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Our briefing for Friday, December 17, 2021:
Dec 17, 2021 3:51:46 PM
- In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) accepted advice from an outside panel to recommend Pfizer and Moderna vaccines over Johnson & Johnson’s. The decision was made largely due to concerns over rare blood clotting, known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). The panel said the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines should always be preferred for adults, who have a higher risk of developing TTS than those under 18. In over 200 million fully vaccinated people, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was only used by about 16 million, while about 870,000 have had a Johnson & Johnson booster, according to the CDC’s data.
- In Canada, the province of Quebec announced new coronavirus restrictions, putting a 10-person limit on gatherings and requiring bars, restaurants and stores to operate at half capacity. Meanwhile in Ontario, a group of experts are calling for “circuit breaker” measures in order to cut contacts in half, to prevent the province from reaching 10,000 cases per day before the holidays. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to exercise caution in a year-end interview with the Canadian Press. “What choices we make as Canadians over the next week or two will determine how bad the rest of our winter is — how many people we lose, how overwhelmed our hospitals get, how much we’re going to take a hit in our economy,” Trudeau said.
- In the United Kingdom, facing increased pressure from bereaved families, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the chair of the public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic. Former Court of Appeal Judge Heather Hallet will head the inquiry, which is due to start in the spring of 2022. The probe is expected to be one of the most complicated in history, with the focus on a pandemic that has led to over 146,000 deaths. The pressure group, Bereaved Families for Justice, said Hallet’s appointment was a step in the right direction but that it comes “far too late.” Both Hallet and the group said they were eager to work together and to focus on preventing future deaths.
- South Korea is reintroducing some coronavirus measures as case numbers soar to record highs. Only a month and a half after rolling back restrictions to “live with the virus,” the government made the difficult decision to bring back some curbs, as healthcare workers warn of hospitals coming under extreme pressure. Under the new rules, which come into effect on Saturday, gatherings will be limited to no more than four people. Restaurants, bars and movie theatres will have to close early, and unvaccinated people can only dine out alone or use takeout services. The number of coronavirus cases hit a record in South Korea on Wednesday, at 7,850, while the number of intensive care beds in use nationwide reached over 80%.
- Spain is speeding up its vaccination campaign, racing to inoculate children and get booster shots into arms as case numbers continue to rise. On Wednesday, Spain reported 27,140 new infections, the highest number since late July. While the country has had a very high vaccine uptake - nearly 90% of residents aged 12 and older have been fully vaccinated - children are now believed to be one of the most infectious groups. Though they only account for 7% of the total population, the contagion rate for children under 11 is nearly 50% higher than the national average. On the same day as the vaccine rollout for children, Spain announced they will also offer booster shots to people 50 and older.
- Australia’s state of New South Wales (NSW) is reporting 2213 new Covid-19 cases, the highest number since the pandemic began. Premier Dominic Perottet says lockdowns are currently not an option, and that he is unlikely to introduce any new restrictions now that 93.3% of eligible people are fully vaccinated. The state is using hospitalizations as the yard stick for determining the pandemic’s severity, and currently there are 215 people in hospital with Covid-19. The state’s health minister, Brad Hazzard, says cases are doubling every two to three days, and that new modelling suggests NSW could be up to 25,000 cases per day by the end of January.
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
World shares mixed after tech-led retreat on Wall Street
Brief: World shares fell on Friday after technology companies led Wall Street benchmarks lower as investors weighed the implications of higher interest rates, surging coronavirus cases and tensions between Beijing and Washington. Benchmarks declined in Paris, London, Frankfurt and Tokyo but rose in Shanghai. U.S. shares dropped a day after the Federal Reserve said it’s preparing to begin raising rates next year to fight inflation, and traders were also considering moves by other central banks. The Bank of Japan said Friday it would reduce some of its pandemic support measures, reducing purchases of corporate bonds to pre-crisis levels after March. It also extended by six months extra support for lending to small companies. But its board meeting otherwise kept ultra-loose monetary policy mostly unchanged.
Experts await Omicron impact as UK inflation comes in at 10-year high
Brief: Inflation in the UK hit 5.1% in November as the country continues to battle the latest variant of Covid-19.The 10-year high has reignited the debate among professionals as to whether rising inflation is embedded or transitory.Investors have not yet felt the full impact of the Omicron variant or the wider impact of higher energy and consumer prices, according to Nigel Sillis, client portfolio manager at Cardano. It remains to be seen how ‘temporary’ the present raft of inflation-stoking supply disruptions are,” he said, “how current trends may be aggravated by Omicron and, beyond that, we have not yet seen the full effects of higher energy prices upon consumer prices more generally.“There are still upside risks. Amidst uncertainty, pension funds should aim to fully hedge.
Wall Street firms retreat from office, holiday parties as virus spreads
Brief: Wall Street banks and investment firms are retrenching from their push to get staff back to the office, with Citigroup Inc (C.N), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N), Carlyle Group Inc (CG.O), Blackstone (BX.N) and MetLife (MET.N) among the latest to adjust plans as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads. The institutions are rethinking their plans to return to business-as-usual amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in New York and other financial hubs and growing concerns over the fast-spreading Omicron. "Even before Omicron, it was clear that there was not going to be a full ‘back to normal’ in most office-based jobs – some form of work from home is likely to endure into the future," Rachel Lipson, Project on Workforce at Harvard University’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, said in a recent interview.
Citadel, Blackstone Allow Remote Work Again as Omicron Rages
Brief: Citadel, Blackstone Inc. and Millennium Management are among asset managers telling staff this week that they may once again work remotely, at least for the next several weeks, in response to the latest spike of Covid cases.Ken Griffin’s Citadel, among the earliest hedge funds to require staff to return to the office during the pandemic, isn’t mandating that they stay away, a spokesman for the Chicago-based firm said Thursday in an email. The guidance also applies to Griffin’s market-making operation, Citadel Securities. Blackstone, the world’s biggest alternative asset manager, told its U.S. employees they can work from home for the rest of the year, as did rival Carlyle Group Inc., according to spokespeople for both private equity firms.
Apple delays return to corporate offices indefinitely
Brief: Apple told corporate staff this week that it is delaying a planned return to U.S. offices until an undetermined date, according to reports from Bloomberg News and NBC News reporter Zoe Schiffer. A memo from Apple CEO Tim Cook said workers would get advance notes a month before a new return date is set, and that each employee would receive $1,000 in order to outfit their home for remote work. Apple previously planned for most employees to return to offices on Feb. 1. An Apple spokesman confirmed that a new return-to-office date hasn’t been set. Silicon Valley neighbor Google told its employees earlier this month that they would not be required to come back into the office on Jan. 10, as planned. Other tech companies including Lyft, Uber, and Amazon have also pushed back their dates.
