.png?width=200&height=78&name=CH%20Diligence%20(thicker%20line).png "CH Diligence (thicker line).png")
Our briefing for Friday, August 6, 2021:
Aug 6, 2021 3:29:45 PM
- In the United States, according to the White House, seven states with low vaccination rates accounted for half of all the country’s new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the last week. Speaking at a press briefing, President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said the delta variant is driving up cases in those communities with low vaccination rates. The seven states are Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Of the seven states, Florida and Texas account for about a third of all new coronavirus cases. Zients said the most important defense is getting people vaccinated, and that the government is doing all they can to get shots in arms.
- In Canada, the province of Quebec is getting ready to roll out their vaccine passport system after a rise in Covid-19 infections. Premier François Legault says the details surrounding the vaccine passport will be announced in the coming days. The vaccine passport is expected to be required for access to non-essential services, though the government has emphasized that essential services will still be available to everyone. Quebec as well as Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and P.E.I. have all imposed (or plan to impose) some form of a vaccine passport, while Ontario and Alberta have said they will not.
- In the United Kingdom, the vaccine program will expand to include jabs for 16 and 17-year-olds, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended. Only weeks ago, the JCVI recommended that shots for teenagers should only involve those living with underlying health conditions or living with vulnerable people. The JCVI has since updated that advice, now saying jabs should be extended to those 16 and over. Countries including the U.S., Germany and France have all recommended children over 12 be vaccinated. Currently the only shot authorized for those under 18 in the U.K. is the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
- France and Germany have said they will go ahead and offer booster shots in September, despite an appeal from the World Health Organization to hold off until more people across the globe have been vaccinated. On Wednesday, World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked for a moratorium on booster shots until at least the end of September, saying inequality is a problem. "I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the delta variant. But we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it," Tedros said.
- Italy has launched their “green pass” to try and curb the spread of the delta variant. The pass is a digital certificate that allows Italians access to some services like restaurants and gyms. Italians can get a green pass if they’ve had at least one dose of vaccine, have a negative Covid-19 test or have recovered from Covid-19. Italy is the second European country to require proof of status, after France. On Thursday the government expanded the green pass requirement to include all teachers and university students. Teachers will not be allowed to work without the pass.
- In Australia, New South Wales reported a record-high of 291 cases, up from 262 the previous day. Sydney is now nearing the seventh week of a nine-week lockdown. Experts say stop-and-start lockdowns will likely be inevitable until vaccination rates pick up. With only about 20% of people fully vaccinated presently, officials are warning things will get worse. “Just based on the trend in the last few days and where things are going, I am expecting higher case numbers in the next few days and I just want everyone to be prepared for that,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
Pandemic hit UK-listed companies raise £12bn from investors
Brief: The first half of this year saw a total of 357 companies raise new capital through follow-on issues, raising £12bn in capital, according to investment bank Goodbody, which analysed stock exchange data. The figure is down from £17.3bn raised in H2 2020 and £17bn raised in H1 2020, but remains well above pre-pandemic levels, averaging £9bn each half year over the last decade. "In the face of unprecedented disruption, UK capital markets have proven to be an invaluable source of support for listed businesses," head of Goodbody's London office Piers Coombs said. "Through the backing of investors, management teams have been able to plot a course through the pandemic and protect jobs. Now, investors are backing UK businesses to build back better as they capitalise on new opportunities for growth."
It’s Chaos on Wall Street as Delta Variant Upends Return
Brief: The call from Morgan Stanley’s human resources office went out late Monday: Two vaccinated employees had Covid-19, and workers on the 14th floor of the firm’s Times Square headquarters should stay away until the area could be cleaned. But some staff missed the message and showed up Tuesday morning anyway. Others asked if the company would start mandating masks. For now, the answer was no. After all, you have to be vaccinated to be in the building. The episode, described by a person familiar with the matter, shows the swirl of confusion across Wall Street as banks summon employees back to their towers amid the spread of Covid’s highly transmissible delta variant. As the mutation shows its ability to jump between vaccinated people, executives are struggling on how to calibrate responses. Across an industry that was already split on returning to work, policies are diverging more than ever.
European stocks inch higher as investors track earnings, Covid-19 and economic data
Brief: European markets were slightly higher on Friday as investors monitored a fresh round of corporate earnings and the global spread of the delta Covid-19 variant. The pan-European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.12% by mid-afternoon trade, with insurance stocks adding 1.4% to lead gains after strong earnings from Allianz, while health care stocks fell 0.8%. Shares in Asia-Pacific were also mixed in Friday’s trade as rising Covid cases continued to weigh on sentiment, while investors awaited the release of a key jobs report from the U.S. Labor Department. Stateside, U.S. stock futures were little changed in early premarket trade as investors reacted to a better-than-expected July jobs report from the U.S. Labor Department. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 943,000 for the month while the unemployment rate dropped to 5.4%.
Goldman knows the way to a banker's heart is a free meal
Brief: Companies from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to Havas SA are hoping the way to their employees’ hearts is through their stomachs as they try to lure staff back to the office. At Goldman Sachs, free breakfast, lunch and ice-cream are part of the pitch to convince employees from London to Hong Kong and New York to leave the comfort of their homes, where some have worked since March 2020 when the pandemic took hold. One of the most vocal proponents of bringing everyone back even allows those meals to be enjoyed on Plumtree Court’s landscaped roof garden — once reserved for clients and visiting royalty. “Food is playing a much more central part in office life and businesses are using their food offers to try and influence behavior,” said Robin Mills, U.K. and Ireland managing director at catering company Compass Group Plc. “We are now fully part of these reopening conversations and part of this new world as companies think about how to get people to come back.”
BlackRock and Wells Fargo Delay Return to Office on Delta Concerns
Brief: BlackRock Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. are pushing their return-to-office plans back a month to early October, as Wall Street grapples with rising Covid-19 rates across the U.S. BlackRock is allowing workers to choose whether or not to come into U.S. offices through Oct. 1, according to a memo. Wells Fargo, with almost 260,000 employees, will now begin bringing back staffers who have been working remotely starting Oct. 4 rather than Sept. 7, as previously announced, according to an internal memo Thursday from Chief Operating Officer Scott Powell. The shift from both the world’s largest money manager and the firm with the largest workforce of any U.S. bank signals the financial industry is rethinking its return-to-office plans as the highly contagious delta variant sweeps across the country. While the biggest U.S. banks have so far stopped short of requiring their employees to be vaccinated, BlackRock has only allowed fully inoculated workers to come back.
