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Chinese language shares rise as shares of property developer Evergrande soar

SINGAPORE – Mainland China stocks rose in early trading Wednesday as stocks in the most indebted real estate developer Evergrande and some of its units soared.

Meanwhile, oil stocks in the region rose on higher oil prices.

The Shanghai composite rose 0.27%, while the Shenzhen share rose 0.15%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.21%.

Shares of China’s most indebted developer Evergrande rose more than 8% after the company announced in a filing that it was in talks to sell shares in its units, which include Evergrande Property Services and Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group belong.

Evergrande Property Services’ shares rose more than 16%, while its new energy vehicles division rose more than 8%.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 rose 0.51% while the Topix rose 0.9%. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.65%.

The S & P / ASX 200 in Australia was up 0.32%.

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Energy stocks benefit from higher oil prices

New records on Wall Street

Wall Street stocks hit new records, boosted by the passage of a $ 1 trillion infrastructure package by the Senate.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 162.82 points to 35,264.67 and closed on a record. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% to 4,436.75 and closed at a new all-time high.

The Senate’s infrastructure plan, which includes $ 550 billion in new spending on transport and broadband, is expected to help boost the economy as peak growth slows after reopening after the pandemic.

Currencies

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of its competitors, rose above 92.9 yesterday to 93,090.

The Japanese yen was quoted at 110.67, weaker than the previous day at 110.4.

The Australian dollar changed hands at $ 0.7338, slightly lower than it was above $ 0.734 yesterday.

– CNBC’s Yen Nee Lee, Maggie Fitzgerald and Tanaya Macheel contributed to this report.

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World News

Lordstown Motors shares soar after new chairwoman says manufacturing plans stay on monitor

The Lordstown Motors Corp. Endurance electric pickup truck sits on stage during an unveiling event in Lordstown, Ohio, U.S., on Thursday, June 25, 2020.

Matthew Hatcher | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Embattled electric truck company Lordstown Motors has enough funding to operate through May 2022 and remains on track to begin limited production of its Endurance pickup in late September following an executive shake-up that ousted the start-up’s CEO and chairman, executives said Tuesday.

The company’s new chairwoman, Angela Strand, called it a “new day” for the aspiring automaker, which raised bankruptcy concerns after warning investors last week that it had “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern in the next year.

Shares of Lordstown Motors soared Tuesday afternoon by as much as 15% before leveling off at about $10 a share, up 8%. The company’s stock price has roughly been cut in half this year, including an 18.8% decline on Monday.

“It’s a new day at Lordstown and there are no disruptions, and there will be no disruptions, to our day-to-day operations,” Strand said during a webcast for the Automotive Press Association. “We remain committed to inspiring, building and maintaining confidence and transparency in our relationships with each other at Lordstown and, very importantly, with our customers, our partners, our suppliers and our shareholders.”

The comments come a day after Lordstown’s chairman and CEO, Steve Burns, and CFO Julio Rodriguez resigned from the company after the board released a summary of an internal investigation into claims made by short seller Hindenburg Research that Lordstown misled investors.

The company said the internal investigation found Hindenburg’s report “is, in significant respects, false and misleading.” The probe, however, did identify “issues regarding the accuracy of certain statements regarding” Lordstown’s preorders, specifically the seriousness of the orders and who was making them.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

President Rich Schmidt said the company needs more experienced leadership. And while Lordstown didn’t say the investigation led to Burns’ and Rodriguez’s resignations, he indicated the findings contributed, at least in part, to their abrupt departures. “It was a little bit of both,” he said.

Hindenburg accused Lordstown in March of using “fake” orders to raise capital for its Endurance electric pickup. The short seller said the pickup was years away from production, but Lordstown has maintained it’s on track to start making the vehicle in September. The company on Monday said customer deliveries are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2022.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an inquiry looking at Hindenburg’s claims as well as the company’s merger with SPAC DiamondPeak Holdings. Schmidt declined to comment on inquiry.

Lordstown Motors Corp Chief Executive Steve Burns poses with a prototype of the electric vehicle start-up’s Endurance pickup truck, which it will begin building in the second half of 2021, at the company’s plant in Lordstown, Ohio, U.S. June 25, 2020.

Lordstown Motors | Reuters

Strand, who was Lordstown’s lead independent director, is overseeing its transition until a permanent CEO is identified, according to the company.

Schmidt reconfirmed Lordstown is actively raising additional capital, which the company announced plans to do in May. He also said Lordstown is no longer working with Camping World on EV products and solutions for the RV marketplace, citing a need to focus on the Endurance.

“We’re just focused currently on the Endurance truck,” he said. “That’s our next goal for the next three months is to make sure we hit our production targets and stay within our budgets and drive forward to getting the vehicles ready for the market.”

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Business

China journey bookings soar throughout Could Labor Day vacation as Covid eases

Visitors stroll along the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China in Beijing, China on Tuesday May 4, 2021.

Yan Cong | Bloomberg | Getty Images

BEIJING – Millions of Chinese rushed to travel over the five-day Labor Day holiday, another sign of a gradual recovery in domestic consumption.

May 1-5 was the “hottest” holiday travel holiday since the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese travel booking site Trip.com said in a statement translated by CNBC on Wednesday. The reappearance of Covid-19 on the outskirts of Beijing earlier this year prompted local authorities to restrict travel during the Spring Festival in February.

Labor Day vacation bookings for hotels, rental cars, and other trips have more than tripled from the same period last year and are up more than 30% since 2019, Trip.com said without disclosing the dollar amounts. According to Trip.com, the Shanghai Disney Resort was one of the top 10 travel destinations, even for 21 year olds and youngsters.

Chinese consumers spent 1.67 billion yuan ($ 260 million) on movies during the holidays, mostly domestic movies, according to Maoyan ticketing website.

In total, 230 million trips were made within the country during this period, an increase of almost 18% from 2019, according to the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

However, the total spending of 113.23 billion yuan ($ 17.48 billion) was about 4 billion yuan lower than the 2019 spending, the data showed.

At that level, per capita spending during the holidays was around 75% of 2019’s spending, said Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management. “Overall, the economic trend continues to improve, but part of the service sector is not yet at the pre-Covid level.”

Individual consumer spending lagged behind the recovery in the Chinese economy as Covid-19 forced more than half of the country to temporarily shut down in early 2020. Retail sales declined last year despite overall GDP growth before rising in the first quarter of 2021.

International travelers turn to Hainan

The rush to travel domestically comes with quarantine requirements, and travel bans keep most Chinese people from venturing overseas.

Chinese international travel is down 87% over the past year and is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until the second quarter of 2023, consulting firm Oliver Wyman said in a report last week.

That means billions of dollars not spent overseas could potentially be spent at home or saved for future purchases, the report said. Chinese consumers spent $ 245 billion overseas in 2019.

The analysis found that nearly 60% of these travelers migrate to the southern tropical island province of Hainan, which has expanded its duty-free shopping centers in recent years.

For high-end luxury brands, Hainan will be much more appealing to them if they can open their own stores in the future rather than through a duty-free operator.

Imke Wouters

Partner at Oliver Wyman

According to state media, duty-free sales in Hainan from May 1st to May 4th were over 700 million yuan, citing the latest available figures from the local customs authority. For comparison, an eight-day vacation in October saw duty-free sales of 1.04 billion yuan in Hainan.

“May is the first (moment when) you can really see the true potential of Hainan without travel restrictions,” said Oliver Wyman partner Imke Wouters in a telephone interview on Thursday.

However, she pointed out that brands are currently required to partner with duty free centers in Hainan. As a result, profitability could be up to 50% less than in-house branches on the mainland.

“For high-end luxury brands, Hainan will be much more appealing to them if they can open their own stores in the future rather than through a duty-free operator,” said Wouters.

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Business

UNICEF chief urges the world to assist India ‘now’ as Covid instances soar

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore told CNBC that she was “very concerned” about the current Covid-19 crisis in India and urged the world to send urgent aid to the country.

During World Immunization Week, Fore also said it was a “race to save lives” through vaccination, especially in some of the world’s poorest countries with “very fragile” health systems.

India is in the midst of a deadly second wave of the virus. On Saturday, daily coronavirus cases in the country went over 400,000 for the first time; The total number of cases in India has now exceeded 19 million and more than 215,000 people have died of Covid in the country.

“It is worrying for a number of reasons. First, is it a forerunner of what could happen in other countries, particularly in African countries, with much weaker health systems?” Fore said last week.

“It’s worrying because their healthcare system is overwhelmed. It’s the need for oxygen and therapeutics that we just haven’t seen in this pandemic in another country of this magnitude.”

People wearing face masks wait to receive a vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination center in Mumbai, India, on April 26, 2021.

Niharika Kulkarni | Reuters

Fore said both UNICEF and COVAX’s global immunization program had sent aid to the country, and help from other nations made a big difference. “But it is not enough because India is part of our supply chain. So this is where we source a lot of the vaccines and we now have to help India as the world,” she added.

UNICEF is the United Nations agency responsible for helping children around the world.

“Help us now”

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has stopped paying attention to other routine vaccinations, warned Fore. Around 60 routine vaccination campaigns have been halted around the world as countries focus on fighting the pandemic.

To address these challenges while helping recovery from the global pandemic, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and other partners are supporting a global strategy known as the Immunization Agenda 2030. The initiative aims to save 50 million lives on “an ambitious new global strategy to maximize the life-saving effects of vaccines through stronger immunization systems”.

Fore said around half of the world’s vaccinations come from routine UNICEF vaccinations for children.

“Polio, measles, yellow fever … all of these are vaccines that children need, but they are also vaccines that adults need. So we are asking families to come to primary health clinics in their own communities, bring in and have their children If you are vaccinated against these childhood diseases, you will also get a Covid vaccine and we can save 50 million lives, “she said.

When asked if she had a message for world leaders today, Fore said, “Well, help us now.”

Henrietta H. Fore, Managing Director of UNICEF on July 05, 2018 in BERLIN, GERMANY.

Ute Grabowsky / Photo library via Getty Images

“We are concerned that the world is ignoring things like routine vaccinations. We cannot lose this population, our children, to an epidemic while we worry about Covid as a pandemic for our world. Please help us now,” she said added.

Despite the ongoing global pandemic, Fore said it was time to focus on such initiatives.

“People are now realizing that vaccines are important, that vaccines work, that they save lives, and right now we are in a race to save lives,” she said.

“So if we can save them through a routine vaccination program that targets everyone in a society, both routine vaccinations and Covid will help.”

Global investment

However, Fore told CNBC that it can be difficult to focus global investments on supporting the programs.

“The Covax facility called for $ 23 billion, which sounds like a huge amount, but when you look at global GDP and opportunities, it’s a very small number,” she said.

“So they realize that we as a world can afford this, and if we could bring out vaccines for children and adults in the years to come, we would be a world that would have more justice, more fairness and better health across the board.”

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Health

U.Ok. imposes Tier four Covid restrictions on tens of millions as circumstances soar

A bus drives past a sign detailing measures taken by the government against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak on the first day of a newly imposed lockdown on November 5, 2020 in London, UK.

John Sibley | Reuters

LONDON – The UK government on Wednesday outlined plans to impose stricter coronavirus restrictions on millions of people across England as a new strain of the virus spreads across the country.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said more regions would be classified in the toughest Tier 4 category from 12:01 a.m. London time on Thursday.

“This new variant is now spreading in most of England and the cases are quickly doubling,” Hancock told the House of Commons. “It is therefore necessary to apply Tier 4 measures to a larger area, including the remaining parts of the south-east as well as large parts of the central plateau, the north-west, the north-east and the south-west.”

The move will mean three-quarters of the population will be in Tier 4 for the new year, Hancock said.

The restrictions imposed on a “stay at home” order mean people are not allowed to leave their homes unless they have a reasonable excuse. Businesses such as non-essential stores, gyms, and hairdressers are closing.

The announcement comes shortly after the Oxford AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine was approved for use in the UK emergency. The vaccine is believed to allow the UK to speed up its vaccination program significantly.

“We must of course vaccinate as soon as supplies allow, after the necessary security checks have been carried out, and the NHS is ready to accelerate the deployment on a larger scale from Monday January 4th,” said Hancock.

He added, “We have ordered a total of 100 million doses which, together with the Pfizer vaccine, is enough to vaccinate every adult in the UK with both doses.”

Anyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one, Hancock said, adding that the UK will have 530,000 doses available as of Monday, with millions more due from Astra-Zeneca in early February.

Government data shows that infection rates have risen sharply across England over the past week, with significant pressure on hospitals.

53,135 new Covid cases were registered in the UK on Tuesday, the highest increase in a day since mass testing began.

On Wednesday, the latest government figures showed 981 people in the UK died within 28 days of a positive Covid test – the highest number of deaths since April 9. The UK reported 414 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test on Tuesday.

The new variant of the coronavirus in the UK is reportedly more transferable and has resulted in travel restrictions for people trying to leave the country. The new strain, known in science as SARS-CoV-2 VUI 202012/01, could be up to 70% more transmissible, said UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

U.S. health officials on Wednesday confirmed the new strain’s first case. Several other countries have also identified the variant strain in the past few weeks.

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Business

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

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.