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Our briefing for Wednesday July 14, 2021:
Jul 14, 2021 3:19:50 PM
- In the United States, cases are back on the rise as the quick spreading delta variant tears through the country. Slower vaccine rates and Fourth of July gatherings are also factors in the rising case numbers. According to data from John Hopkins University, the number of new cases per day has doubled over the last three weeks. Dr. James Lawler, a leader of the Global Center for Health Security at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, says the US is headed for the same position as the UK. "The descriptions from regions of the world where the delta variant has taken hold and become the predominant virus are pictures of ICUs full of 30-year-olds. That's what the critical care doctors describe and that's what's coming to the U.S.," he said.
- In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said plans for domestic vaccine passports will be left to the provinces. “Different provinces will be doing different things, where the federal government has a role to play and where we are looking is in terms of vaccine certification for international travel,” he said in a news conference on Tuesday. Provinces of Quebec and Manitoba have already announced their plans for an internal vaccine passport, while provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan have said they won’t have passport requirements.
- In the United Kingdom, masks will still be required on London’s transport network, according to the city’s mayor. Sadiq Khan said that he will not put users of the subway, buses and trams at risk by eliminating face covering rules. Face masks have already been mandatory on public transit for the past year, but as of next Monday, face masks will no longer be required by law. This means that enforcement officers can deny access or eject passengers who are not wearing masks, but police won’t be able to get involved. “What would have been far better is for the national rules to apply across the country, not just in London but across the country,” Khan said. “That would have provided clarity in relation to what the rules are.”
- South Korea continues to battle its worst-ever outbreak of the virus, as new cases on Tuesday soared to 1,615, the highest number since last Friday. The ongoing surge in new cases is largely attributed to the delta variant, which accounted for 30.7% of all new cases from July 4-10. Although new case numbers are on the rise, there are less serious cases and deaths in this outbreak as opposed to previous ones, with more of the older and more vulnerable population now vaccinated.
- France has opened its border to Canadian travellers and anxiously awaits Canada to do the same in return. The Canadian border remains closed to foreign travellers until at least July 21st. Ambassador Kareen Rispal, the representative of President Emmanuel Macron’s government, says the Canadian border should open to the French as soon as possible. She warned that relations between the two countries could suffer if not. “Canada is a green country,” she said, referring to the colour system France uses to determine where the virus is under control. “We would be very happy if the French could return to Canada without constraints other than being doubly vaccinated, taking tests, etc. We aren’t asking to return to Canada in a haphazard way.”
- Australia has extended a lockdown in Sydney for at least another 14 days. New South Wales State Premier Gladys Berejiklian says restrictions must be in place until at least July 30th after announcing 97 new locally transmitted cases. She has repeatedly said the lockdown will be in place until community case numbers are down significantly. According to authorities, more than 65,000 people came forward for testing in the last 24 hours. “I appreciate people are stressed and upset about what is going on, myself included,” Berejiklian said. “None of us want to be in this situation.”
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
Moderna Joins the Biotech Elite as Value Reaches $100 Billion
Brief : Moderna Inc. briefly soared above a $100 billion valuation on Wednesday as vaccinations against the Covid-19 virus continue to ramp up across the globe. Shares of the drug developer rose as much as 6.1% to $249.50 amid a broader rally in the stock market. Moderna has surged more than 220% over the past 12 months as drugmakers raced to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus. The first shots were advanced in record time with Moderna’s inoculation getting emergency use authorization in the U.S. in December, just a week behind the first approval for Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s vaccine. The breakthrough has helped vault the biotech firm to a household name as Americans identify the jab they received by the company name, “Pfizer” or “Moderna.” In late June, Moderna’s shot was cleared for importation in India where the delta variant has taken hold. Other vaccines authorized in the South Asian country include ones from AstraZeneca Plc, Bharat Biotech International Ltd. and Russia’s Sputnik V.
Hedge Fund Confidence at Highest Level “In Many Years” as Industry Enjoys Renaissance Among Investors
Brief: The latest Hedge Fund Confidence Index – published jointly by the Alternative Investment Management Association, Simmons & Simmons and Seward & Kissel – shows industry optimism continued to grow in the second quarter of 2021, having earlier surged 40 per cent in Q1. The data shows hedge funds’ optimism for the coming 12 months is now at “the highest it has been for many years”, AIMA, Simmons & Simmons and Seward & Kissel observed. The AIMA Hedge Fund Confidence Index (HFCI) is a quarterly measure of hedge fund firms’ confidence in the economic prospects of their business over the next 12 months. Roughly 300 hedge funds, collectively managing some USD1 trillion in assets, are quizzed on their capital-raising, revenue-generation and cost-managing prospects, along with the overall performance outlook of their funds for the coming year. They then score their confidence levels on a scale of +50 (the highest level of economic confidence) to -50 (the lowest), with 0 indicating a neutral level of confidence.
Prices of U.S. Hotel Stays Recover to Pre-Pandemic Level
Brief: The cost of hotel and motel accommodations in the U.S. surged 7.9% in June from a month earlier, the second-largest gain on record, the Labor Department’s consumer price index data showed Tuesday. That marked the fourth straight monthly advance and pushed the price index back above where it was before the pandemic. The government figures jibe with industry data showing revenue per available room, which combines occupancy and prices, is finally surpassing pre-Covid levels. So-called RevPar increased 43% in Phoenix during the week ended July 3, compared with the same period in 2019, the highest among major markets, according to data from lodging analytics firm STR. New Orleans and San Francisco notched the steepest declines. “There’s really not much in the way of discounts for hotels, especially the ones people want to stay in,” said Lukas Hartwich, an analyst at Green Street. “There’s a lot of pent-up demand for leisure hotels. ”U.S. hotels recorded the lowest occupancy rates on record in 2020, as the pandemic kept travelers at home and ate up lodging industry profits.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: Coronavirus in 'Rear-View Mirror' For Consumers
Brief : JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said COVID-19 appears to be "in the rear-view mirror" for American consumers, who are emerging from the pandemic with more money in their pockets and the desire to spend it. During his second-quarter earnings call with investors on Tuesday, Dimon was asked for his take on how things look today amid talk of "peak inflation" and "peak growth" compared to 2011 or so as the U.S. emerged from the financial crisis from a few years prior. "I think they are completely different, fundamentally," Dimon replied, saying, "coming out of the '09 crisis, the world was massively over-leveraged…the consumer was over-leveraged, companies were over-leveraged." The CEO said that is not the case today."The pump is primed," Dimon said on the call. "The consumer, their house value is up, their stock values are up, their incomes are up, their savings are up, their confidence is up, the pandemic is kind of in the rear-view mirror – hopefully, nothing gets worse with it."
With Latin American Equities Poised for Outperformance, Investors Are Turning to These Research Providers
Brief: After an unprecedented year, what one word best sums up the equity markets of Latin America? “Busy,” according to Carlos Sequeira, head of research at BTG Pactual. While the region as a whole was largely impacted both socially and economically by Covid-19, each country from Brazil to Chile reacted very differently to the pandemic. This is in part due to global monetary policy, as well as each country’s individual government stimulus plans. With just as varied economic recoveries — despite virus surges — throughout the region, there is cautious optimism across the investment chain in Latin America. But another looming election cycle means there is no downtime for the region’s sell side — or their clients. “From a market perspective, the countries in Latin America rebounded quite quickly from the shutdowns during the pandemic with tons of transactions,” Sequeira said. “Clients, as well as us, have been very busy with all of the IPOs coming to market.”
