13th Dec 2021 11:11
(Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Monday.
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COMPANIES
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The UK's largest airlines and travel companies have expressed their concerns about "haphazard and disproportionate" travel restrictions imposed by the government, PA reports. Tougher rules introduced due to the Omicron coronavirus variant mean everyone entering the UK must have evidence of a negative pre-departure test, and self-isolate until they receive a negative result from a post-arrival test. People arriving in the UK from the 11 African countries currently on the red list must spend 11 nights in a quarantine hotel at a cost of GBP2,285 for solo travellers. In a letter to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the chief executives of seven companies – including Ryanair and IAG's British Airways – accused Johnson of breaking his promises to fix the expensive cost of PCR tests for travellers. "As leaders of UK airlines, we are deeply concerned about the haphazard and disproportionate approach by government to travel restrictions following the emergence of the Omicron variant", they said. They added that the timing of the restrictions, so close to Christmas, has "undermined customer sentiment".
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Rio Tinto has agreed to write off a loan worth USD2.3 billion that was made to Mongolia to cover the government's share of the development costs for the giant Oyu Tolgoi copper mine, the Financial Times reported. The debt write-off is part of a wider deal to end tensions between the London-based mine and the Mongolian government over the project, FT said, which has been marred by delays and cost overruns. Rio has offered to end the underground development plan, accept an independent audit of the mine's financing, and make an extra investment, the newspaper reported. This should allow the next phase of development to begin in January. The deal needs to be ratified by the Mongolian parliament.
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BHP said it has ended talks with Wyloo Metals. The duo had tried to find a way to cooperate on the acquisition of Canadian nickel group Noront Resources. In a statement, BHP said the two companies have determined that they are unable to reach an agreement. In a separate statement on Monday, Wyloo announced it had sweetened its offer for Noront to CAD1.10 per share, which is 47% above what BHP is proposing and nearly 60% above its original offer of CAD0.70. Wyloo said the Noront board supported the latest bid. BHP is offering CAD0.75 per share for Noront.
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US private equity giant Elliott Advisors has written to the board of housebuilder Taylor Wimpey, slamming poor decisions by outgoing Chief Executive Pete Redfern. Elliott, which is one of the company's biggest shareholders, said the business must win back lost credibility with investors and search for a new chief executive externally after the former boss quit earlier this week after 14 years.
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Chinese artificial intelligence start-up SenseTime postponed a planned USD767 million initial public offering in Hong Kong after it was blacklisted by the US over human rights concerns in Xinjiang. The US Treasury announced the ban on Friday, saying SenseTime's facial recognition programmes were designed in part to be used in Xinjiang against Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities, more than one million of whom have been incarcerated in prison camps. The announcement immediately cast a shadow over the company's upcoming listing in Hong Kong, which had been due to take place a week later. On Monday, the company filed a statement with the Hong Kong stock exchange saying it would postpone its listing "to safeguard the interests of the potential investors" as they weigh the impact of being placed on the blacklist.
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The pharmaceutical industry is targeting vulnerable Americans with predatory pricing that is forcing them to ration life-saving drugs, according to a three-year congressional probe released Friday. Investigators focused on 10 drugmakers they accuse of raising prices of common brand-name drugs by nearly four times the rate of inflation over the past five years. The companies named in the report include: Pfizer; Sanofi; Novo Nordisk; Johnson & Johnson; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Amgen; AbbVie; Eli Lilly & Co; AbbVie; and Novartis. "The committee's investigation has pulled back the curtain on drug companies' unfair, unjustified, always increasing drug prices," Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who led the probe, said at a press conference.
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MARKETS
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Stock prices were mostly in positive territory at the start of a new week, shaking off increasingly fervent warnings about the Omicron variant of Covid-19, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's warning of a "tidal wave" of cases. Focus instead was on central banks, with policy decisions from the US Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the Bank of England and European Central Bank on Thursday. Still, virus-related travel restrictions were holding back London, with airlines IAG and easyJet down 3.3% and 2.7% respectively.
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CAC 40: up 0.2% at 7,003.08
DAX 40: up 0.9% at 15,756.31
FTSE 100: marginally lower, down 0.73 point at 7,291.05
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Hang Seng: closed down 0.2% at 23,954.58
Nikkei 225: closed up 0.7% at 28,640.49
S&P/ASX 200: closed up 0.4% at 7,379.30
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DJIA: called up 0.2%
S&P 500: called up 1.2%
Nasdaq Composite: called up 0.4%
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EUR: down at USD1.1268 (USD1.1314)
GBP: up at USD1.3246 (USD1.3235)
USD: up at JPY113.70 (JPY113.28)
Gold: firm at USD1,786.06 per ounce (USD1,785.71)
Oil (Brent): up at USD75.20 a barrel (USD74.64)
(currency and commodities changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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Germany's wholesale prices increased by the fastest rate in decades in November, while agricultural products also rose, fresh data showed. Wholesale prices grew by the most since 1962 in November, driven by higher prices for raw materials and intermediate goods, according to the data from Destatis. Wholesale prices increased 17% year-on-year in November, after climbing 15% in October. This was the fastest inflation since 1962. On a monthly basis, wholesale price growth eased to 1.3% from 1.6% in October.
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The target for giving every adult in England a booster jab has been brought forward by a month over fears of a "tidal wave of Omicron" that could cause "very many deaths". UK Prime Minister Johnson, in a pre-recorded address to the nation on Sunday evening, said Britain "must urgently reinforce our wall of vaccine protection" as he set a new deadline of jabbing everyone over 18 by the new year. He said scientists had discovered that being fully vaccinated is "simply not enough" to prevent the spread of the coronavirus mutation and that, without a lightning speed mass booster campaign, the NHS could be overwhelmed. The mission to administer millions more jabs by December 31 will see 42 military planning teams deployed across every health region. Extra vaccine sites will be opened and additional mobile units deployed, clinic opening hours are to be extended to allow people to be jabbed around the clock and at weekends, while thousands more vaccinators will be trained. The announcement comes as the UK Covid alert level was raised to Level 4, up from Level 3, following a rapid increase in the number of Omicron cases being recorded.
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House prices in the UK cooled off in December, figures from property portal Rightmove showed. The average asking price of a UK house slipped by 0.7% in December to GBP340,167 from GBP342,401 in November. Despite the monthly fall, the average price still was up 6.3% annually. Rightmove expects a more "normal" housing market in 2022 following a "hectic" and "exceptional" past 18 months. While fully available stock for sale has hit a new record low this month, valuation requests from home-owners are up 19% from a year ago, suggesting more people will be making a New Year resolution to move, the online property portal said.
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The European Commission on Saturday announced a breakthrough in the post-Brexit fishing talks with Britain after London granted new licences for EU vessels. The commission said the decision "was an important step in a long process" to implement the trade agreement struck between the two sides following Britain's departure from the EU. The row centres on licences to fish in British and Channel Island waters under the terms of the deal, the so-called Trade & Co-operation Agreement. France has long claimed that Britain is not fully implementing its obligations under the terms of the deal. A press statement from a UK government spokesperson said negotiators took an evidence-based approach throughout the talks to grant licenses. "Where that evidence has not been provided, licences have not been issued," the spokesperson said.
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EU foreign ministers are set on Monday to consider new sanctions to deter Russia from invading neighbouring Ukraine after Moscow massed troops on the border, according to EU diplomats. Although EU foreign ministers want to de-escalate the situation with Moscow, "sometimes you have to whisper softly but carry a certain stick," an EU diplomat said. Tensions have skyrocketed for weeks over Russia's growing military presence on Ukraine's border. According to NATO, Russia has gathered between 75,000 and 100,000 soldiers leading to fears of a repeat of 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and began supporting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Last Friday, the Ukrainian Navy said in a statement that Russia had also blocked off almost 70% of the Sea of Azov around the annexed Crimean peninsula.
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German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline cannot be approved at present because it does not meet the requirements of European energy law. The new German centre-left government settled in the coalition agreement that European energy law apply to energy projects "and that means that, as things stand, this pipeline cannot be approved because it does not meet the requirements of European energy law and the safety issues are still unresolved," Baerbock told broadcasters ZDF on Sunday evening. In addition, the US and the previous German government had discussed "that in the event of further escalations, this pipeline could no longer be connected to the grid," she said alluding to the tense situation at the border between Russia and Ukraine. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline was completed weeks ago, but is not yet operational.
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US emergency workers on Sunday desperately searched for survivors of ferocious late-season tornadoes that killed at least 94 across several states and left towns in ruins, including in the debris of a Kentucky candle factory, a symbol of the widespread devastation. But the state's governor Andy Beshear warned that the search in that facility in Mayfield – a town almost completely wiped out by the twisters – may be in vain, admitting "another rescue" may not happen there. President Joe Biden has called the wave of tornadoes "one of the largest" storm outbreaks in American history, adding, "We still don't know how many lives are lost and the full extent of the damage." He sent the heads of the Homeland Security Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to Kentucky to assess the situation, and promised the full gamut of federal aid. At least six people died in an Amazon warehouse in the southern Illinois city of Edwardsville, where they were on the night shift processing orders ahead of Christmas.
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By Tom Waite; [email protected]
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