Total Covid-19 cases
View charts and mapsConfirmed
67,039,664Deaths
1,535,058News you might have missed …
Britain’s NHS said on Sunday it would begin vaccinating patients against coronavirus at dozens of hospital hubs from Tuesday at the start of the biggest immunisation programme in history. People aged 80 and over as well as care home workers will be first to receive the jab, along with high-risk NHS workers.
Several million fewer Britons will receive the world’s first approved vaccine against Covid-19 this year than the government had hoped, due to manufacturing delays in October. The UK government admitted that the bulk of the 40m BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine doses it had ordered would not be rolled out until 2021.
Spanish, German, Japanese and American forces variously colonised, occupied and administered the islands of Palau before they gained independence in 1994. Today, isolation is Palau’s very selling point and this pristine and precious realm is now guarded carefully by its 22,000 inhabitants.
British Christmas dinners are under threat from a shortage of luxury turkeys, as the pandemic forces millions of would-be holidaymakers to stay at home this festive season. Producers said holiday money saved by wealthier households was being used to plan luxurious Christmas lunches.
Ford is pushing back the delivery date for two of its Bronco models because of coronavirus-related problems at its suppliers. Customers will have to wait until the summer of 2021 to purchase the two- and four-door models, instead of this spring. About 190,000 people have made reservations to buy the vehicles.
UK housebuilder Berkeley has called on the government to make a cut in the tax on property transactions permanent, warning that the pandemic and Brexit still risked inflicting damage on a housing market that has so far emerged relatively unscathed from a year of economic turmoil.
Russia’s most notorious cyber security company, Kaspersky, is trying to diversify into anti-drone technology and online voting products. Founder Eugene Kaspersky said he has no “hard data” to confirm allegations that Russian-backed hackers sought to infiltrate medical research bodies to steal data on Covid-19 vaccines.
When West Ham United hosted Manchester United at the London Stadium on Saturday evening, it was the first Premier League match to be played in front of paying spectators since March. The league’s 20 member clubs have lost well over £1bn in revenues because of games being played “behind closed doors” since June.
China reports locally transmitted case in Tianjin
China announced it had detected a locally transmitted case in Tianjin among 18 cases reported on Sunday, according to the National Health Commission.
China has reported a total of 86,619 cases, with 4,634 fatalities as of Saturday.
Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection reported 101 more positive cases, making a relaxation of social restrictions unlikely in the lead-up to Christmas and the calendar new year.
Hong Kong has reported 6,803 cases since the pandemic began.
Queen Mary Hospital said on Friday that a 38-year-old man confirmed with
Covid-19 infection on November 27 had died, bringing Hong Kong’s death toll to 110.
One in three UK adults say they won’t get vaccinated
More than a third of UK adults would not accept a coronavirus vaccine, a poll released at the weekend found.
Although 60 per cent now think a vaccine will soon become available to the general public, 35 per cent said they were unlikely to receive a jab, according to the survey by Opinium Research.
Of those, 55 per cent responded that they were concerned it might have side effects, 48 per cent worried it would not be safe and 47 per cent thought it would not be effective.
The poll found 39 per cent of respondents supported loosening of social and business restrictions over Christmas, while 32 per cent opposed them.
Only 23 per cent of respondents said they would spend Christmas with their parents.
The proportion of people who plan to spend Christmas alone this year has doubled to 8 per cent.
Opinium said it surveyed 2,002 UK adults on December 3-4.
Singapore shuts restaurant over mingling
Singapore authorities ordered a Korean restaurant to close for 10 days after it allowed a group of 13 to mingle between tables, the health ministry said at the weekend.
The Seoul Garden restaurant in Tampines was told to shut from December 5-14 after investigations revealed that the restaurant had failed to ensure “safe management measures”.
Although the family members were seated at separate tables of five or fewer persons per table, “investigations revealed that there had been mingling among them”, the ministry said in a statement.
“The restaurant did not take reasonable steps to prevent the intermingling between tables on its premises,” it added.
Ex-mayor Giuliani tests positive for virus
Rudolph Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who became Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, has tested positive for coronavirus, the US president announced on Twitter on Sunday.
Mr Giuliani has been leading legal efforts by the Trump administration to overturn November's presidential election result, although most cases brought by his team have been dismissed, often by Republican-appointed judges.
“I’m getting great care and feeling good,” Mr Giuliani wrote on Twitter late on Sunday. “Recovering quickly and keeping up with everything.”
Australia starts training dogs to sniff out Covid-19
Australian authorities have begun a project to train 14 dogs to detect Covid-19, the country’s border security force announced on Sunday.
The joint venture between the Australian Border Force’s National Detector Dog Program Facility and the University of Adelaide is expected to publish its results in early 2021.
“Covid-19 detector dogs could potentially provide an efficient, reliable and complementary screening method as part of a future suite of biosecurity strategies in Australia,” ABF said in a statement.
Previous studies have shown dogs can detect certain odours, known as volatile organic compounds, produced by the human body’s response to viral infections.
Anne-Lise Chaber of the University of Adelaide’s School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences said the training would test the accuracy of the dogs in detecting the compounds.
“Dogs could be deployed in airports and also be used to screen staff in hospitals and travellers in quarantine,” Dr Chaber said.
The dogs would not be used to directly “sniff” people, ABF said, but would be trained to detect volatile organic compounds in sweat samples.
Californians face regional stay-at-home orders
Dancer Stephanie Maiorano puts on a protective mask backstage between scenes during a performance of The Nutcracker by California’s San Diego Ballet, presented as a drive-in performance in a car park
Californians are braced for new regional stay-at-home orders to be triggered by less than 15 per cent capacity in the state’s intensive care units.
Governor Gavin Newsom said Covid-19 case rates and hospital admissions were rising at an “alarming pace”, threatening to overwhelm the healthcare system.
“No regions currently meet this threshold but some are projected to within the next week,” Mr Newsom said in a statement announcing the new orders that would take effect on Sunday.
Under the orders, residents would be required to stay at home as much as possible and minimise mixing to reduce unnecessary exposure.
Mr Newsom said people could still go to the doctor, buy groceries, pick up takeout food, hike, or worship outdoors.
Schools that are already open can remain open and retailers can operate indoors at no more than 20 per cent capacity.
Two of the state’s most populous regions, Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, are expected to impose the new orders from Monday, and would close bars, hair salons and barbers, and allow restaurants to remain open only for takeout and delivery service.
The Bay Area will also go into lockdown on Sunday under separate municipal orders. San Francisco and neighbouring counties will close all personal services, outdoor dining, public outdoor playgrounds, outdoor museums, zoos and aquariums, drive-in theatres and open-air tour buses and boats.
More than 25,000 new cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in California on Friday, officials said on Saturday, announcing a daily record since the pandemic began. The state also recorded 209 deaths.
Germans quarantined after evading border check
Two people allegedly evaded quarantine after arriving in Melbourne at the weekend, causing more than 170 people on a Virgin Australia flight to go into isolation.
The 53-year-old woman and 15-year-old boy arrived in Sydney from Tokyo and transferred to the Virgin domestic flight to Melbourne instead of going into quarantine for 14 days.
“Two international travellers are now in mandatory quarantine in Victoria, after arriving in Sydney today and boarding a domestic flight to Melbourne without quarantining,” a Victorian state health department statement said.
New South Wales police said the travellers, both German nationals, were directed to board a bus to hotel quarantine but said they were booked on a flight to Melbourne. Police subsequently allowed them to travel to Melbourne, despite not having a quarantine exemption.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said the two passengers were in hotel quarantine in Melbourne. Both returned a negative test result for Covid-19 on Sunday with further testing scheduled for Monday.
Should those test results come back negative, the 170 other passengers on Saturday’s Virgin flight VA838 from Sydney to Melbourne, as well as four cabin crew and two pilots, would be allowed out of isolation.
Oregon doctor loses licence over masks
The medical regulator in the US state of Oregon has voted to revoke the licence of a doctor who refused to wear a mask while practising and told patients that face coverings were dangerous.
The Oregon Medical Board suspended the licence of Steven LaTulippe due to its “concern for the safety and welfare” of his “current and future patients”.
The board said Dr LaTulippe’s “continued practice of medicine … presents a serious danger” to public health.
Both the doctor and the staff in his clinic in Dallas, about 100km south of Portland, refused to wear masks and urged those entering the clinic wearing masks to remove them.
The board heard that Dr LaTulippe told patients that masks are ineffective and should not be worn.
He told elderly and paediatric patients that it was “very dangerous” to wear masks because they exacerbate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.
Dr LaTulippe also said masks cause or contribute to heart attacks, strokes, collapsed lungs, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections, pneumonia and hypertension.
The board said there was no basis for such claims.
Covid-19 results delay cricket matches
One-day cricket matches between England and South Africa were delayed after two members of staff at the England team’s hotel tested positive for Covid-19.
The touring England players and management underwent an additional round of polymerase chain reaction tests in Paarl on Saturday evening, the England and Wales Cricket Board said in a statement.
Matches scheduled for Sunday and Monday have been postponed, the ECB said on Sunday.
Separately, the New Zealand health ministry said at the weekend that laboratories completed processing of the touring Pakistan team’s day 9 swabs and all 43 results were negative.
Earlier, Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s director-general of health, said he would not grant an exemption to allow the team to leave their hotel to train in groups while in isolation in Christchurch.
“At this time, I continue to have ongoing concerns about the risk of cross-infection within the squad,” Dr Bloomfield said.
Victoria sets looser Covid-19 rules for summer
Victoria, the Australian state hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, on Sunday issued new social distancing guidelines for summer.
From Monday, masks would only be required in public transport, including ride-share vehicles and taxis, indoor shopping centres, supermarkets, department stores and indoor markets.
Victorians will be able to host up to 30 people in their home, while outdoor gatherings in public places such as beaches and parks are limited to 100 people.
Density limits in pubs, restaurants and cafes are set at one person per 2 square metres. The use of electronic record keeping – a QR code – will be mandatory.
“Until we have a vaccine – and even then, until we have a widely distributed vaccine – some aspects of these rules and restrictions must continue to be part of our reality,” state premier Daniel Andrews said in a statement.
He said the new “COVIDSafe Summer” rules would be in place until at least the end of January.
Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, announces the easing of restrictions
Companies boost cloud computing spending
Companies spent an extra $1.5bn on cloud computing services, as the coronavirus pandemic drove global businesses away from on-premise operations, new data suggest.
Global spending on cloud infrastructure services reached $65bn in the third quarter, a rise of 28 per cent from the third quarter of 2019, according to Synergy Research Group data.
“Growth is strong across a broad range of cloud segments and all geographic regions,” said John Dinsdale, chief analyst at Synergy.
Infrastructure-as-a-service, which offers physical computing space, platform-as-a-service, which runs applications, and software as a service, which licenses and hosts software, all grew substantially in the quarter, the data showed.
The Reno, Nevada-based Synergy said PaaS continues to have the highest growth rate, reaching 37 per cent in the third quarter.
“We knew there would be strong growth in Q3, but the actual growth was higher than we’d expected,” Mr Dinsdale said. “There is no doubt that Covid-19 was the main reason for that boost.”
“Workloads are being shifted to public clouds even more quickly than anticipated and hosted software apps are especially attractive for enterprises navigating their way through a worldwide pandemic,” he said.
Kuwaitis vote under tough restrictions
A Kuwaiti woman shows her identity document as she prepares to vote in weekend parliamentary elections. The Gulf emirate has enforced strict regulations to combat the spread of coronavirus, although citizens infected with Covid-19 were able to vote in special polling stations
Japan to deploy military medics as cases rise
Robin Harding
The Japanese government is preparing to dispatch military doctors and nurses to reinforce regional hospitals as the number of serious Covid-19 cases begins to rise.
“Our top priority is to maintain the medical system,” said economy minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on NHK television on Sunday. “On the assumption of a request from regional governors, we’re preparing for the possible dispatch of Self-Defence Force nurses.”
According to local reports, SDF nurses may be sent to the city of Asahikawa, on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. The city has suffered clusters of infections in local hospitals, reducing its capacity to handle the disease.
Newly diagnosed infections in Japan are running at about 2,500 a day, and the number of serious cases has reached levels seen at the peak of the spring outbreak, but the government has declined to impose severe restrictions on daily life so far.
“The situation continues to require maximum vigilance,” said Mr Nishimura.
Sinovac raises $500m in funding for vaccines
Alice Woodhouse
Sinovac, one of several Chinese companies developing Covid-19 vaccines, said it has raised $500m in funding to expand manufacturing of its CoronaVac candidate.
Sino Biopharmaceutical will invest the funds into Sinovac’s vaccine research subsidiary Sinovac Life Sciences to expand production capacity of the jab.
“In addition to funding the CoronaVac, this new strategic partnership with Sino Biopharmaceutical further enables us to improve our vaccine sales capabilities, expand in Asia markets, develop and access new technologies, and most importantly, accelerate our efforts to help combat the global pandemic,” said Yin Weidong, chief executive of Sinovac.
The company said it expects to be able to manufacture 300m doses of the vaccine each year. That capacity will increase to 600m with the construction of a second production facility by the end of 2020.
In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Sino Biopharmaceuticals said it had invested $515m in Sinovac Life Sciences for a 15.03 per cent interest in the company.
Sinovac is conducting Phase 3 trials for its inoculation in Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and Chile. It said trials have shown the vaccine candidate can induce neutralising antibodies in more than 90 per cent of volunteers.
China has already begun administering experimental vaccines to its population.
Russia breaks record for new daily cases
A nurse vaccinates a woman with Sputnik V at a clinic in Moscow
Russia hit another daily record of new cases on Sunday, with 29,039 infections reported, according to health authorities.
The figure broke the previous day’s record high of 28,782 cases.
The total national case tally is approaching 2.5m.
Moscow city and its surrounding region accounted for 8,707 of the new cases, while 3,753 new cases were confirmed in St Petersburg.
The health ministry said at the weekend that the domestically developed Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine would be priced at Rbs1,942 ($26) for a two-dose course.
Asia-Pacific stocks gain on stimulus reports
Alice Woodhouse
Asia-Pacific equities rose at the start of a new week, following on from a record high on Wall Street amid optimism over a potential new US stimulus package.
The Topix in Japan rose 0.1 per cent, the Kospi in Seoul gained 0.2 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 0.7 per cent.
On Friday in the US, the S&P 500 closed up 0.9 per cent at a record high after Opec and Russia came to an agreement on oil supply, pushing energy companies higher.
US non-farm payrolls came in weaker than forecast on Friday, but this was offset by optimism over a potential stimulus package worth $908bn.
Details of the package could come as early as Monday.
Greek police set stiff fines for gatherings
Greek police on Sunday announced stiff fines for people gathering outdoors, citing public health dangers, as critics said the move was related to the 12th anniversary of the killing of a student by police.
Authorities also closed a number of Athens metro stations.
From 5am to midnight, people who participated in public gatherings faced fines of €300, while organisers faced a penalty of up to €5,000.
In December 2008, 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot dead by an Athens auxiliary police officer during demonstrations over the emerging global financial crisis.
The killing sparked further disturbances.
WHO withdrew report on Italy’s ‘chaotic’ response
Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli and Miles Johnson
Italy’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was “improvised” and “chaotic” according to a World Health Organization report that was taken down from the body’s website just hours after its publication.
The assessment titled “An unprecedented challenge, Italy’s first response to Covid-19” was completed by a group of pan-European WHO scientists led by Venice-based Francesco Zambon.
It was published on the WHO’s website on May 13, including an introduction written by Europe’s WHO director, Hans Kluge, but was removed the next day. The WHO issued no public statement at the time to indicate it had withdrawn the report or explain why.
Read more here
Indonesia receives vaccine shipment from China
A container of Sinovac’s vaccine is unloaded at Jakarta airport
Indonesia late on Sunday night received 1.2m doses of the Sinovac vaccine made in China, state media reported.
The vaccine was delivered by a Garuda Indonesia Boeing 777-300 cargo plane, which landed in Jakarta from Beijing, according to the Antara news agency.
“We are also still working on [another] 1.8m doses of the vaccine which will arrive in early January 2021,” president Joko Widodo said.
“We are very grateful that the vaccine is already available, which means that we can immediately prevent the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak,” he was quoted as saying.
The president added that enough vaccine concentrate would arrive in the next month or two to make another 45m doses.
Mr Widodo said Indonesia’s Food and Drug Administration was working on approvals so the vaccine could be distributed.
Sinovac has not yet released any data from the large-scale phase 3 trials.
On Friday, a scientist in charge of China’s vaccine development said 600m doses of a Covid-19 vaccine would be ready by the end of the year.
US hospital admissions hit record high
Alice Woodhouse
The number of people receiving hospital treatment for Covid-19 in the US rose to a new high on Sunday, as the pandemic places increasing strain on the country’s healthcare system.
The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals rose to 101,487, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
Hospitalisations per capita in the Northeast are now higher than that seen in Sunbelt states during a surge there over the summer.
New cases came in at 176,771, which was below record highs seen last week when almost 225,000 cases were reported in one day on Friday. Reporting on weekends tends to be lower than during the week.
States reported a total of 1,138 deaths from the disease, below the previous day’s tally of 2,445.
The seven-day averages for hospitalisations, new cases and deaths are all at record highs.
Mike Ashley makes 11th-hour play for Debenhams
Nic Fildes
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has entered talks over a possible last-minute rescue of Debenhams, marking the billionaire’s second attempt to buy the pandemic-stricken UK department store chain.
The 200-year-old retailer, which employs 12,000 people, is set to be liquidated next year after efforts to sell the group to JD Sports fell through last week.
Mr Ashley, who was already seen as a potential buyer of certain stores in the Debenhams estate, has now resurrected attempts to buy the business, according to people with direct knowledge of the talks.
Read more here
Malaysia records 1,000-plus Covid-19 cases daily
Malaysia continues to record more than 1,000 new cases of coronavirus daily, as prisons and detention centres emerge as new hotspots, state media reported on Monday.
The south-east Asian country reported 1,335 cases on Sunday, bringing the national total to date to 72,694, the official Bernama news agency said.
Only three cases were imported from overseas.
Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah told Bernama there were 11,039 active cases in the country as of Sunday.
The suburban Klang Valley reported 515 cases and Selangor state, adjacent to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s biggest city, reported 337 cases.
Dr Noor Hisham said 243 cases were related to clusters at temporary detention centres and prisons.
Two deaths were reported on Sunday, bringing the cumulative total to 382.
Authorities said roadblocks were being dismantled around Putrajaya, the official capital, after 54 days of movement control orders.
India plans vaccine private purchase option
Stephanie Findlay
Doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford could be available for purchase in India as soon as March, according to one manufacturer, in the first sign that the sought-after jab will make its way on to the private market.
Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has a licence to produce the shot and has already manufactured 40m doses.
Once the job is approved for use, SII will initially supply the Indian government but then expects to sell 20m-30m doses to private facilities, according to Adar Poonawalla, chief executive.
Read more here
Switzerland curbs shopping and ski resort transport
A man lights candles to commemorate coronavirus victims in front of the Swiss parliament in Bern
Switzerland will impose stricter distancing rules for shops from Wednesday, the country’s federal council said.
The number of people allowed to be in a retail outlet at any one time will be reduced to one per 10 sq m, from one per 4 sq m.
“The intention is to encourage members of the public to plan their shopping outings carefully,” the council said in a statement.
A federal council meeting on Tuesday will decide if Switzerland’s cantons have taken adequate measures to curb the pandemic, or if stricter measures will be imposed from Friday.
Switzerland has already banned choirs and carolling over the Christmas-New Year period.
Closing times for food and entertainment outlets on New Year’s Eve have been extended to 1am from the current 11pm.
Ski resort operators can remain open but must allow only two-thirds of maximum capacity on closed forms of transport, such as trains, gondolas and cable cars.
US teachers resist reopening schools
Kiran Stacey, Bethan Staton and John Burn-Murdoch
Classrooms across Washington are filling up with children again — except there are no teachers. Under the unusual arrangement, pupils are supervised by non-teaching and non-unionised staff and taught with iPads at their desks.
Few agree on who is to blame. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, the national union for teaching staff, says the Washington city government is responsible, insisting that staff would return as long as it remained on a voluntary basis.
State officials criticise Donald Trump’s administration for failing to halt the pandemic. “DC is a mess,” said Ms Weingarten. “But it doesn’t have to be like that — it is very frustrating.”
Read more here
China’s exports take biggest leap in 3 years
Thomas Hale
China’s exports leapt by the most in nearly three years in November, in a sign of rising global demand for its goods.
Exports added 21.1 per cent in dollar terms last month compared with November 2019, official data showed on Monday.
It was the largest increase of any month this year and well above economists’ forecasts.
China’s exports have boomed this year at a time when global trade has suffered due to the impact of the crisis, helping to support the country’s rapid recovery from the pandemic.
Imports added 4.5 per cent compared with the same period last year. China’s trade surplus in November was $75.4bn, higher than any on record.
Brexit won’t hit UK vaccine rollout, says agency
Anna Gross
The head of the UK agency that cleared the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for use in Britain insisted on Sunday that failure to agree a post-Brexit trade deal with Brussels would not affect its distribution.
Speaking on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show, June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, said the body had planned for every eventuality in the Brexit negotiations. “We’ve practised, we’re ready for any outcome at all.”
“Our goal at the MHRA is to make sure that whatever the outcome, whatever the deal, that medicines and medical devices and vaccines reach all people in all parts of the country without any interruption at all,” Ms Raine said.
Read more here
South Korea toughens social distancing measures
Song Jung-a
South Korea will impose tougher distancing measures in the greater Seoul area from Tuesday as health authorities struggle to curb a spike in coronavirus infections during the winter.
The country reported 615 new coronavirus cases, including 231 in Seoul, raising the total caseload to 38,161, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.
Four more deaths were added, increasing the total fatalities to 549.
Under the tightened measures, gatherings of more than 50 people will be banned and most risk-prone facilities including clubs, karaoke bars and gyms will be closed in the greater Seoul area, home to about half of the country’s 52m population.
All cram schools will be closed while sports events will be allowed without spectators.
Most facilities including restaurants, cinemas, amusement parks, barber shops, large grocery stores and department stores will be closed after 9 pm.
Seoul faces tighter restrictions on social distancing as cases surge
Restaurants cannot serve customers after 9pm with only takeout and delivery allowed, while cafes can serve only takeout at all hours.
In-person religious services are limited to fewer than 20 participants.
Health minister Park Neung-hoo warned of an explosive spread of virus infections and a faltering medical system if health authorities are unable to slow the current pace of infections under the stronger distancing measures.
The tougher anti-virus measures and nighttime curfews are likely to damp consumption further, slowing the country's fragile economic recovery.
Goldman Sachs on Monday revised down the country’s private consumption forecast for the fourth quarter to 0.8 per cent from 2.0 per cent previously, but improving exports are likely to offset slowing consumption.
Overall, the US investment bank raised South Korea’s growth forecast for the fourth quarter to 0.3 per cent quarter on quarter from its previous forecast of a 1.2 per cent contraction.
Recovery will reshape asset management, says PwC
Chris Flood
The speed and strength of the economic recovery after the pandemic will reshape the investment industry over the next five years and force asset managers to change their business models to prosper, a study has predicted.
Consultancy PwC is forecasting that overall global asset growth will slow for the investment industry over the next five years but infrastructure, private markets and sustainable strategies will be important sources of new business.
Olwyn Alexander, a partner at PwC, said that assets in infrastructure funds could double to just over $2tn by the end of 2025, given the need to refurbish roads, airports and hospitals and to finance renewable energy projects.
Read more here
Pfizer and Serum Institute seek emergency use rights
Benjamin Parkin
The Serum Institute of India, which is manufacturing the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the country, has applied to Indian regulators for emergency use authorisation for its jab.
Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of Serum, confirmed on Twitter on Monday that it had made the application to regulators.
Pfizer has also filed an application with the Drugs Controller General of India for its vaccine candidate, the Press Trust of India reported on Saturday.
Serum, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has already produced 40m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and has been conducting Phase 3 trials in the country.
The Pfizer vaccine would be imported and must be kept at minus 70C, an infrastructural challenge that may limit its practicability for a large developing country like India.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is considered more promising as, in addition to the mass production already underway in the country, it can be stored at 2C to 8C.
Mr Poonawalla told the Financial Times that it would first supply the Indian government for around $3 a dose before making it available on the private market for around $8.
Global ad market set for post-Covid-19 rebound
Alex Barker
Global advertising spending was hit significantly harder by the 2008 financial crisis than the 2020 pandemic, according to forecasts highlighting the extraordinary resilience of digital marketing in the Covid-19 economy.
Separate estimates from GroupM, WPP’s media buying agency, and Magna, part of IPG Mediabrands, point to a rebound in 2021 that will help traditional media such as television recover, but still leave them rapidly losing ground to digital advertising.
GroupM expects global spending to fall 5.8 per cent in 2020 to $578bn when political advertising is excluded, a far smaller decrease than 2009 when the market shrank 10.9 per cent. In June GroupM forecast an 11.9 per cent hit.
Read more here
S&P Global downgrades 2 Australian states
The rating agency S&P Global on Monday downgraded Australia’s two most populous states from their AAA levels due to the fiscal impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Victoria’s credit rating was downgraded two notches to AA, while New South Wales fell one step to AA plus.
“In our view the Covid-19 pandemic significant worsens Victoria's credit metrics,” S&P said. The state of 6.4m people accounted for more than 90 per cent of Covid-19 deaths in the country.
“Victoria’s economy has been affected more significantly than other Australian states and territories, mainly because fallout from the second wave of infections resulted in a substantial and prolonged lockdown,” S&P wrote.
“In our view, the Victorian government’s path to fiscal repair will be more challenging and prolonged than other states because of the significant increase in debt stock projected over the next few years.”
Police and soldiers greet passengers arriving at a quarantine hotel in Melbourne
Tim Pallas, Victoria’s treasurer, said the state government had no option but to deliver a high-spending budget.
“The decision by S&P Global Ratings to revise its long-term issuer credit rating on Victoria to AA reflects the impact coronavirus is having on economies around the world,” he said.
“We have always said we will manage the economy in a AAA rating manner, regardless of the outcome of key rating agencies, and that is exactly what we will do.”
S&P said the NSW economy plunged into recession for the first time in almost 30 years but “we believe an upturn has now begun”.
“The downgrade primarily reflects our expectation that NSW’s debt burden will rise substantially during the next three years.”
The outlook for both states was rated as stable, citing their financial management and economic resilience.
Permira to buy stake in high-end auction site
Kaye Wiggins
UK private equity firm Permira has agreed a deal for a stake in a curated online auction site targeting wealthy consumers with high-end collectibles from classic cars to art and movie memorabilia, in its latest bet on luxury.
Lossmaking Catawiki, which specialises in selling high-value collectors’ items, will use the €150m Permira investment to hire more specialist buyers, who select items for listing, and to return cash to early investors and employees. The deal values the business at roughly €500m.
The Amsterdam-based company, founded in 2008, reported an ebitda loss of €4.6m in the year to December 2019. Chief executive Ravi Vora said he expected the site to turn a profit in 2020 since sales had grown despite the worldwide recessions caused by the pandemic.
Read more here
Hong Kong ‘has suffered terribly’ in pandemic
Hong Kong’s top financial official said on Monday he was looking forward to days when taxes were his main concern.
Paul Chan, financial secretary, told a conference that the coronavirus pandemic “has derailed our economy, and our community has suffered terribly”.
Addressing the annual Chartered Tax Adviser conference in Hong Kong, Mr Chan said the OECD plan to impose a global minimum tax rate “is likely to mean an additional tax burden, and compliance costs, to some multinationals operating in Hong Kong”.
He said it would also have an impact on Hong Kong’s overall competitiveness.
Mr Chan said Hong Kong would continue to offer tax concessions to help specific sectors.
A shopper clutches boxes of face masks in Hong Kong
Earlier this year, Hong Kong introduced tax incentives for ship lessors and leasing managers, as well as marine insurance businesses. This year’s budget includes tax concessions for carried interest payable by private equity funds in Hong Kong.
“The goal is to attract capital and talent, so as to boost Hong Kong’s status as an international asset- and wealth-management hub, while creating business opportunities in professional services,” Mr Chan said.
The financial secretary said Hong Kong would recover in the post-pandemic era. “We are endlessly adaptable and resilient people,” he said.
“I, for one, look forward to the time when taxes — considering them, presenting them and getting them — are all that I need worry about,” Mr Chan added.
How family businesses survived a brutal year
Jason Holt, owner of Holts Gems, a second-generation jewellery business
Jonathan Moules
Holts Gems, a second-generation family jewellery business founded in 1948 by Robert Holt, a Jewish refugee in London’s Hatton Garden, has grown into one of the industry’s largest providers of gem-cutting services.
Until this year it had employed a team of 15, including experienced designers and gemologists. Now, after the first pandemic lockdown closed Holts’ workshop for three months, the company is down to just seven full-time staff.
“This year has been the most brutal in my memory,” says Jason Holt, the current owner. But Mr Holt found an innovative solution to cut his operational costs. The craftspeople he had made redundant were immediately taken on as suppliers.
Read more here
Brisbane to restart bid for 2032 Olympic Games
The Australian city of Brisbane will resume work on a bid for the 2032 Olympic Games after a six-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, sports officials said on Monday.
The Queensland capital would compete with bids expected from Germany, Spain, India, Indonesia and a joint bid from North and South Korea.
“Our bid in comparison to the rest of the world is a very strong bid,” Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates said.
Annastacia Palaszczuk, premier of Queensland, said she would discuss funding with Australian prime minister Scott Morrison on Friday.
The premier said Queensland organisers would be scrutinising the delayed Tokyo games to be held next year.
“It's very important that we get to see what happens with the Tokyo Olympics in this post-Covid world,” she said.
A Brisbane event would be the third Olympics to be held in Australia. Sydney hosted the games in 2000, while the 1956 edition was held in Melbourne.
Kingfisher to return £130m in business rates relief
Harriet Clarfelt
DIY chain Kingfisher has joined a queue of retailers vowing to repay business rates relief received from the government during the Covid-19 pandemic, pointing to a strong sales performance since its stores reopened in late April.
The FTSE 100 company expects to return £130m of business rates relief in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland – equivalent to a bill of roughly £110m in the 2021 financial year and £20m for the following 12 months. It has already paid back its furlough support in full, totalling £23m, it said on Monday.
Kingfisher shut down its B&Q and Screwfix sites in the UK for in-store purchasing at the start of the first lockdown this year, despite being classified as an essential retailer.
But a booming home improvement market has helped revenues to rebound in the months since resuming trading. Kingfisher is “confident that we can address the key risks we face”.
A flurry of retailers, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Pets at Home, last week said they would return the business rates support offered by government to help cope with the fallout of the crisis.
The Hut Group raises sales forecast for second time since listing
Harry Dempsey
The Hut Group has bumped up its full-year sales forecast for the second time since listing in September as events such as Black Friday and Cyber Week fuelled spending at the UK online beauty and health nutrition retailer.
Revenue is expected to reach £1.57bn to £1.60bn by the year-end, up from expectations at the end of October of £1.48bn to £1.52bn. Those sales would represent a 38 to 40 per cent increase on the previous year.
The group added that new customers rushed to the platform in the fourth quarter, supported by events such as Singles Day and Black Friday. In November, it acquired 1.7m new customers, over half of which joined during Cyber Week.
In addition to the new wave of customers, retention of existing users and resilient average spend per customer further underpinned the sales guidance upgrade.
Revenues drop and losses widen at Ted Baker
Covered clothes in stores following the coronavirus outbreak
Patricia Nilsson
Ted Baker's six-month sales dropped and losses widened as the fashion retailer was forced to discount aggressively to attract "cash-strapped consumers" as coronavirus pandemic tightened its grip.
The fashion chain, which this summer launched a turnround plan, on Monday said revenues dropped 46 per cent to £169.5m in the six months ending August. Losses before tax widened by over £63m to £86m.
The latest round of lockdowns and slow return of consumer demand were behind the poor figures, chief executive Rachel Osborne said on Monday. She added that there had been "heavy discounting online across global markets by many of our peers".
Ms Osborne took over at the company in March, after the group's founder Ray Kelvin was pushed out after 32 years following allegations of "forced hugging".
The hugging scandal and falling sales have prompted a full scale overhaul of the company, with Ted Baker midway through a "painful and challenging" restructuring that has led to the loss of just under 1,000 jobs.
German industrial rebound fuels hope for fourth quarter
Martin Arnold in Frankfurt
German industrial production grew faster than most economists had expected in October, fuelling hopes that Europe’s largest economy could avoid a double-dip recession in the coming months.
Output at German factories rose 3.2 per cent between September and October, its sixth consecutive month of growth, which outstripped economists’ consensus expectations for an increase of 1.5 per cent. Production by German carmakers rose by a monthly 9.9 per cent.
Even if German industrial production stays flat for the rest of the year, it will be up 5 per cent from the third quarter and will add 1 percentage point to gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter, said Andrew Kenningham, economist at Capital Economics.
“The services sector is likely to contract again in the fourth quarter, but it now looks as if the German economy will expand slightly, whereas we expect GDP to fall in the other large eurozone countries,” said Mr Kenningham.
However, manufacturing production in Germany, which accounts for about a fifth of GDP, remained 5 per cent below its level in February, the final month before the coronavirus pandemic swept across Europe.
Carsten Brzeski, economist at ING, said: “Industrial production should be the bright spot of the economy in the fourth quarter but, given the negative impact from the latest lockdown measures on sentiment, services and consumption, this positive industrial momentum should in our view not be enough to avoid a double dip for the German economy.”
According to the latest survey of German business by Munich’s Ifo Institute, production expectations in German industry fell in November, dragged down by a weaker outlook among consumer goods makers that offset growth in pharmaceuticals.
SocGen to shut branches amid online banking shift
David Keohane in Paris
Société Générale is merging its two domestic retail bank networks, closing 600 branches and cutting €450m in costs, as the French lender looks to capitalise on changes in consumer behaviour wrought by the pandemic.
The French lender said on Monday that it would combine its main retail bank network with that of its subsidiary, Crédit du Nord, in an effort to trim its cost base by about €350m by 2024 and €450m by 2025.
Its revamped retail network will boast about 1,500 branches by the end of 2025 — down from 2,100 today — as SocGen joins European rivals in wringing savings from a costly branch network that customers are migrating from.
Lockdowns to slow the spread of Covid-19, as well as the reluctance of many to head outside during the pandemic, has accelerated a move to digital banking, making executives more confident they can shrink branch networks.
Read the full story here.
Stocks start week lower and sterling falls against euro on Brexit talks
Camilla Hodgson in London
Global equities started the week lower, sliding from a record fuelled by optimism about a Covid-19 vaccine and an Opec oil deal buoyed stocks.
Europe’s benchmark Stoxx 600 index shed 0.4 per cent while Germany’s Dax slipped 0.3 per cent and Paris’ Cac 40 fell 0.7 per cent. Equities in Asia fell, while US futures pointed to a loss of 0.4 per cent for Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 when trading starts on Monday. The UK’s NHS will administer the first doses of its Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Tuesday.
Sterling lost 0.7 per cent against the dollar to trade at $1.3310, and slid 1 per cent against the euro amid reports that the final round of Brexit talks were on a “knife-edge” on Sunday. London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.2 per cent, a spot of green among otherwise red European indices.
The price of oil, which touched a nine-month high on Friday, fell on Monday, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, down 0.8 per cent at $48.86. Oil and energy shares drove the S&P 500 to a record last week, after an agreement between Opec and Russia eased fears of oversupply.
Traders will be monitoring negotiations between US lawmakers this week on rising hopes that a renewed fiscal stimulus deal might be passed before the end of the year.
November’s weaker than expected payroll numbers, released on Friday in the context of a worsening pandemic, are likely to add "to the sense of urgency for Congress”, said Win Thin, global head of currency strategy at BBH.
Connells raises offer in takeover battle for Countrywide
George Hammond
Connells has increased its offer for rival estate agency Countrywide, intensifying a battle for control of one of the UK’s best-known high-street property brands.
Countrywide, which appointed former William Hill boss Philip Bowcock as interim chief executive in November, is considering rescue options with its shares down 98 per cent over the past five years.
Following an initial public offering in 2013, the company went on an acquisition spree, picking up a series of high street agencies and becoming heavily indebted in the process. It has taken on the burden of a vast network of branches at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has pushed even traditional estate agents to look to do more business online.
Connells’ new offer of 325 pence per share, a 27 per cent premium to Monday’s opening price, values the company at roughly £112m and raises the stakes in a duel for control of the company.
UK private equity firm Alchemy Partners, an existing shareholder in Countryside, launched a takeover bid in October, which valued the company at 135p a share and proposed a £90m cash injection.
UK estate agents are enjoying a mini-boom in the property market. Demand after the national lockdown between March and May has increased during a stamp duty holiday, sending transactions and prices to record levels. The property tax reprieve will end in March.
Moncler to buy Stone Island in deal that values rival at €1.15bn
Harry Dempsey
Moncler, the Italian maker of luxury puffer jackets, has agreed to buy Stone Island in a cash and shares deal, valuing its smaller rival at €1.15bn.
In the first step of a two part acquisition, Moncler will buy 70 per cent of the company that owns Stone Island from chief executive Carlo Rivetti and his family. It will then buy the remaining 30 per cent from Temasek, the Singaporean state-backed investor.
The Rivetti family will subscribe for newly issued Moncler shares equal to 50 per cent of the cash consideration received at €37.51 a share, according to a joint statement. Temasek will also have this option available to it but should it prefer cash only, Moncler will pay out €748m in total.
The deal values Stone Island, an Italian brand popular with celebrities such as rapper Drake and Oasis leader singer Liam Gallagher, at 16.6 times its 2020 earnings before interest, tax, debt and amortisation.
The consolidation in the luxury sector comes as it stages a recovery from the pandemic which hit travel-dependent sales hard with support from resilience in the key Chinese market.
“We’re coming together at a challenging moment both for Italy and the world, when everything seems uncertain and unpredictable,” said Remo Ruffini, chief executive of Moncler. “We need new energy and new inspiration to build our tomorrow.”
UK house prices rise at fastest rate in four years
Harriet Clarfelt
UK house prices last month increased at the fastest pace for four years, ahead of the March cut-off point for the government’s stamp duty holiday.
November prices were almost 8 per cent higher than the same month a year earlier, the strongest improvement since June 2016, the latest Halifax House Price Index showed on Monday.
The average property price of £253,000 was £15,000 or 6.5 per cent higher than in June – reflecting the biggest five-monthly increase in over 16 years.
While agreed sales and instructions to sell did drop to a five-month low, these “both remain at historically high levels and well above seasonal norms,” said Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax.
Mortgage approvals are at a 13-year high and “the current market continues to be shaped by a desire for more space, the move from urban to rural locations and indications of a trend for more home working in the future,” Mr Galley said.
But he conceded that the economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis is likely to lead to a slowdown in market activity over the next year.
Denmark introduces partial lockdown in biggest cities
Richard Milne, Nordic and Baltic Correspondent
Denmark ordered a partial lockdown of its three largest cities including sending most schoolchildren home and closing bars, restaurants and fitness centres as it deals with an intensifying second wave of Covid-19.
Prime minister Mette Frederiksen said that 38 municipalities — including Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense — would be subject to the new measures, designed to get infections under control before Christmas. The lockdown means all children in the fifth grade of primary school and higher will be sent home.
The number of Covid-19 cases per capita in Denmark has increased by about 50 per cent in the past three weeks but is still below the level of many European countries. It is half the current level of neighbouring Sweden but triple that of Finland and Norway.
"Infection levels are too high, and the situation is worrying. That is why we must take action," Ms Frederiksen told a press conference on Monday.
Health minister Magnus Heunicke said: "I know very well that many of you can't bear this any longer. But the pandemic is not giving up."
Paris air show organisers scrap 2021 event
A flying display performed at the Paris air show in 2019
Sarah Provan
Organisers have cancelled next year's Paris air show, the largest such exhibition event in the world, as the coronavirus pandemic tightens its grip on Europe and heightens the uncertainty surrounding a global aviation industry that has been devastated in 2020.
The 2021 show, expected to draw thousands of visitors and exhibitors, was scheduled to run from June 21 to 27. The organisers, who have begun to plan the next show in June 2023, will take "full financial responsibility" for their decision and will repay exhibitors in full any funds they have paid.
"After many months of all trade show activities being suspended throughout the world, the entire international aerospace and defence community was very much looking forward to being able to meet," said Patrick Daher, chairman of the International Paris Air Show, which is billed as the most important for the aeronautics and space industry.
"We have already started work to ensure that the 2023 edition celebrates the resurgence of the aerospace industry on an international scale," he added.
"The 2023 edition will be larger than ever, and our teams are already working to ensure its success,” said Gilles Fournier, chief executive of the International Paris Air Show, on Monday.
The show, established in 1909, is held every other year. Last year's event attracted a record number of exhibitors with more than 2,450 companies from 49 countries present and more than 300,000 visitors and journalists. More than $140bn worth of orders were placed.
BIS warns on company valuations
Naomi Rovnick
Investors’ euphoria over coronavirus vaccines has opened up a concerning gap between company valuations and global economic prospects, the Bank for International Settlements has warned.
Since November 9, when drug maker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced that their vaccine was highly effective in late-stage trials, the MSCI index of world shares has rallied to record highs.
In its latest quarterly report the BIS, an institution that fosters co-operation between the world’s central banks, noted that stock markets were responding to prospects of “improved business conditions".
However it added that there was "daylight" between valuations and economic prospects, which it said were "still uncertain".
Credit investors may have also become too optimistic about companies’ prospects, the BIS said, as their assessments of creditworthiness had diverged from those of banks.
During the pandemic, the BIS said:
Credit spreads in advanced economies saw some volatility but ultimately compressed further, approaching pre-pandemic lows.
On the other hand, banks tightened lending standards throughout the period. Investors’ search for yield and the details of policy support appeared to underpin these contrasting developments.
Biden names healthcare team to tackle pandemic
James Politi in Washington
Joe Biden, the US president-elect, has chosen Xavier Becerra, the California attorney-general, to be the next US health and human services secretary, as he prepared to unveil the team that will be charged with tackling the pandemic in his administration.
Mr Biden also chose Rochelle Walensky, the chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, to be the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US government agency on the front lines of the coronavirus battle.
In a statement on Monday, Mr Biden said the appointments would mark a big change compared to the Trump administration’s approach to the pandemic.
“This trusted and accomplished team of leaders will bring the highest level of integrity, scientific rigor, and crisis-management experience to one of the toughest challenges America has ever faced — getting the pandemic under control so that the American people can get back to work, back to their lives, and back to their loved ones,” he said in a statement.
Mr Biden also said Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease specialist at the National Institutes of Health who has clashed with President Donald Trump over the course of the coronavirus crisis, would remain in his role — and tapped Vivek Murthy as surgeon general. Mr Murthy served in that position during the Obama administration.
Jeff Zients, a close adviser to Mr Biden and former director of the National Economic Council, will also play a key role in the coronavirus response.
Davos meeting moves to Singapore on European virus threat
Harriet Clarfelt
The World Economic Forum has moved its annual meeting from Switzerland to Singapore because of the persistent risk of coronavirus in Europe.
It will be only the second time in 20 years that the meeting, which is usually held in Davos in January, has been held in another country.
In a statement on Monday, the WEF said: “The change in location reflects the Forum’s priority of safeguarding the health and safety of participants and the host community. After careful consideration, and in light of the current situation with regards to Covid-19 cases, it was decided that Singapore was best placed to hold the meeting."
The WEF had already pushed the date of next year’s event back from January to May. Then, in October, it said that it would change the location of the meeting from Davos to the lower-altitude city of Lucerne.
The last time the WEF moved its meeting, which attracts business leaders from across the globe, was following the September 11 terror attacks.
The WEF is also planning to hold a virtual event, called Davos Agenda Week, in late January. The organisation says that the event “is a pioneering mobilisation of global leaders to rebuild trust to shape the principles, policies and partnerships needed in 2021”.
Fauci warns against Christmas gatherings amid US virus surge
Matthew Rocco
Anthony Fauci warned that the Christmas season could present a bigger challenge than Thanksgiving as the US battles an increase in coronavirus infections from the autumn.
“I hope that people realise that and understand that, as difficult as this is, nobody wants to modify if not essentially shut down their holiday season, but we are in a very critical time in this country right now,” said Dr Fauci, the director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an interview with CNN.
US health officials have warned that holiday gatherings could increase the risk of spreading coronavirus and complicate efforts to get an autumn upswing of cases and hospitalisations under control. Unlike earlier outbreaks that were largely concentrated in the north-east or sunbelt, the most recent rise in infections has been evident across much of the country.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked Americans to avoid travelling during the holiday season. Those who do travel should be tested for coronavirus before and after their trip, the agency said last week.
“We cannot go into the holiday season — Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa — with the same kind of attitude that: ‘Those gatherings don’t apply to me.’ They apply to everyone, if you don’t want to lose your grandparents, your aunt,” Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response co-ordinator, told NBC News over the weekend.
The number of daily cases of coronavirus in the US climbed to record levels last week, surpassing 200,000 for the first time. Some of the increase could be attributed to reporting delays that occurred during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
There were 101,487 people hospitalised with Covid-19, the highest level recorded since the pandemic began, data from the Covid Tracking Project showed on Sunday.
Indoor dining in NYC could end without stabilisation in hospitalisations — Cuomo
Peter Wells in New York
Indoor dining will be closed in New York City and operate at reduced capacity in other parts of the state should coronavirus hospitalisation rates in those areas fail to stabilise.
If the hospitalisation growth rate in an area does not stabilise within five days, there would be a "clamp down" on indoor dining, Governor Andrew Cuomo said at a press conference on Monday. The governor did not set a specific threshold, just that a region needed its rate to not be increasing.
For New York City, that would mean the complete closure of indoor dining, which has been operating since late September at reduced capacity. For other less populated parts of the state, the capacity limit for indoor dining at restaurants would be cut from 50 per cent to 25 per cent, except in so-called "orange" zones where that activity is already closed.
Mr Cuomo said that regions would be closed down, or enter a "red" zone, if the availability of hospital beds fell to critically low levels. "If our hospital capacity becomes critical, we're going to close down that region, period."
The formula being used is that if, after adding additional bed capacity, a region's seven-day average hospitalisation growth rate shows that within three weeks it will hit "critical hospital capacity", then a "pause" akin to the lockdowns of earlier this year would be enacted. Critical hospital capacity is defined as a region's available beds being 90 per cent full.
The governor provided the details today as a follow-up to his announcement last week that hospitalisation demand and capacity would be added to other coronavirus metrics used to determine the colour-coded levels of economic restrictions imposed on regions.
Mr Cuomo projected the state could have 58,000 beds available for coronavirus patients if all "flex and surge" levers — including having hospitals boost bed capacity by 50 per cent and cancelling elective surgeries — are pulled, and with about 4,000 patients currently being treated in hospitals. Field hospitals could add a further 5,000 beds.
"I see it as hospital capacity versus vaccination critical mass. I think that's the ultimate bottom line. Can your hospitals handle the increase until you start to see a reduction from the vaccinations," Mr Cuomo said.
Appearing via teleconference at Mr Cuomo's briefing, Anthony Fauci, one of the top officials in the White House's coronavirus task force, said the effect of a Thanksgiving surge on cases and hospitalisation would be "another week, a week and half from now", which would bring it right up on the Christmas holiday and the likelihood people will socialise again over that holiday. Unlike earlier stages of the pandemic, small gatherings are the main source of 70 per cent of recent coronavirus infections, Mr Cuomo said.
"We could start to see things really get bad in the middle of January. Not only for New York state but for any city or state," Dr Fauci warned.
US business groups call for fresh stimulus as CEO confidence improves
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York
US business groups are turning up the heat on Washington to provide new stimulus funding, even as they report a partial recovery in economic confidence.
The US Chamber of Commerce told members of Congress on Monday that fresh relief was “desperately needed” and that failure to pass a meaningful stimulus package “risks a double-dip recession”.
The Chamber joined 25 other industry associations in writing to House and Senate leaders urging immediate relief, warning that more than a third of small businesses had reported that their revenues were falling again as Covid-19 cases spike across the country.
Congress should fund a second Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses, the group said, without weighing in on the debate between Democrats and Republicans on how large or small such a stimulus should be.
Longer term relief in the form of a small business lending facility would also be needed next year, it added, saying that one in four small businesses said they needed more capital to survive the next six months.
The Business Roundtable, which represents larger companies in Washington, separately on Monday said 83 per cent of chief executives saw a fresh federal stimulus package as a top political priority.
Michigan to extend Covid restrictions for another 12 days
Peter Wells in New York
Michigan will extend coronavirus restrictions on some businesses, indoor gatherings and in-person lessons at high schools for another 12 days.
Under the extension, announced by Governor Gretchen Whitmer today, bars and restaurants must remain closed for dine-in service, cinemas and casinos are to remain closed, and colleges and high schools will continue with remote learning only through to December 20.
Families are being urged to avoid indoor gatherings, and “only two households may gather inside” as long as individuals are following strict protocols, including masks been worn when people are inside with others not in their household, the state health department said.
The initial order had been set to expire on December 8.
Michigan and the 11 other states in the Midwest became the hotspot for coronavirus at the start of autumn, but there are nascent signs of improving trends across the region. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s chief medical executive, said that while the state’s daily case rate has been “trending down in the past 16 days” it is still seven times higher than at the start of September.
Robert Gordon, director of the health department, said the main preferable trends for the state would be steady or declining hospitalisations, declining daily cases, and a declining positivity rate. While there are encouraging signs for the former two, the positivity rate — which has averaged 14.1 per cent over the past week — is “not declining right now”.
Michigan’s health department this afternoon reported 9,947 confirmed cases, and a further 93 deaths, for the past two days combined. Since the start of the pandemic, the state has confirmed 404,386 infections and attributed 9,350 fatalities to Covid-19.
Global stocks pull back from record highs
Camilla Hodgson in London and Colby Smith in New York
A rally in riskier assets that has propelled global equities to record highs in recent weeks lost momentum on Monday.
Optimism about the progress of several Covid-19 vaccine candidates and an oil supply agreement among major producers helped lift stocks to new heights last week. But US and European benchmark stock indices both slipped on Monday, with the S&P 500 slipping 0.2 per cent and the Stoxx 600 closing down 0.3 per cent.
Falls were most pronounced in those economically-sensitive sectors of the market that had recently rallied, including financials and energy stocks.
The market was “taking a little bit of a breather because there are still so many uncertainties about the vaccine”, said Seema Shah, chief strategist at Principal Global Investors, identifying the logistics of distribution as one such risk. Ms Shah said she expected a “slower rally in December and through to January”, rather than a steeper turn lower.
Read more on today's market moves here.
US averaging a record of more than 2,000 deaths a day
Peter Wells in New York
A recent trend in US coronavirus deaths to more than 2,000 a day has become the latest metric to highlight the current phase of the pandemic could be the toughest the country has experienced.
Until Sunday — when states attributed a further 1,138 deaths to Covid-19, according to Covid Tracking Project data — the US death toll had risen by more than 2,000 for five days in a row.
That five-day streak is the longest on record, according to a Financial Times analysis of Covid Tracking Project data. And while the US has yet to surpass its single-day record set on May 7 of 2,752, its seven-day average now hit at a record of 2,122.7 on Sunday, surpassing the longstanding peak from late April.
Deaths tend to lag cases and hospitalisations, both of which have surged since the start of autumn. On Sunday, a record 101,487 people were currently in hospitals with coronavirus, according to Covid Tracking Project. A single-day record of 224,831 infections were reported by states on December 4. That helped push the seven-day average to 191,859 as of Sunday, well above the previous peak from the summer of about 66,500 a day.
During spring, cases, hospitalisations and deaths were highest in northeastern states like New York and New Jersey. When summer rolled around, these areas were bringing things under control and sunbelt states like California, Texas and Florida experienced an outbreak. When autumn began, it was the Midwest's turn to become a coronavirus hotspot.
Testing capacity has been boosted since the middle of the year, meaning case rates may not be directly comparable with earlier stages of the pandemic. Better treatments and more knowledge about Covid-19 meant the death rate has generally stayed lower than during the spring.
Unlike previous phases of the pandemic, now nearly every state is experiencing rising cases, hospitalisations and deaths. That is perhaps one of the biggest factors propelling the latest record-breaking national numbers.
If there is one silver lining at the moment it is that cases and hospitalisations in the Midwest have in recent weeks pulled back from record levels. While some states are doing better than others, the Midwest as a whole averaged 53,158 cases a day over the past week, down 15 per cent from a peak in mid-November. The number of people currently in Midwest hospitals being treated for Covid-19 was 27,227 as of Sunday, down nearly 6 per cent from a peak on December 1.
Toll Brothers sales rise in strong US housing market
Matthew Rocco
Toll Brothers sold more homes than expected in its latest quarter, as record-low mortgage rates and a flight to the suburbs stoke demand during the pandemic.
The luxury homebuilder tallied 2,940 deliveries in the three months to the end of October, up 10 per cent year on year. The value of net signed contracts value grew nearly two-thirds to $2.74bn.
The number of homes in Toll Brothers’ backlog jumped 24 per cent to 7,791 units. That marked the company’s highest year-end backlog in 15 years, according to Douglas Yearley, chairman and chief executive.
Mr Yearley characterised the housing market as the strongest in his 30-year career at Toll Brothers. “The strong demand began for us in mid-May and has continued through today,” he said.
The US housing market has helped lead the economy’s rebound from the worst of the coronavirus-fuelled crisis earlier this year, buoyed by low rates and demand for roomier homes.
“We attribute the strength in demand to a number of factors, including historically low interest rates, an undersupply of new and resale homes, and a renewed appreciation for the home as a sanctuary,” Mr Yearley said. “The work-from-home phenomenon is also enabling more buyers to live where they want rather than where their jobs previously required.”
Toll Brothers forecast 1,675 deliveries in its first fiscal quarter, which came up short against analysts’ estimate of 1,849. However, the company projected that it will deliver between 9,600 and 10,200 homes for the full year, compared with an average estimate of 9,882.
Revenue from home sales jumped 9 per cent to $2.5bn in the fourth quarter. Net income fell to $199m from $202m. Toll Brothers earned $1.55 per share, up from $1.41, and beating analysts’ view of $1.24.
Shares fell 3.9 per cent in after-hours trading. Toll Brothers has gained 24.6 per cent on the year.
Trump considers taking vaccine on camera to boost public confidence
Kiran Stacey
Donald Trump is considering taking a coronavirus vaccine live on air as part of an effort to shore up confidence in the inoculation, according to senior officials in his administration.
The US president is keen to bolster trust in potential vaccines, the first of which is likely to be approved in the coming days, with 42 per cent of Americans saying they do not plan to receive one.
When asked whether Mr Trump would receive a vaccine live in public, one senior administration official said: “That is certainly something that is under consideration ... the president has expressed his willingness.” Though officials also said the president might not be considered a sufficiently high priority to receive a shot, especially given he is likely to retain antibodies after suffering from the virus himself earlier this year.
Mr Trump is hosting a White House summit on Tuesday to “celebrate” his administration’s achievement in helping develop what look to be safe and effective vaccines. But neither of the companies with open applications for approval — Pfizer and Moderna — will attend.
The president also plans to sign an executive order saying that Americans should be prioritised when it comes to receiving vaccines from US companies, though officials did not say how this would be measured or enforced.
"continued" - Google News
December 07, 2020 at 03:53AM
https://ift.tt/3lPvoyY
Coronavirus: US luxury homebuilder sees continued strong demand — as it happened - Financial Times
"continued" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WiTaZN
https://ift.tt/2YquBwx
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Coronavirus: US luxury homebuilder sees continued strong demand — as it happened - Financial Times"
Post a Comment