Online traders angry after Robinhood stop on Gamestop
Amateur investors are peeved after several US online brokers, including Robinhood and Interactive Brokers, restricted trading in several highly volatile shares, such as Gamestop, a video game retailer, and the telecom firms Blackberry and Nokia. Gamestop’s value, for example, had rising more than 100 times since August (but dropped sharply after the limits were announced) apparently driven by social media chatter. Robinhood’s CEO said the move was taken “to protect the firm and protect our customers”. Robinhood was forced to tap its credit lines with five banks to maintain liquidity. Sources: Bloomberg, CNBC, DW, Financial Times and The Guardian.
Novavax reports vaccine effective, but less so against South African strain
Biotech firm Novavax said its covid-19 vaccine candidate was 89% effective in large-scale trials in Britain. It was 86% effective against the UK strain, but only 49% effective against the South African variant. Sources: BBC, CNBC, NPR and Reuters.
More pandemic headlines
EU vaccine shortages: The European Commission could let member states block the export of covid-19 vaccines, per the Financial Times and Politico. France restrictions: The French government admitted its case rate is still too high and could introduce a third national lockdown within the next week, per Euronews and France 24. Germany travel ban: The German government plans to close its border to nearly all travellers from Britain, Brazil, Portugal and South Africa, to stem transmission of the new coronavirus variants, per DW and The Guardian.
Latest Luxembourg covid-19 update
924 people received a vaccination dose on Wednesday, bringing the national total to 10,449 doses. The reproduction rate was 1.05 on 27 January, above the target threshold of 1.00 (unchanged from 26 January and compared to 0.97 on 20 January). 63 patients were in hospital on 27 January (compared to 70 on 26 January and 72 on 20 January), including 14 in intensive care (compared to 15 and 14). Three people died due to covid-19, bringing the national count to 574. Sources: Delano and health ministry.
Child allowance only to rise next year
The OGBL and LCGB trade unions have criticised the government for delaying the reindexation of child benefits until January 2022, citing the loss of purchasing power. The allowance was deindexed in 2006. Indexation is an automatic rise tied to the official inflation rate. Sources: 100,7 and Le Quotidien.
RTL contract to be disclosed
Luxembourg’s administrative court ordered the government to provide its contract with RTL to the Chamber of Deputies. PM and media minister Xavier Bettel (DP) had said its terms were confidential. Privately owned RTL receives up to €10m a year to provide public service programming. The case was brought by the Pirate Party MP Sven Clement and cannot be appealed. Sources: 100,7, Paperjam and RTL.
Dubai tickets snapped up
Gilles Feith, CEO of Luxair, said tickets for its new flights to Dubai sold out in 2 hours. Source: L’essentiel.
Cook criticises social media
Apple CEO Tim Cook said social media firms collect too much personal information and prioritise “conspiracy theories and violent incitement simply because of their high rates of engagement.” Cook did not mention any company names, but his comments were understood to be primarily directed towards Facebook. Sources: Engadget, Financial Times, Reuters and Yahoo Finance.
Facebook appeals body rules against Facebook
Facebook’s new oversight board issued its first decision, ordering the firm to restore four posts (which were blocked for hate speech, disinformation and nudity). It upheld a 5th case. Facebook said it would comply. Sources: Euractiv, NPR, Politico and Reuters.
GM sets zero emissions goal
General Motors said it aimed to stop selling petrol and diesel cars by 2035, and be carbon neutral by 2040. Sources: Bloomberg, Financial Times, The Guardian and NPR.
Blackrock takes tough stance on climate investment risk
Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest investment fund outfit with $9trn in assets under management, said his firm would vote shares against company directors and executives who did not demonstrate: “significant progress on the management and reporting of climate-related risk, including their transition plans to a net zero economy.“ Sources: Axios, Bloomberg, New York Times and Quartz.
Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics
More than 50 major multinationals agreed to common and comparable ESG reporting standards. The companies include Credit Suisse, Fidelity, Heineken, IBM, Mastercard, McKinsey, Nestlé, PayPal, Sony, UBS and Unilever. Sources: Business Insider, Fortune, Pensions & Investments and S&P Global.
Brussels backs battery independence
The EU will provide €2.9bn in funding (which it hopes will attract a further €9bn in private sector investment) to build a European battery production supply chain. Sources: Euractiv, The Register and S&P Global.
Wework reportedly planning SPAC IPO
The office sharing startup Wework could go public via a special purpose acquisition company. The deal would value Wework at about $10bn. Wework cancelled a traditional IPO in 2019 following questions about its valuation and management. Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters, Techcrunch and Wall Street Journal.
UK visa programme for Hongkongers
About 300,000 Hongkongers are expected to apply for a new UK residency visa when the scheme starts on Sunday. British National (Overseas) passport holders and their immediate dependents are eligible, which is about 3m of Hong Kong’s 7.5m residents. Sources: BBC, Financial Times, The Guardian and South China Morning Post.
HK police raid home of Kim impersonator
A comedian who impersonates North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and visibly attended pro-democracy rallies was arrested by Hong Kong police on charges related to a BB gun. Sources: Global Voices, Hong Kong Free Press and Radio Free Asia.
Here are 5 science & technology stories you may have missed
Medicine: In a small, preliminary study, an AI system was 99% accurate in detecting prostate cancer, which is currently checked using blood tests and physical examination, per The Register. Meteorology: The pandemic is disrupting the global networks that collect weather data, per Hakai Magazine. Meteorology: Researchers on the International Space Station captured video of blue jet lighting (known as Elves), which discharges upwards (away from the ground) and is not well understood, per Live Science. Paleontology: A new study casts doubt on the prevailing theory that the spinosaurus, a 17 metre long dinosaur that lived in Northern Africa 99m years ago, spent most of its time underwater, per the New York Times. Public health: A global study (although Luxembourg was not surveyed) found that people from “English-speaking countries and Scandinavia get drunk more times per year than in any other country,” via The Guardian.
Watching your workout
This GQ reviewer is “skeptical” of Amazon’s Halo fitness tracker.
Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Aaron Grunwald