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Our briefing for Wednesday, October 13, 2021:
Oct 13, 2021 4:19:43 PM
- The United States will open the U.S.-Canada land border to fully vaccinated visitors in November. The border has been closed for non-essential travel since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. The requirements will be similar to those for international air travellers, but officials did not give many details on the new rules. It is unclear whether the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not been approved for use in the U.S., will be accepted, or whether those who mixed vaccine doses will be eligible. Unvaccinated visitors will still be banned from entering the U.S. at the land borders.
- In Canada, the province of B.C. has expanded a mask mandate that now requires children ages five and older to wear masks indoors. The initial mandate applied to children ages 12 and older, but it was expanded to keep the rules consistent, said Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province’s top doctor. "I continue to be amazed by the adaptability and resilience of children across this province," she said during a news conference. Henry added that she hopes vaccines for children ages five to 11 will be available by as early as November. Pfizer has already made a request for approval from Health Canada.
- In the United Kingdom, job vacancies hit a record high of 1.2 million in September, as employers scrambled to hire through staff shortages caused by Brexit and the pandemic. Unemployment rates fell to 4.5%, between June and August, down from 4.6% in the previous quarter. Officials are still concerned that unemployment rates could rise again following the end of a government support program that came out of the pandemic. The support program at its peak helped 11 million people but that number fell to 1 million as more people went back to their jobs and the program was phased out.
- In France, a study published on Monday found that vaccines cut the risk of death or serious illness from Covid-19 by 90%. The study was conducted by a science group set up by France’s health system, Epi-Phare, as well l’Assurance Maladie and the country’s medicines agency. As the Guardian reports, the study was the largest of its type and compared 11.3 million vaccinated people over 50 with the same number of unvaccinated people from the same age group. The study found that vaccines reduced the risk of serious illness and death by 84% in those over 75, and 92% in the 50-74 age group.
- India has recommended emergency use of its Bharat Biotech Covid-19 shot for children ages two to 18. Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine was trialled in children back in June, with the trial data being submitted to the Drugs and Comptroller General of India at the start of this month. If approved by regulators, the made-in-India vaccine will be the first available to children ages two to 12. The World Health Organization has not yet granted emergency use authorization of the two-dose shot, though Covaxin has submitted the documentation and is currently undergoing the review process.
- Australia’s state of Victoria kicked off their regional vaccine passport trials over the weekend, with around 70,000 people downloading the Service Victoria app. The trials are leading up to October 26, when the state expects to have 70% of the eligible population fully vaccinated. At the same time, Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are now available to all eligible age groups, as the state expanded the eligibility criteria. “As we push to 70 and 80% double doses and beyond, it’s time to throw open the doors of all of our clinics, more than 60 of them across the state, to the mRNA vaccines … for all comers,” said Victoria’s health minister, Martin Foley.
Covid-19 – Due Diligence And Asset Management
Jamie Dimon says worst of pandemic may soon be over
Brief: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is not known for mincing words or hiding his emotions. So the fact that the leader of America's largest bank sounds very upbeat about the health of the US economy is noteworthy. Dimon said he is not worried about the possibility of inflation heating up in the next few months during a call with reporters about JPMorgan Chase's third quarter earnings Wednesday. He bluntly said "that's life" and added that the fact that we're even talking about inflation is a good thing because it's a sign that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, despite Delta variant fears, may soon be over. "We should all thank our lucky stars," Dimon told reporters about his expectation that the US may soon be turning a corner with regards to Covid-19 cases. Dimon even dismissed worries about all the headlines regarding supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic.
Pandemic makes workplace meetings more inclusive, study shows
Brief: The pandemic has made workplace meetings more inclusive and efficient, according to a survey of more than 600 business leaders across Singapore, Australia and Japan. In Singapore, more than half of C-Suite executives who responded said they tried to open up conversations to a wider group of staff, the analysis from Tableau Software Inc. and YouGov showed. The loss of face-to-face interactions was a concern for two-thirds of executives in Australia, and leaders in Japan aged 44 and under said they had seen an improvement in workplace conversations, according to the study. Decision-making got faster during the pandemic, said JY Pook, senior vice president for Asia Pacific and Japan at Tableau, a data visualization software firm. “
Finance jobs remain attractive to graduates, but firms must do more to showcase ‘purpose’, says new CFA Institute survey
Brief: CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals, has released results from a survey it conducted on the career outlook of more than 15,000 current university students and recent graduates aged 18-25 from 15 markets. The results find that globally, 58 per cent of respondents still feel confident about their future career prospects in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings also indicate that traditionally stable fields, such as finance, remain attractive for graduates navigating these uncertain times. In fact, respondents across all 15 markets ranked finance as one of the top five most valuable majors for finding a career. Overall, graduates felt that medicine/science was most stable and attractive, followed by healthcare and then education.
Hedge funds eye “potent” anti-viral Covid-19 drug molnupiravir
Brief: US multinational pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck’s new drug – which is designed to help reduce Covid-19 symptoms for people with Covid-risk factors including age, obesity, and diabetes – offers “great potential” to fully re-open the global economy, Man Group noted in market commentary on Tuesday. The London-listed global hedge fund giant’s ‘Views From The Floor’ note observed how the Goldman Sachs US Global Health Risk equities basket, which lagged the S&P 500 for much of 2021, has risen on the back of encouraging trials of molnupirarvir. The Health Risk equities basket – which includes airlines, tour operators and hospitality names including such as Royal Caribbean, Expedia, Delta Airlines, and Nordstrom – relies on the post-pandemic economic reopening, which has stalled in recent months after powering 2020’s stock market rebound. “
Private equity market "softens" after strong pandemic
Brief: Certain key private equity numbers turned to point downwards in the third quarter of the year, including fundraising which fell by 21% year-on-year.Private equity, which was described as “performing well since the pandemic”, also saw ‘exit’ values fall by over 2% and Prequin - the data firm which published the Q3 figures - said “some signs of market softness may be appearing”.Aggregate private equity capital raised was $83 billion, down 21% year-on-year. Preqin said private equity exit activity had “cooled down slightly” and that exit values were down 2.4% year-on-year. However, North America remained the dominant source of “buyout deal flow”, having registered $107.2 billion in aggregate during Q3, compared to only $61.5 billion in the same period last year.
