25th Mar 2021 11:26
(Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
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COMPANIES
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AstraZeneca revised down by three percentage points the effectiveness of its Covid vaccine after American authorities raised concerns that results reported from its US trial were outdated. The company now says its vaccine is 76% rather than 79% effective at preventing any kind of symptomatic Covid. It remains 100% effective against severe Covid, it added. The move came after an independent panel of experts appointed to supervise the trial expressed concern that AstraZeneca had failed to include updated data in its initially released figure. The US National Institutes of Health then issued a highly unusual statement asking AstraZeneca to work with the panel and issue a new press release. "We look forward to filing our regulatory submission for Emergency Use Authorization in the US and preparing for the rollout of millions of doses across America," said Mene Pangalos executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals research & development.
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AstraZeneca clarified that the Covid-19 vaccine doses at its Anagni plant in Italy are not a stockpile, but instead are awaiting quality-control clearance. AstraZeneca also noted there are no exports currently planned other than to Covax countries from the plant. "There are 13 million doses of vaccine waiting for quality control release to be dispatched to Covax as part of the company's commitment to supply millions of doses to low-income countries. The vaccine was made outside the EU and brought to the Anagni plant to be filled into vials. The EU fully supports supplying low-and middle-income countries through the Covax facility," AstraZeneca said. Covax is the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative, aimed at equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines and led by international bodies such as the World Health Organization. AstraZeneca said there are another 16 million doses waiting for quality control release to be dispatched to Europe. About 10 million doses will be delivered to EU countries during the last week of March, and the balance to be delivered in April as the doses are approved for release after quality control.
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Two Chinese stars cut ties with Nike for registering concerns over forced labour in Xinjiang while retailer H&M faced calls for a boycott, as a backlash brews against Western firms speaking out on human rights. At least one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been held in camps in Xinjiang, according to right groups, where authorities are also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour. It is one of the world' top cotton-producing regions feeding many western garment brands with textiles. China denies the allegations of abuses, insisting labour camps are in fact training programmes and work schemes have helped stamp out extremism and raise incomes. Chinese TV stars Wang Yibo and Tan Songyun on Thursday said they would end all promotional partnerships with Nike, after a company statement was pumped around social media noting it was "very concerned" by the allegations of forced labour.
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Siemens Healthineers said it is looking to raise EUR2.3 billion to help fund its purchase of Varian Medical Systems. Siemens Healthineers said it will offer new shares to institutional investors in a private placement by way of an accelerated bookbuild. The company said it has already received demand from a long only anchor investor for 16% to 17% of the targeted offer size. The company, which was spun off by Siemens AG in 2018, said it has been provided with a bridge facility by Siemens Finance BV to fund the planned USD16.4 billion purchase of Varian. "The net proceeds from the capital increase shall be used to replace a portion of the amount remaining available under such bridge facility which has been partly replaced by the first capital increase in September 2020 and most recently by way of USD term loan facilities with different tenors," said Siemens Healthineers. Beyond this capital raise, the company does not plan any further share placements to finance its Varian buy.
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Compass Group said it expects organic revenue to be almost a third lower as coronavirus restrictions hindered the caterer's operations. Compass said it expects organic revenue for the three months to March 31 to be down 28% and organic revenue for the 6 months to March 31 to be down 31%. The Chertsey, England-based firm said it has been operating at 71% of 2019 revenue in the interim period. Its operating margin is expected to increase by around 130 basis points to 4.0% in the second quarter from 2.7% in the first quarter. Looking ahead, Compass said although Covid-19 vaccination efforts around the globe are advancing, the pace of volume recovery remains uncertain. However, it noted that the pipeline of new business and client retention continue to be strong. "We are controlling the controllable by managing our costs, adapting our operations and resizing our business. We remain confident in our ability to rebuild our group underlying margin above 7%, before we return to pre-Covid volumes," the company said. "Looking further ahead, we are excited about the significant structural market opportunity globally, organic revenue growth, continued margin improvement and returns to shareholders over time," Compass added.
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MARKETS
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The dollar remained strong across the board, while gold and oil retreated on Thursday. Stock markets declined in Asia and were lower in Europe, amid concerns about the failure to inoculate against Covid-19 on the continent. AstraZeneca shares were up 0.6% in London.
"Attention is now firmly on the virtual EU leaders meeting, where they are set to discuss the third wave of Covid and address the inadequate vaccine programme," commented Sophie Griffiths, market analyst for UK & EMEA at OANDA. "Any signs of progress could help boost sentiment surrounding European assets."
Wall Street was called for a higher open, rebounding from declines on Wednesday, following an upbeat assessment of the US economy by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
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CAC 40: down 0.2% at 5,934.59
DAX 30: down 0.1 at 14,590.55
FTSE 100: down 0.2% at 6,700.20
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Hang Seng: closed down 0.1% at 27,899.61
Nikkei 225: closed up 1.1% at 28,729.88
S&P/ASX 200: closed up 0.2% at 6,790.60
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DJIA: called up 0.2%
S&P 500: called up 0.3%
Nasdaq Composite: called up 0.4%
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EUR: down at USD1.1811 (USD1.1834)
GBP: soft at USD1.3721 (USD1.3728)
USD: up at JPY109.10 (JPY108.77)
Gold: down at USD1,730.25 per ounce (USD1,736.33)
Oil (Brent): down at USD63.25 a barrel (USD63.98)
(currency and commodities changes since previous London equities close)
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ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
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The owners of a giant container vessel blocking the Suez Canal said they are facing "extreme difficulty" refloating it, prompting Egypt to suspend navigation through one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The Suez Canal Authority said it was trying to refloat the Panama-flagged MV Ever Given, a 400-metre long vessel which veered off course and ran aground in a sandstorm on Tuesday. Satellite pictures released by Planet Labs show the 59-metre wide container ship wedged diagonally across the entire canal. Japanese ship-leasing firm Shoei Kisen Kaisha said it owned the giant vessel and was facing "extreme difficulty" trying to refloat it. "In co-operation with local authorities and Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, a vessel management company, we are trying to refloat (the ship), but we are facing extreme difficulty," Shoei Kisen Kaisha said in a statement on its website. As shipping specialists warned it could take days or even weeks to budge the vessel, the Suez Canal Authority announced it was "temporarily suspending navigation".
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A vote on extending coronavirus laws in Britain for a further six months will come to the Commons amid talks between the UK and EU aiming to resolve a dispute over vaccine supplies. On Thursday, members of Parliament will be asked to approve the regulations for the route out of lockdown and keep some of the emergency powers in the Coronavirus Act in place until September. It comes as UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he could see an "end" to the pandemic that would involve managing coronavirus "more like flu" with repeated and updated vaccinations. EU leaders are set to discuss proposals aimed at tightening restrictions on vaccine exports at a virtual European Council summit, after London and Brussels moved to calm tensions following weeks of ramped up rhetoric. A joint statement said the two sides were seeking a "win-win" deal to increase supplies across the UK and EU as the bloc's dispute with AstraZeneca continued. Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested to the Commons Liaison Committee that it could be up to landlords to decide if coronavirus certificates are required for pubgoers. Trade body UKHospitality criticised the prospect of pubs and restaurants being subject to vaccine certificates as "simply unworkable" and said it could cause conflict between staff and customers.
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Ireland's economy could recover "quite strongly" from pandemic-related curbs in 2021, but employment is unlikely to bounce back for at least two years, according to the state-funded Economic & Social Research Institute. In a report, the ESRI cut its earlier 2021 gross domestic product growth forecast from 5.2% to 4.4%, citing the likely impact of Ireland's ongoing third lockdown, which was imposed in late December. The ESRI said the revised projection assumes "a gradual easing of restrictions" from next month and that Covid-19 jabs "will facilitate the broad relaxation of public health restrictions in the second half of 2021". Ireland's economy grew by 3.4% in 2020 on the back of record exports in multinational-heavy sectors that have thrived during the pandemic.
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The EU tightened vaccine export controls in a bid to ramp up its stuttering inoculation campaign while the US said its inoculation drive was already showing results for over-65s. Under the EU's new rules, the bloc's European Commission executive will weigh how needy countries are as well as how readily they export doses to the EU before approving shipments. "Open roads should run in both directions," commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said. But where the EU vaccine rollout has stuttered, the US' leaps-and-bounds progress is now visible in "significant declines in emergency department visits among people over 65," said Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Around 70% of Americans aged 65 or over – more than 38 million people – have received at least one dose, and the group's hospital admissions for Covid are down 85% since early January. French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged that while the US had "looked to the stars" by pumping massive resources into vaccine procurement, the EU had been "a bit of a diesel engine...it starts slowly".
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By Tom Waite; [email protected]
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