated for years that national leader Xi Jinping would be tempted to crack down on Alibaba and Mr. Ma. They feared that their influence could increasingly offend the Communist Party and undermine control over capital markets and the Internet. However, until recently, Chinese regulators had been cautious.

Two recent party leadership meetings indicated that Mr. Xi was considering action.

The Politburo, a council of the party’s top 25 officials that meets every month or so, called for stronger anti-monopoly efforts at its meeting this month, although the official statement from the meeting did not identify any company or sector. This call was followed a few days later by an even clearer demand from the party leadership’s annual meeting on economic policy, which suggested that companies with Internet platforms would be subject to closer scrutiny.

The Chinese government “supports the innovative development of platform companies and the improvement of their international competitiveness,” read the official summary of the meeting. “At the same time, the development must be regulated by law and the digital rules improved.”

The supervisory authorities should “take decisive action against monopolies and inappropriate competitive behavior”, it says in the summary of the meeting.

Mr Ma’s remarks on financial regulation, held at a conference in Shanghai in October, appear to have helped catalyze the official backlash against Ant and Alibaba.

“If you are a rich man in Chinese culture and have very strong economic power and social influence, you are politically dangerous and you need to be very restrained for security reasons,” said Gary Liu, an independent economist in Shanghai.

People in China see Mr. Ma and Ant as the main beneficiaries of the authorities’ cautious approach to regulating internet financing. “Still, he complained,” said Mr. Liu. “This type of person is not respected in Chinese culture.”

Chris Buckley and Keith Bradsher contributed to the coverage.