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Our briefing for Tuesday, August 17, 2021:
Aug 17, 2021 3:22:11 PM
- In the United States, five states have broken records for the average number of daily new Covid-19 cases, according to data from CNBC and Johns Hopkins University. Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi are suffering the worst outbreaks per capita, while Oregon and Hawaii also reached new highs in their seven-day average of new cases. The number of children who are hospitalized for Covid-19 has also hit a record high in the U.S. at just over 1900. Children currently make up 2.4% of all Covid-19 hospitalizations; they’re susceptible to the highly transmissible delta variant and they are not eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine.
- In Canada, pandemic-related issues are at the forefront of the upcoming federal election. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the snap election on Sunday, with the vote taking place on Sept. 20. Leaders of the Conservative Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party have both criticized the decision to hold an election during the pandemic, saying it’s too dangerous. Trudeau is said to be seeking approval for his government’s handling of the pandemic. Mandatory vaccinations for public servants and vaccine passports will both be important topics for candidates.
- In the United Kingdom, the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has warned that a potential new Covid-19 variant that evades vaccine protection could arrive. If the virus were to evolve to a level that results in vaccine failure, it could potentially intensify the crisis significantly, Sage said. Professor Graham Medley, a member of Sage, told the Guardian on Sunday that this is, “clearly something that the planners and scientists should take very seriously as it would put us back a long way.” Case numbers have been around 30,000 per day.
- Germany has added the U.S. to its list of high-risk countries and unvaccinated travellers who arrive there from the U.S. will face tightened restrictions. Those travellers entering Germany from the U.S. will need to provide an important reason for doing so, or otherwise be fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated travellers will be required to self-isolate for up to 10 days on arrival. Germany added other countries to the high-risk list including Israel, Turkey and Vietnam. India, Spain and the U.K. were already on the list.
- In Japan, case numbers reached 4377 after a record-high of 5773 on Friday. The government expanded its state of emergency to include seven more prefectures as the country grapples with the delta variant. "The Delta variant raging across the world is causing unprecedented cases in our country," Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. "Serious cases are increasing rapidly and severely burdening the medical system, particularly in the capital region." The state of emergency now covers 60% of Japan’s population. Further less strict emergency measures will be applied to another 10 prefectures.
- New Zealand will enter a nationwide lockdown for at least three days after discovering a single case of the coronavirus in the community. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was important to eliminate the virus as early as possible. "We have seen what happens elsewhere if we fail to get on top of it," she said. "We only get one chance." Ardern announced that Auckland and Coromandel, where the infected man had been, will enter a seven-day lockdown while the rest of the country will lockdown for three days. Despite New Zealand’s successful efforts to eliminate the virus, Ardern had been warning that the delta variant could be greater cause for concern.
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
Companies pull out all the stops to fill jobs in a market 'like we have never seen'
Brief: No skills? No degree? You're hired. The hiring logjam showed some signs of easing in July. But companies in the trenches trying to match labor demand and supply still see a market that continues to be imbalanced — and tilted heavily towards those looking for work. "No matter what source you use right now, fundamentally there [are] 40% more jobs open today than there [were] before the pandemic began," ZipRecruiter CEO Ian Siegel told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday. "And that was already a white hot job market." As of the end of June, a record 10.1 million jobs were available in the U.S. But as ZipRecruiter (ZIP) said in its second quarter letter to shareholders, the labor market today is one of "disequilibrium."
Stocks drop from record amid virus, economic angst
Brief: Stocks dropped from a record as traders assessed the latest round of economic data amid growing concern that more shutdowns will be necessary to contain a fast-spreading pandemic. Most major groups in the S&P 500 fell, with consumer-discretionary, industrial and commodity shares leading losses. The dollar climbed. Home Depot Inc. sank after the retailer posted weaker-than-expected results in the second quarter. Chinese stocks listed in the U.S. faced another wave of selling as authorities in Beijing ramped up their crackdown on some of the nation’s largest companies. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Baidu Inc. and JD.com Inc. slumped at least 2.5 per cent. U.S. homebuilder sentiment sank to a 13-month low in August amid high costs as well as continuing supply shortages.
U.K. Wage Growth Hits a Record as Vacancies Pass 1 Million
Brief: U.K. wage growth hit a record as companies posted more than 1 million new job vacancies for the first time in an unprecedented scramble for staff following the loosening of lockdown rules. Average earnings in the three months through June surged a record 8.8% from a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said Tuesday. While the figure partly reflects distortions created by the pandemic, underlying wage pressures are also gathering pace. The pickup underscores the scale of the recovery from the deepest economic slump in 300 years. Although the Bank of England expects strains in the labor market to prove temporary, policy makers warned this month that meeting the 2% inflation target will require a modest withdrawal of monetary stimulus.
The future of leases after Covid-19 - evolve or perish?
Brief: Leases have historically been slow to evolve. Traditional fixed rent leases are inherently predictable and inflexible, with a focus on security of occupation for tenants and income for landlords. This comes as no surprise given that, after staffing costs, the largest overhead for most businesses is real estate. However, in recent years there have been nudges towards greater flexibility and innovation, and the Covid-19 pandemic has thrown the suitability of traditional leases into question. The uncertainty created by the pandemic means there is considerable appeal for many in finding more flexible workspace solutions, provided through shorter term rolling contracts with smaller initial investments. This allows tenants the opportunity to move, expand and contract according to business needs while maintaining a degree of control over costs.
S&P 500 doubles from its pandemic bottom, marking the fastest bull market rally since WWII
Brief: Here’s a market milestone to encapsulate how stunning the recovery rally has been: The S&P 500 just doubled its level from its pandemic closing low. The broad equity benchmark has rallied 100% on a closing basis from its Covid trough of 2,237.40 on March 23, 2020. It took the market 354 trading days to get there, marking the fastest bull market doubling off a bottom since World War II, according to a CNBC analysis of data from S&P Dow Jones Indices. The S&P 500 closed at a record 4,479.71 Monday, up 0.3% on the day and 100.2% higher than its low Covid close.During the financial crisis, the S&P 500 hit its bottom at 676.53 on March 9, 2009, and the benchmark did not double that number on a closing basis until April 27, 2011. On average, it takes bull markets more than 1,000 trading days to reach that milestone, the analysis showed.
