With the final picks of the 2020 season, Andy Behrens touts these two players to help carry you to the championship.
(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks were mixed and U.S. equity futures dipped as investors greeted the week with a lack of risk appetite and traders mulled data on China’s economic recovery. The dollar edged higher.South Korean and Taiwan shares retreated as sentiment toward chip component makers took a hit on news that the Trump administration will restrict licenses to several Huawei Technologies Co. suppliers. Hong Kong and Chinese stocks saw modest gains after economic growth and industrial production data beat expectations. S&P 500 futures pointed lower with European equity contracts. Crude oil retreated.There is no trading of cash Treasuries due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, though U.S. bond futures advanced. The S&P 500 closed lower Friday and support for Treasuries pushed the yield on 10-year notes down to around 1.08%.Global shares slipped last week after optimism about the $1.9 trillion U.S. aid package, and the so-called reflation trade, faltered into a holiday weekend. Investors are waiting for the inauguration of Joe Biden, who ascends to the U.S. presidency on Wednesday with an speech outlining how he’ll tackle the health and economic crises he inherits.“Markets needed a breather or even a pull back to justify reflationary expectations,” said Ben Emons, managing director of global macro strategy at Medley Global Advisors.The U.S. government notified several Huawei suppliers that it’s revoking their licenses to work with the Chinese firm and rejecting other applications in the last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, Reuters reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.Meanwhile, global coronavirus cases approached the 95 million mark, while the U.S. death toll from Covid-19 neared 400,000.These are some key events coming up in the week ahead:U.S. equity and bond markets are shut Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.Earnings come from companies including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Procter & Gamble, Intel, and Netflix.Joe Biden takes office as U.S. president on Wednesday.Policy decisions are due Wednesday from central banks in Brazil, Malaysia and Canada. The Bank of Japan and the ECB deliver decisions Thursday.Here are the main moves in markets:StocksS&P 500 futures slid 0.3% as of 11:16 a.m. in Tokyo. The index fell 0.7% on Friday.Japan’s Topix index declined 0.5%.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.4%.South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.8%.Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index declined 0.8%.Euro Stoxx 50 futures lost 0.2%.CurrenciesThe yen was at 103.73 per dollar, up 0.1%.The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%The euro bought $1.2078.The offshore yuan traded flat at 6.4825 per dollar.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries ended last week at 1.08%.CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude slid 0.7% to $51.98 a barrel.Gold fell 0.2% to $1,825 an ounce.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
‘It is because of his commitment to hear every voice, it is for this reason that he is here now when unity is going to be the most important way forward. And he has spoken about that over and over and over again’
Steve Smith was under pressure to help Australia build a big lead Monday as it tried to set up a victory against India in the series-deciding test at the Gabba. Smith was unbeaten on 28 and batting with rookie allrounder Cameron Green as Australia reaches lunch on the penultimate day at 149-4, an overall lead of 182. The Australians were coasting at 89 without loss before losing four important wickets in the space of six overs, sparked by Marcus Harris (38) gloving a catch to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant off a well-directed ball from Shardul Thakur in the 25th over of the innings.
China's economic recovery beat analyst expectations in the fourth quarter, expanding 6.5% from a year earlier, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth was faster than the 6.1% forecast by economists in a Reuters poll, and followed 4.9% growth in the third quarter. GDP grew 2.3% in 2020, the data showed, making China the only major economy in the world to avoid a contraction last year as many nations struggled to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
Russian president’s most determined foe detained minutes after landing at Moscow
(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Joe Biden has picked a pair of veteran regulators strongly backed by progressive Democrats to lead two key Wall Street watchdogs, signaling that his administration is planning tough oversight after four years of light-touch policies under appointees of President Donald Trump.Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler will be nominated to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission member Rohit Chopra is being tapped to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to people familiar with the decision.The selections follow weeks of intra-party wrangling over the financial regulation posts between moderate Democrats and those on the party’s left wing who want to see a sharp departure from business friendly policies advanced during the Trump administration. They are bad news for the banking industry, which has been bracing for the prospect of stiffer rules since Biden was elected in November.Gensler, 63, is a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner who gained a reputation as a Wall Street scourge when he engaged in bruising battles while advancing derivatives regulation at the CFTC during the Obama administration. Chopra, 38, is an acolyte of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren who helped her set up the CFPB before she ran for office.Both nominees will be subject to Senate confirmation, and the SEC and CFPB are likely to be under interim leaders until that process is completed.The chances of Gensler and Chopra winning confirmation were helped significantly by Democrats winning two Senate runoff elections in Georgia this month, resulting in a 50-50 split. The incoming vice president, Kamala Harris, will hold the tie-breaking vote should all Republicans oppose Biden’s financial watchdogs. That could nullify any efforts by the powerful banking lobby to block Gensler and Chopra, whose nominations would go before the Senate Banking Committee.If confirmed, Gensler would take charge of an agency that some Democrats say has grown too cozy with the banking industry. He would immediately need to address market disruptions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and the escalating U.S. feud with China over public company audits.Democrats will be expecting Gensler to push for tougher enforcement and bigger fines for financial firms and executives accused of wrongdoing. He will also face pressure to push companies to disclose political spending, climate-change risks and diversity and inclusion.Progressives will be looking to Chopra to reinvigorate a CFPB that they say has become a toothless version of the agency that he helped Warren create. In his first stint at the agency, he served as its student loan ombudsman. That experience could come in handy if he is to make good on Biden’s promise to crack down on private lenders that mislead student borrowers.The Warren-aligned Progressive Change Campaign Committee said the selection of Chopra was “a big win for consumers and a sign that executive power will be used to get tangible results for the American people.”(Updates with Senate confirmation chances starting in sixth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Oil prices fell on Monday, extending losses that last week ended a rally driven by production cuts and strong Chinese demand, with the market's recovery outlook being called into question as coronavirus infections rise. The benchmarks had rallied in recent weeks, buoyed by the start of COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and a surprise cut of crude output by the world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia. U.S. drillers added further pressure by putting more oil and natural gas rigs to work for an eighth consecutive week last week because rising prices have made production more profitable.
Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny was detained in Moscow after flying back from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a poisoning that nearly killed him. Elizabeth Palmer reports.
(Bloomberg) -- In an unprecedented move, California utilities are warning they may need to cut power to more than 280,000 homes and businesses to prevent live wires from sparking wildfires as high winds are set to sweep through the drought-weary state.Edison International’s Southern California Edison said 277,078 customers in multiple counties including Los Angeles face blackouts within 48 hours due to a forecast of a strong Santa Ana wind event. None of its customers that had been affected by earlier cuts are facing power outage as of Sunday afternoon, according to Southern California Edison’s website.PG&E Corp. said that it notified 6,100 customers living in the southern part of the state’s Central Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills about a possible shutoff, down from an earlier estimate of about 21,000.These power cuts are extremely rare in the winter and the utilities have never warned of a possible shutoff of this size in January. The blackouts planned this week could affect more than 800,000 people, based on the average size of the state’s households.The unusual prospect of January shutoffs underscores how wild California’s weather has become as climate change brings about increasingly extreme warmth and drought. Last year, record temperatures took down large swaths of the state’s power grid and wildfires torched more acreage than ever before.During a regular winter, public safety power shutoffs “would not be under consideration, but this winter has been anything but normal,” PG&E meteorologists said on the utility’s website. Only 22% of the average rainfall this winter has fallen in the southern Sierra, they said.High winds, along with low humidity that has dried brush and grasses making them easier to burn, will create critical conditions Monday and Tuesday, the U.S. Storm Prediction Center said in a forecast. There’s a less severe elevated risk for Sunday.“Recent fuel sampling indicates that the vegetation is still unseasonably dry and ripe for larger wildfires during windy periods,” Edison’s spokesman Reggie Kumar said by phone. “The last two months of 2020 were part of the worst fire season that California has seen, with near-record levels of dryness in November and December.”While the winter months usually mark California’s rainy season, much of the state remains gripped by drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
China’s economy grew 2.3% in 2020 as a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic accelerated while the United States, Europe and Japan struggled with disease flare-ups.
In a reunion few could have seen coming, long-dormant and reclusive alt-rock band New Radicals will be performing (virtually) for the first time in 22 years at the upcoming Biden inauguration, according to Rolling Stone. The band's seminal "You Only Get What You Give" is a song with great meaning to President-elect Joe…
Biden stimulus buzz may be waning, as the market rally had a healthy pullback. So did Tesla. Qualcomm and JPMorgan are near buy points.
Amy Harris/ShutterstockFederal authorities have charged Robert Gieswein as one of the rioters who stormed the Capitol in support of a pro-Trump insurrection on January 6.The Woodland Park, Colorado, resident was seen in photos wearing distinctive patches and military-style equipment on Jan. 5 and on Jan. 6 as he pushed through police barriers at the Capitol and confronted officers in the building alongside a number of rioters wanted by the FBI.He is charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal officer, depredation of U.S. property. obstruction of an official proceeding, and entering a restricted building with the intent to impede official functions.Gieswein could not immediately be reached for comment, and it was not clear if he had been taken into custody.The Daily Beast identified Gieswein in pictures taken on Jan. 5, the day before the riot, showing him apparently injured, with his helmet off kneeling on the ground as pro-Trump rallygoers clash with protesters and police at Black Lives Matter plaza in downtown D.C.In an affidavit in support of the criminal charges, the government alleged that Gieswein “appears to be affiliated with the radical militia group known as the Three Percenters,” a militia which is “loosely allied with the Oath Keepers.”Gieswein’s Facebook page, now-deleted, also showed him to be a fan of right-wing militia groups. In November 2018, he posted pictures of himself flashing the “Three Percent” sign, an apparent reference to so-called Three Percenter militias, outside of Shooters Grill, a Colorado bar owned by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). Robert Gieswein uploaded a photo of himself outside Rep. Lauren Boebert’s gun-themed Colorado bar. Facebook The term “three percenter,” according to the Anti-Defamation League, is a reference to the “erroneous belief that only 3% of colonists fought against the British during the Revolutionary War” and militia members make themselves out to be similarly willing to fight against what they see as tyrannical government.Gieswein’s movements during the riot were easily traceable thanks to a collection of distinctive patches on his helmet and vest, including patches that read “Woodland Wild Dogs,” “Golf Foxtrot Yankee,” “MAGA,” My Mom Thinks I’m Special,” and “I Pull Out” next to a picture of a grenade.Giesewin is visible in photos available on Shutterstock brandishing a baseball bat and appearing to push a riot barrier into police trying to hold him and a crowd of rioters back.Later on, Gieswein’s helmet is also visible in footage of a Proud Boys member, identified by the FBI as Dominic Pezzola, breaking into the Capitol through a window. As Pezzola smashes the window with a police shield, the “Golf Foxtrot Yankee” patch and orange tape of Gieswein’s helmet is visible in the lower right hand corner of the frame.Feds Track Down Bearded Proud Boy Seen Smashing Capitol Window With Police ShieldWhen Pezzola and other rioters make their way upstairs, Gieswein is again visible standing next to him and yelling as rioters confront outnumbered Capitol police attempting to stop them.Other pictures on his Facebook show Gieswein dressed in camouflage military garb parading with assault weapons next to other, similarly equipped men. His political views—stated in photos with “Trump 2020” and “Make Liberals Cry Again”—are also evident.Amidst the pictures of dogs on his feed, Gieswein also posted the distinctive yellow and green “Woodland Wild Dogs” patch seen on his vest at the Capitol riot.His name appears on a 2020 registration for a website labeled WoodlandWildDogs.com and RockyMountainOathkeepers.com, both registered in 2019.An Instagram account in the name of Woodland Wild Dogs—adorned with the tagline “Shootin guns, Campfires and America” but since deleted—bore the patch logo seen on Gieswein’s vest and appeared to show pictures of him engaging in target practice and military-style drills with other men dressed in camo and bearing assault rifles.This Cop Joined the Capitol Protest. Then She Spread an Antifa Conspiracy.Its first post shows a black and yellow skull and the title “Rocky Mountain Oathkeepers.”At his home in Colorado, Gieswein was also apparently active in various protest movements, particularly around gun rights. His Facebook shows him advertising a 2018 “Rally for Our Rights” in Colorado Springs to support gun rights.When residents of Pueblo, Colorado, turned out for the “March for Our Lives” following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, a local NBC affiliate noted that Gieswein conducted a counter-protest in which he openly carried a firearm. “Bump stocks... the biggest thing on the ballot right now. If we give away our bump stocks what’s next? Magazines and semi-autos?” he told KOAA News 5.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) announced today their joint development of an original blockchain technology that can optimize peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading. The technology is expected to contribute to more effective use of surplus electricity from renewable energy by creating trading environments that flexibly respond to shared trading needs, particularly to maximize the amount of surplus electricity available in the market at any given time. Beginning in April, the P2P energy trading system’s performance will be evaluated to further optimize the algorithm as required, aiming at the earliest possible commercialization.
A mass vaccination site is coming to the Lake County, Illinois fairgrounds.
Mercedes-Benz revealed a 56-inch screen nearly spanning the width of an entire car, becoming the latest automaker to bet on larger digital displays.
(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Joe Biden may fulfill a pledge to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, CBC News reported, citing people it didn’t identify.The words “Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit” appeared on a transition briefing note for Jan. 20 -- Inauguration Day -- circulated by Biden’s transition team over the weekend, according to the Canadian report.Biden’s transition team declined to comment.Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a tweet and a lengthy statement that he was “deeply concerned” about the report that Biden may repeal the permit, although such a move had been widely expected if Biden was elected.“Doing so would kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken the critically important Canada-U.S. relationship, and undermine U.S. national security,” Kenney said.In May, Biden campaign policy adviser Stef Feldman said in a statement that the candidate had strongly opposed the pipeline during the Obama administration “and will proudly stand in the Roosevelt Room again as president and stop it for good by rescinding the Keystone XL pipeline permit.”The main question was how Biden might do that -- whether by yanking the presidential permit authorized by the Trump administration or through a new environmental impact statement examining its effects on climate. Rescinding the permit is the quicker option; it can be done through an executive order right after the president-elect is sworn in.Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., said in a statement that “not only has the project itself changed significantly since it was first proposed, but Canada’s oil sands production has also changed significantly.”Read more on the long-running pipeline disputeThe Keystone XL pipeline has been controversial since it was first proposed more than a decade ago. The 1,179-mile (1,897 kilometer) segment is designed to move oil from Alberta through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, then connect with an existing network feeding crude to the Gulf Coast. The line would carry as much as 830,000 barrels of oil a day.Opponents argue it will stimulate oil sands development, contributing to climate change. Canada’s oil industry argues the project is needed to supply heavy crude to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, who need the oil to replace declining volumes from Latin America.In her statement, Hillman said that per-barrel oil sands greenhouse gas emissions “have dropped 31% since 2000, and innovation will continue to drive progress.” Meanwhile, TC Energy Corp., the company behind the controversial pipeline, said it plans to achieve net zero emissions across operations when the Keystone XL is placed into service in 2023.President Donald Trump approved the project in 2017 after his predecessor, President Barack Obama, rejected a permit in 2015 after years of angry debate and court challenges.(Updates with Canadian ambassador from eighth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
China’s economy grew 2.3% in 2020 as a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic accelerated while the United States, Europe and Japan struggled with disease flare-ups. The following quarter, China became the first major country to grow again with a 3.2% expansion after the Communist Party declared victory over the virus in March and reopened the economy. China has re-imposed controls on travel in some areas after a spate of cases this month but most of the country is unaffected.
Agent Sophie Moore made a big discovery in Batwoman's season 2 premiere that will threaten her nascent relationship with Julia Pennyworth.
There was increased security in all 50 state capitals while Washington, D.C., locked down ahead of planned inauguration protests. Live updates.
