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The New Mexico Spring
Fri, 16 Apr 2021 10:00:52 +0000
How progressives took power in the state's Democratic Party.
The post The New Mexico Spring appeared first on The Intercept.
Government to unveil new 95% mortgage guarantee scheme as Rightmove says average asking price rose 2.1% in April
A frenzy of activity has driven UK property prices to a record high this month, just as the government launches a mortgage guarantee scheme to help people with small deposits on to the housing ladder.
Online property portal Rightmove said the average asking price jumped by 2.1% in April to a new all-time high of £327,797, an increase of £6,733 from March.
Continue reading...Treasury measures to boost demand for property and a neglect of social housing are making a dysfunctional market worse
Having ridden out the pandemic far better than was expected, Britain’s housing market is enjoying a springtime boom. Demand for homes is surging to levels not seen for at least a decade, outstripping supply and pushing up prices. Earlier this month it was reported that the average cost of a UK home now stands at a record high of £254,606. Gazumping is rampant. A rural property with green space attached, within easy reach of a city, is the quintessential post-lockdown object of desire.
Mindful of the role of buoyant house prices in boosting consumer confidence and driving growth, Rishi Sunak is busily stoking the fires. The extension of the stamp duty holiday to the end of June concentrated minds among those with the wherewithal to relocate. A new version of help to buy, targeted at first-time buyers, was introduced this month. A government-backed mortgage guarantee scheme will be launched on Monday, protecting lenders who offer 95% mortgages on properties valued up to £600,000. This, Boris Johnson has claimed, will help turn “generation rent” into “generation buy”.
Continue reading...U.S. stocks on Friday finished the week on a strong note, with the Dow and S&P 500 posting their second consecutive closing records and the Nasdaq Composite ending within a stone's throw of its record. Bullish investors point to a strong start to earnings season from the likes of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group coupled with blowout economic reports, notably a 10% rise in retail sales in March and weekly jobless claims figures falling to a pandemic low. Further helping lift buying momentum was a momentary pause in a climb for bond yields, which had previously been a sign of rising borrowing costs for investors and companies. The 10-year Treasury note yield finished at 1.571% on Friday, up on the day but down nearly 10 basis points on the week, marking its sharpest weekly drop in about 10 months. Against that backdrop, the Dow Jones Indusrtrial Average closed up by about 165 points, or 0.5%, to reach around 34,200, extending its climb beyond the 34,000 milestone achieved on Thursday. The S&P 500 index closed at a record high, up 0.4% to 4,185, while the Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 0.1% at 14,052, about 0.3% from its closing high or a little over 40 points. For the week, the Dow booked a 1.2% gain and the S&P 500 ended 1.4% higher, marking their fourth consecutive weekly climbs. The Nasdaq Composite closed up 1.1% for the week to mark its third straight weekly advance.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
Gold futures settled higher on Friday, with prices getting a boost from a weekly decline in U.S. Treasury note yields, which helped prices for the precious metal post a gain of about 2% from a week ago. June gold rose $13.40, or 0.8%, to settle at $1,780.20 an ounce. That was the highest finish for a most-active contract since Feb. 24, according to FactSet data.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
State legislators are crafting ever more extreme abortion restrictions designed to reach the Supreme Court. 2021 has already seen more than 500 bills filed across the country.
The post Oklahoma Lawmaker Calls Abortion Worse Than Slavery appeared first on The Intercept.
Putting conditions on U.S. aid to Israel has become a controversial topic — but it was the norm in Washington just a few decades ago.
The post Rep. Betty McCollum Leads Effort to Block Israel From Using U.S. Aid to Destroy Palestinian Homes appeared first on The Intercept.
What began as the shaming of David Cameron now threatens to drag the current government into a cesspit
It has been a dreadful few weeks for David Cameron, the former prime minister and golden boy of the Tory party. His reputation – already terribly damaged by losing the 2016 Brexit referendum and his subsequent resignation – has now sunk to depths that once would have seemed unimaginable.
After winning a majority at the 2015 election, and freed of the need for coalition partners, Whitehall civil servants remember Cameron and his chancellor, George Osborne, at their peaks, strutting around Downing Street, radiating extraordinary power and confidence.
Continue reading...This time last year, NHS bosses asked doctors and nurses to ‘wear aprons’ and work without protective full-length gowns when treating Covid-19 patients, as hospitals were within hours of running out of supplies.
This is just one example of how the UK government has been slammed for its handling of the pandemic, through a series of missteps, U-turns, lockdowns, denials – and more than 150,000 deaths.
Twelve months on, the Guardian's Pamela Duncan looks at three major areas where officials were out of line with the data on coronavirus infections and deaths available at the time.
A government spokesperson responded, saying: ‘Throughout the pandemic, our approach has been guided by data and the advice of scientific and medical experts … As new evidence emerged, we acted quickly and decisively to implement life-saving measures, including restrictions and lockdowns, to protect lives, livelihoods and our economy. We are doing everything we can to ensure care home residents and staff are protected, including providing more than 9.9 billion items of PPE to the frontline.’
Continue reading...Despite pledging to recuse herself from contracts involving her partner “as necessary,” the council member-turned-House-candidate approved $17 million to Perk.
The post Shontel Brown Approved Major Contract, Then Contractor Backed Her Campaign appeared first on The Intercept.
Investors cheered the public debut of Agilon Health Inc. , as shares of the California-based provider of support services for primary care physicians opened 23% above its initial public offering price, then extended gains. Agilon's IPO priced late Wednesday at $23.00 a share, at the top of the expected range of between $20 and $23 a share, to value the company at $8.85 billion. The company offered 46.6 million shares in the IPO to raise $1.07 billion. J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and BofA Securities were the lead underwriters. The stock opened at $28.25 at 12:13 p.m. Eastern, and was recently trading 28.2% above the IPO price at $29.48, to push the valuation up to $11.34 billion. Agilon recorded a net loss of $60.1 million on revenue of $1.22 billion in 2020, after a loss of $282.6 million on revenue of $794.4 million in 2019. The company went public at a time that the Renaissance IPO ETF has slipped 3.4% over the past three months, while the SPDR Health Care Select Sector ETF has gained 3.2% and the S&P 500 has rallied 10.6%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
Shares of Bank of New York Mellon Corp. were indicated up fractionally in premarket trading Friday, after the bank reported first-quarter profit and revenue that fell from a year ago, given the impact of low interest rates, but topped expectations. Net income declined to $858 million, or 97 cents a share, from $944 million, or $1.05 a share, in the year-ago period. The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was 87 cents. Total revenue fell 5% to $3.92 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $3.84 billion, as total fee revenue fell 1% to $3.27 billion and net interest revenue dropped 20% to $655 million. Total revenue for the bank's largest, investment services business fell 8% to $2.99 billion, while investment and wealth management revenue rose 10% to $991 million. The bank resumed share repurchases during the quarter, and spent $699 million to buy back 16.8 million shares. The stock has advanced 13.1% year to date through Thursday, while the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF has rallied 19.2% and the S&P 500 has gained 11.0%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
Calls for clarity about Lord Prior’s involvement with Greensill as former PM David Cameron is under fire
The Conservative peer who chairs NHS England is facing demands to explain why he helped arrange for Greensill Capital to lobby senior health service bosses, with Labour describing his role as “shocking”.
David Prior is facing questions over a meeting he organised between the now collapsed finance firm’s founder Lex Greensill and the overall boss of the NHS and its chief financial officer.
Continue reading...Squarespace Inc. filed paperwork Friday for a direct-listing that would enable shares of the website-design company to trade on the New York Stock Exchange without the company raising money through a traditional initial public offering. Squarespace, which makes tools for building and hosting websites, generated revenue of $621.1 million in 2020, up from $484.8 million in 2019. The company is profitable but saw its net income decline to $30.6 million in 2020 from $58.2 million a year earlier. Squarespace had 3.66 million unique subscriptions to its platform as of the end of December. The company said in a filing that it's benefitting from a rise in online commerce and a growing interest from brands to develop better direct relationships with consumers. The company intends to list on the NYSE using the ticker SQSP. The company has yet to disclose when it plans to conduct the direct listing or how many shares will be made available in the process. Squarespace's filing comes after Coinbase Global Inc. held its own direct listing earlier this week.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
The Biden administration will invest $1.7 billion to help states and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention track and fight COVID-19 variants, the White House announced Friday. The money is from the COVID-relief law enacted last month, and includes $1 billion for expanding genomic sequencing; $400 million for studying genomic epidemiology; and $300 million for a system for sharing and analyzing sequencing data. The administration says "new and potentially dangerous strains" of the virus make up about half of COVID cases in the U.S. today.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Changing working patterns due to the pandemic are also helping to push UK property prices higher.
The average UK asking price jumped almost £7,000 this month, Rightmove reports, as some families try to find properties with more space for homeworking away from the office.
Related: UK house prices surge as high demand meets record shortage of homes for sale
‘A combination of lowest-ever interest rates, high loan-to-value mortgages, stamp duty relief and government stimulus, along with a year of on-and-off lockdown, has pushed demand for property to record levels.
If now isn’t the time to buy, then when is? Will we have such an appealing time to buy again, who knows? But with so many positive reasons to buy and people simply needing more space, this trend is set to continue in the short term at least.
In the City, the FTSE 100 index has opened higher.
It’s up 12 points at 7031, having hit the 7,000 point mark for the first time in over a year on Friday.
Continue reading...The law is clear about what I should get back after returning an item
Can you ask the fashion retailer Asos why it won’t refund me the delivery charge on some clothes I bought but later sent back because they were the wrong size?
While it has agreed to refund the cost of the items, it refuses to refund me the £4 delivery charge. It claims it is operating within consumer contract law, but my research suggests otherwise.
Continue reading...Dangerous nighttime expulsions are surging in Northern Mexico while organized crime and government security forces prey on stranded asylum-seekers.
The post As Biden Continues Trump’s War on Asylum, Danger Mounts in the Deadly Sonoran Desert appeared first on The Intercept.
Comcast Corp. "possesses a notable COVID-recovery component with its stores, parks, and theatrical business," which could help its stock even as defensive cable names have lagged recently, according to Raymond James analyst Frank Louthan IV. He upgraded shares of Comcast to outperform from market perform Friday while setting a $61 price target. Louthan sees room for upside from the NBCUniversal business, noting that Universal Studios Hollywood is reopening this week at limited capacity and with some restrictions. NBC has other open theme parks that were running at about 35% capacity late last year, with room to head higher. "We believe the uncertain timing of Universal Studios Hollywood reopening had been an overhang on the business," Louthan wrote in a note to clients. Louthan also sees potential in the company's Peacock streaming business and its mobility business. Peacock could start showing benefits from its exclusive streaming deal for "The Office" and could eventually come to reap rewards from the postponed Olympics, due to take place this summer, he argued. The mobility side of the business could show some improvements from the reopening of Xfinity stores, he continued. "Comcast appears to be giving up some gains from the renegotiation with Verizon this week, cutting prices by up to $15/month per line, implying aggressive promotions," Louthan wrote. "That said, we believe subscriber gains drive investor interest and significantly reduce churn." Shares of Comcast are up 1.3% in premarket trading Friday. They've gained 9.2% over the past three months as the S&P 500 has risen 10.7%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
Shares of Morgan Stanley fell 1.3% in premarket trading Friday, even after the financial services company reported first-quarter profit that more than doubled and revenue that jumped 60% to record levels, boosted by strength in the institutional securities business. Net income rose to $3.98 billion, or $2.19 a share, from $1.59 billion, or $1.01 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.22, above the FactSet consensus of $1.72. Revenue rose 60.7% to $15.72 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $14.10 billion, as institutional securities (IS) revenue grew 65.6% to $8.58 billion to top expectations of $7.25 billion. Within IS, equity revenue increased 17.4% to $2.88 billion and fixed income revenue increased 43.8% to $2.97 billion. Net interest income rose 49.6% to $2.03 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $1.60 billion. The company said it repurchased $2.1 billion worth of its stock during the quarter. The stock has rallied 17.9% year to date through Thursday, while the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF climbed 19.2% and the S&P 500 gained 11.0%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
High court judge to consider whether venues in England should be allowed indoor seating
A “David versus Goliath” legal action gets under way at the high court on Monday as hospitality bosses try to force the UK government to bring forward the reopening date for pubs and restaurants indoors.
A judge will this week consider evidence in the case brought by Sacha Lord, the night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester and a co-founder of Parklife festival, and Hugh Osmond, the founder of Punch Taverns and a former boss at Pizza Express. The case has been expedited.
Continue reading...It has more dress codes than almost any other sport – and yet golfers are some of the worst dressed sportsmen on the planet. But now a group of high-profile amateurs are bringing streetwear to the 18th
When Hideki Matsuyama won the Masters earlier this month, he was handed a crisp green blazer with gold buttons to mark the achievement. Given that the sport’s highest honour is a rather jazzy bit of tailoring, it’s ironic that golf attire at a professional level is so achingly bland. And yet, it’s a different story at amateur level where a new wave of high-profile celebrity players and upstart brands are making golf sartorially interesting for the first time in decades – so much so that it’s starting to spill over from the fairway into real life. Norm- “FORE!” has arrived.
https://t.co/es1rcS1KqB pic.twitter.com/FHXO2oF19I
Continue reading...A colourful puzzle from the UK girls’ maths olympiad
Today’s puzzle celebrates the UK’s outstanding performance at last week’s European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad, which is the world’s most prestigious female-only maths competition for pre-university students.
Yuhka Machino and Jenni Voon, both aged 17, placed 6th and 7th overall, each earning gold medals. Overall, the UK ranked fifth out of 55 countries, behind Russia, the USA, Peru and Romania. (The event was held online, allowing 17 non-European countries to participate as guests.)
Continue reading...Ahead of a busy summer of domestic tourism in the UK, qualified lifeguards and trainees rehearse life-saving procedures
From a distance the ocean looks calm – safe, even – but a sticker peeling from a window in St Agnes lifeguard station offers a cautionary warning to all visitors: Respect the Water, it says.
The summer ahead promises to be busier than ever in Cornwall, with a boom in domestic tourism fuelled by global coronavirus restrictions. This beautiful but unforgiving stretch of coastline will see its fair share of rescues.
The RNLI is training new lifeguards in preparation. Today, a group of five are learning first aid skills and rehearsing water rescue techniques using tubes and rescue boards – they must wear PPE for close proximity drills, even in the water. The trainees range in age from 16 to 33 and include students, a gas engineer, a marine biologist and a former champion surfer.
With journeys to distant corners of the globe still on hold, our writers are gearing up to hike, climb, camp, and swim on home turf
When we were kids it was always UK holidays, usually under canvas, and always recalled with affection. I have no problem giving up foreign travel for a while, although I do miss the sheer scale and biodiversity of distant wildernesses and worry about the communities who invested hope, and effort, in tourism as a way of holding off the oilmen, gold prospectors and road diggers. I’m praying they hang on. We will return!
Continue reading...The S&P 500 and Dow clinched fresh records Thursday, after economic reports continued to affirm a healthy recovery from the pandemic, highlighted by retail sales surging in March on the back of fiscal stimulus checks to consumers and jobless benefit claims falling to a fresh low for the COVID period. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up more than 300 points at a fresh milestone at 34,000, on a preliminary basis, the S&P 500 index notched a 1.1% advance to log its all-time closing high at around 4,170 and the Nasdaq Composite Index finished 1.3% higher at about 14,039, marking its first finish above 14,000 since February and its third-highest close in its history. U.S. retail sales surged almost 10% in March thanks to $1,400 stimulus checks paid to consumers by the federal government. Sales climbed 9.8% last month, the government said Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 6.1% increase.Adding to the market's optimism, weekly jobless benefit claims fell to a pandemic-era low. U.S. unemployment claims sank by 193,000 in the week of April 10, an unusually large decline that likely reflects both an improving economy but also continuing problems in processing applications for jobless benefits.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
The Guardian’s banking correspondent, Kalyeena Makortoff, and political correspondent Rajeev Syal discuss the unprecedented formal inquiry into lobbying by the former prime minister David Cameron on behalf of the collapsed finance company Greensill Capital
The Guardian’s banking correspondent, Kalyeena Makortoff, talks to Rachel Humphreys about Greensill, a company that specialised in supply-chain finance, and its relationship with the former prime minister David Cameron. Cameron joined Greensill as an adviser in 2018, two years after resigning as prime minister. It has emerged that last year he sent texts to Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and “informally” phoned two other Treasury ministers, asking for Greensill Capital to get the largest possible allocation of government-backed loans under the Covid corporate financing facility, or CCFF. He also lobbied a No 10 aide, and in 2019 took Lex Greensill to a “private drink” with Matt Hancock, the health secretary.
Although Cameron hasn’t broken any rules, there have been questions raised over the fact that he appears to have used personal contacts to seek preferential treatment for a company in which he had a financial stake. On Monday No 10 said it was launching an independent investigation into Cameron’s lobbying, led by the corporate lawyer and government adviser Nigel Boardman. Rachel also hears from Guardian political correspondent Rajeev Syal about how Cameron has responded to the scandal and the wider role of lobbying in UK politics.
Continue reading...A change in Border Patrol policies is straining human aid networks in one of the deadliest areas along the border.
The post “It’s Consumed Our Lives”: Volunteers Step In as Border Patrol Drops Migrants Off in Tiny Arizona Towns appeared first on The Intercept.
Dos 27 canais que sofreram penalidades, só um saiu do ar definitivamente. A maioria continua ganhando dinheiro do próprio Google com propagandas.
The post Como a extrema direita burla punições do YouTube – e o Google finge que não vê appeared first on The Intercept.
 | submitted by /u/FearLess_Alpha [link] [comments] |
A new poll found most Americans want Biden to break drug companies' monopolies and end Covid-19 vaccine apartheid.
The post There Shouldn’t Be Vaccine Patents in a Health Crisis. Most Americans Agree: Waive Them. appeared first on The Intercept.
Gone is the ‘do it for real’ approach – the stars of Mank and Another Round take a more sober approach to acting inebriated
Were there an Oscar for best on-screen drunk (which there really should be), it would be a close-run thing this year. My money would be on Aubrey Plaza, who provides a magnificent display of wastedness in her new movie, Black Bear. Playing a neurotic indie actor at the end of her tether, she spends half the movie stumbling, lurching, wailing and losing her dignity. She wasn’t actually drunk, of course. This is the great challenge: acting drunk when you’re sober is no easier than acting sober when you’re drunk. To get into the right frame of unsteadiness, Plaza would spin round until almost throwing up just before the scene. That’s commitment.
Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips
Continue reading...Our agreement in principle – when the score was lower – expired in February so we applied again
Q Back in November 2020, my partner and I used a broker to apply for a mortgage. At the time, my partner’s credit score at Experian was 629 and mine was 964, and we got an agreement in principle (AIP) for a mortgage. We weren’t able to find a house to buy before our “in principle” mortgage offer expired in February 2021. So in March we applied for a new one. This is what we don’t understand. We got turned down because of our credit score. But our credit score is slightly higher than it was in November. We tried other lenders and we got turned down for it again, for the same reason.
At the same time, we tried to contact the original lender to give us information on what is the specific credit number they require us to have. No one knows. They don’t even spend time on the phone. Why do we use a credit score system if no one knows about it? And who is responsible for this system? I want someone to justify to me why there is not clear information online. Why don’t lenders set targets for credit scores? I need to know what number to aim for.
AA
Items weren’t delivered and a payment taken twice but I can’t get in touch
I read your recent Guardian Money article about Milk & More forcing customers to go online. It came as I had been struggling to get in touch with the company for several days. Against my better judgment I registered for an online account at the end of May and placed a one-off order for the following Saturday, and my usual weekly order going forward.
When Saturday came, none of my extra items were delivered, but my online account showed that they had been.
Continue reading...Retiring head of Merseyside force says if he had £5bn he would spend 20% on policing and 80% on cutting poverty
Cutting poverty and inequality is the best way to reduce crime, a police chief has said, calling for more money for deprived areas to thwart criminals’ attempts to recruit those left desperate by deprivation.
In an unusually frank interview for a senior officer, given to mark his retirement as chief constable of Merseyside police, Andy Cooke said that if he was given £5bn to cut crime, he would put £1bn into law enforcement and £4bn into tackling poverty.
Continue reading...Under London pilot scheme support workers will help people claim benefits and deal with debts
GPs are to prescribe financial advice sessions for patients as part of a pilot scheme to help people with long-term health conditions.
Under the scheme in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark, doctors will send patients to see financial support link workers, who will help them claim benefits, obtain grants for essential items and deal with debts.
Continue reading...Josh Edgoose spent hours in the rain to capture this amusing juxtaposition that shows the capital in a colourful light
Josh Edgoose’s new book, Brilliant Parade, contains five years of his London pictures. Any spare time from his day job in merchandising he has used to walk the city with his camera, enjoying the meditative purpose of looking. He thinks of it as a form of gambling, but with time, not money - “you might put in eight hours and 20 miles and come back with nothing” - but occasionally his three graces – colour, coincidence and quiet comedy – align.
This picture was taken in Regent Street on a day when it was closed for a vintage car parade. Edgoose took the opportunity to crouch at the kerb to get the angle for the enormous shoes on the billboard to reflect in the puddle and create the ironies of perspective. Then all he had to do was wait. After an hour or two in the drizzle, in which he fielded questions from curious passers-by, the woman walked into his frame with the “right kind of silvery blue tones” and he had his picture.
Continue reading...The global death toll from the coronavirus-borne illness COVID-19 rose above 3 million on Saturday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, as the case tally climbed above 140 million. The U.S. leads the world in cases and deaths by wide margins, with 31.6 million cases and 566,238 deaths. The U.S. added at least 78,932 new cases and 940 new deaths on Friday, according to a New York Times tracker. The U.S. has averaged 70,117 cases a day in the past week, up 8% from the average two weeks ago. Outside of the U.S., India has replaced Brazil as the country with the second highest number of cases at 14.5 million, and is fourth globally by deaths at 175,649. Brazil is third by cases at 13.8 million and second with a death toll of 368,749. Mexico is third by deaths at 211,693 and 14th highest by cases at 2.3 million. The U.K. has 4.4 million cases and 127,472 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
Sheriffs in Minnesota worried about who would oversee an escrow account, funded by pipeline giant Enbridge, to reimburse the costs of policing protests.
The post Local Cops Said Pipeline Company Had Influence Over Government Appointment appeared first on The Intercept.
Privately held Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, was selected by NASA on Friday to move forward in developing a human landing system to carry the next two U.S. astronauts to the moon "and pave the way for sustainable lunar exploration." That's under NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans on the moon, collaborating with commercial and international partners, and eventually send astronauts to Mars. Elon Musk is chief executive on SpaceX as well as Silicon Valley electric-car maker Tesla Inc. SpaceX in February announced plans to send four space tourists to orbit later this year on a mission to raise awareness for a children's hospital. Last month, the company's prototype Mars rocket Starship broke apart while attempting to land.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
The Dow Jones Transportation Average was rising 0.1% in afternoon trading Friday, and looks set to eke out the longest weekly gain since the late-1980s. The Dow transports has edged up 0.2% this week, which would mark the 11th-straight weekly gain. That would be the longest such streak since the 11-week stretch that ended Feb. 3, 1989. The index has run up 23.6% during its weekly win streak. In comparison, its sister index the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.2% this week and was headed toward a fourth-straight weekly gain, and ninth gain in the past 11 weeks, and has advanced 14.1% over the past 11 weeks. Both Dow sister indexes are set to close at weekly records, which is a bullish sign for the broader stock market. One of the six basic tenets of the century-old Dow Theory of market analysis, according to the CMT Association, is that no important bull or bear market signal could take place unless both averages gave the same signal. The idea is, the indexes have a symbiotic relationship, since transports take what the industrials make; if the companies in one of the indexes isn't performing, there's a good chance companies in the other won't either.
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Oil futures fell on Friday, pulling back on the heels of four consecutive session gains, but finished the week up by more than 6%. Forecasts for higher oil demand and declines in U.S. crude inventories contributed to the weekly price climb. May West Texas Intermediate crude fell 33 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $63.13 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices for the front-month contract logged a weekly rise of 6.4%, according to FactSet data.
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Baker Hughes on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil was up by 7 at 344 this week. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes those drilling for natural gas, was also up by 7 at 439, according to Baker Hughes. May West Texas Intermediate crude continued to pull back after four consecutive session gains. The contract was down 18 cents, or 0.3%, to $63.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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Biomea Fusion Inc. rallied out of the gate Friday, as shares of the California-based biopharmaceutical company focused on treatment of genetically defined cancers opened 17.6% above the initial public offering price. The company said late Thursday its IPO, which was upsized to 9.0 million shares from 7.5 million shares, priced at $17 a share, at the top of the expected range, as it raised $153 million and was valued at $463.6 million. The stock's first trade was at $20.00 at 11:51 a.m. Eastern for 341,119 shares. The stock has pared some gains since then to trade up 16.2% at $19.75. The company went public on a day that the Renaissance IPO ETF fell 1.4% while the S&P 500 gained 0.2%.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
The homebuilder sector enjoyed a unanimous rally toward a record Friday, after data showing that new-home construction in March surged more than expected. the SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF rallied 1.6% toward a record close, with all 35 equity components gaining ground. Among the more active homebuilders, shares of Toll Brothers Inc. climbed 1.9% and D.R. Horton Inc. hiked up 2.3%, both into record territory, while Lennar Corp. advanced 1.0%, in range of its April 9 record close of $105.52. Also in the homebuilders ETF, shares of Home Depot Inc. rallied 1.3% and Lowe's Companies jumped 1.5%, both toward record closes. The homebuilders ETF has run up 29.6% year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 11.2%. Housing starts in March rose 19% from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.74 million, topping expectations of 1.62 million.
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A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory committee is scheduled to meet for a second time on Friday, April 23, to discuss rare safety concerns about Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine. Of the 6.8 million people in the U.S. who have received the J&J's shot, six women have been hospitalized with severe blood clots after receiving the vaccine. As a result, federal health officials recommended a "pause" in using the vaccine, a decision that was extended when the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met earlier this week. The emergency meeting is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time on April 23. It will be webcast to the public.
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Shares of Mer Telemanagement Solutions Ltd. shot up 62.4% on very heavy volume in morning trading Friday, to pace all gainers on major U.S. exchanges, after the Israel-based telecom expense management company agreed to be acquired by sports betting company SharpLink Inc. Trading volume spiked to 46.2 million shares, compared with the full-day average over the past 30 days of about 343,900 shares, to make the stock the second-most active on major U.S. exchanges. The stock's rally, which puts it on track for the highest close since August 2015, has pushed Mer's market valuation up to $24.1 million. Following the closing of the merger, SharpLink shareholders will own 86% of the combined company. "Following the merger, our company will be on the leading edge of a potentially massive sports betting market in the U.S. and globally," said Mer Chief Executive Roy Hess. "By providing proprietary advanced conversion and engagement solutions for the sports betting industry, we expect SharpLink's services will be needed by many companies looking to capitalize on this opportunity." Mer's stock has tripled (up 200.7%) year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 11.2%.
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U.S. stocks shot higher at the open Friday, aiming for fresh records, as economic reports and corporate results remained strong. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 157 points, 0.5%, to open near 34,193, while the S&P 500 added 15 points, 0.4%, starting trading near 4,185. Both indexes clinched record closes Thursday. The Nasdaq Composite index, meanwhile, ticked up 0.1%, about 15 points, to trade near 14,053. The pace of residential construction quickened in March, according to the most recent housing starts report and Morgan Stanley said profit doubled in the first quarter, topping analyst expectations.
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Shares of Affirm Holdings Inc. are up 2% in premarket trading Friday after Seaport Global analyst Chris Brendler upgraded the stock to buy from neutral and set an $80 price target. He sees the stock as more attractive following a 34% selloff since he initiated coverage of the company 10 weeks back, whereas the S&P 500 has gained 7% in that time. "In our view, this underperformance comes despite increasing evidence that BNPL [buy-now-pay-later] is going to be huge in the US and based on a string of encouraging data points, we expect Affirm to materially exceed near-term expectations," Brendler wrote in a note to clients. The company offers financial options that let consumers pay in installments, and this trend seems to be reaching a "hyper growth adoption phase in the U.S.," Brendler continued, which could set Affirm up for success. "We also want to be in front of Affirm's Shopify partnership which has the potential to significantly accelerate Affirm's growth," he wrote. "Recent data suggests the wait is nearly over, and we expect management to provide an update on the upcoming earnings call."
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Shares of Kansas City Southern tacked on 0.1% in premarket trading, after the rail road operator reported a first-quarter profit and revenue miss, with Chief Executive Patrick Ottensmeyer citing "several unique and challenging events," but he said he can "confidently confirm" the full-year outlook. Net income rose to $153.0 million, or $1.68 a share, from $151.7 million, or $1.58 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, such as merger costs and foreign exchange losses, adjusted earnings per share came to $1.91, below the FactSet consensus of $1.95. Revenue fell 3.5% to $706.0 million, missing the FactSet consensus of $714.0 million. Among the "challenging" events mentioned by CEO Ottensmeyer were adverse weather resulting from the Polar Vortex and lingering network congestion. The company said in January that it expects 2021 revenue growth in the double-digit percentage range and EPS of $9.00 or better. The stock has rallied 26.7% year to date through Thursday, while the Dow Jones Transportation Average has advanced 19.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 11.2%.
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Shares of Esports Technologies Inc. soared 36.5% in premarket trading Friday, adding to the 6-fold gain in the previous session, as investors continued to cheer the public debut of the Las Vegas-based online gambling company. The stock's first trade Thursday morning was at $21.00, or 250% above the $6.00 a share initial public offering price, and it continued to climb in volatile trading to close at $36.42. At that closing price, the Esports' market capitalization was about $460.7 million, compared with the market cap of $75.9 million at the IPO pricing. Based on premarket trading Friday, the company is on track to open with a market cap above $600 million. The frenzy for Esports shares occurred on a day that shares of Applovin Corp. , with a valuation of $28.6 billion at the IPO price, closed 18.5% below its IPO price, and TuSimple Holdings Inc. , valued at $8.5 billion at its IPO price, closed right at its IPO price. The Renaissance IPO ETF rose 1.3% on Thursday while the S&P 500 gained 1.1%.
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Investment companies Knighthead Capital Management LLC and Certares Management LLC have sweetened their bid for bankrupt rental-car company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. and are now offering a deal that values the company at $6.2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The investors said their new offer fully covers Hertz's funded debt and has the backing of Apollo Global Management Inc. and existing shareholders. Hertz endorsed a restructuring offer backed by Centerbridge Partners LP, Warburg Pincus LLC and Dundon Capital Partners LLC earlier in April to sponsor its exit from chapter 11. With their new proposal, Knighthead, Certares and their co-investors proposed taking control of Hertz with backing from Apollo, which has agreed to supply up to $2.5 billion in preferred equity financing, people familiar with the matter said. Hertz, which is aiming to exit bankruptcy by end-Juen, did not response to a request for comment.
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Eli Lilly and Co. said Friday it is seeking a revocation of the emergency use authorization granted by U.S. regulators for its bamlanivimab antibody treatment for COVID-19 alone in order to complete the transition to bamlanivimab and etesevimab together. "Lilly made this request due to the evolving variant landscape in the U.S. and the full availability of bamlanivimab and etesevimab together," the company said in a statement. The combination has proved to be more effective in neutralizing the COVID-19 variants that have been detected in the U.S. after first emerging in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil, and that are more infectious than the original virus. The combination is also better at treating the rapidly growing B.1.427/B.1.429 California strain that currently accounts for 50% of virus cases in California and over 10% of cases in other states. "In the U.S., bamlanivimab alone should no longer be administered. However, sites of care should not dispose of bamlanivimab supply; instead, they should order etesevimab to pair with it," said Lilly. Bamlanivimab was the first neutralizing monoclonal antibody to receive an EUA from the FDA as a treatment for mild to moderate COVID-19 and more than 400,000 patients have been given it. Lilly estimates that has prevented more than 20,000 hospitalizations and at least 10,000 deaths during the peak of pandemic cases. Lily expects that in collaboration with Amgen Inc. , it can manufacture sufficient supply of the two antibodies to meet global supply needs. Lilly shares were up 0.6% premarket, and have gained 10% in the year-to-date, matching the S&P 500's gains.
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The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness rose above 139 million on Friday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, as the death toll climbed above 2.98 million. The U.S. leads the world in cases and deaths by wide margins, with 31.5 million cases, or about 23% of the global total, while the 565,289 death toll makes up about 19% of the global toll. The U.S. added at least 74,312 new cases and 909 new deaths on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker. The U.S. has averaged 70,514 cases a day in the past week, up 8% from the average two weeks ago. Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Albert Bourla said it is likely that people who receive Covid-19 vaccines will need booster shots within a year afterward, and then annual vaccinations, to maintain protection against the virus as it evolves, the Wall Street Journal reported. "The variants will play a key role. It is extremely important to suppress the pool of people that can be susceptible to the virus," Bourla said during a virtual event hosted by CVS Health Corp. that aired Thursday but was recorded April 1. Outside of the U.S., India has replaced Brazil as the country with the second highest number of cases at 14.3 million, and is fourth globally by deaths at 174,308. Brazil is third by cases at 13.7 million and second with a death toll of 365,444. Mexico is third by deaths at 211,213 and 14th highest by cases at 2.3 million. The U.K. has 4.4 million cases and 127,438 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.
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Biomea Fusion Inc. was set to go public Friday, as the California-based biopharmaceutical company focused on treatment of genetically defined cancers said its upsized initial public offering priced at $17 a share, at the high end of the expected range of between $15 and $17 a share. The company said late Thursday that it offered 9.0 million shares in the IPO, up from previous expectations of 7.5 million shares, to raise $153 million. At the IPO pricing, Biomea was valued at $463.6 million. The stock is expected to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "BMEA." J.P. Morgan, Jefferies and Piper Sandler are book-running managers. The company recorded a net loss of $5.3 million on no revenue in 2020 after a loss of $1.2 million on no revenue in 2019. The company is going public at a time of tempered investor demand for IPOs, as the Renaissance IPO ETF has lost 3.6% over the past three months while the S&P 500 has gained 10.7%.
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PTC Inc. PTC shares ticked higher in the extended session Thursday after S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that the product-management software company would be joining the S&P 500 index SPX. PTC shares rose 1.3% after hours, following a 0.7% rise to close the regular session at $147.55. By April 20, PTC is set to replace Varian Medical Systems Inc. on the index following Varian’s acquisition by Siemens Healthineers AG SMMNY.
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Shares of Merck & Co. were up 0.1% in premarket trading on Thursday after the drug company said the oral antiviral COVID-19 treatment it is developing with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics did not help hospitalized patients in a mid-stage clinical trial. The companies now plan to test molnupiravir in non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a Phase 3 trial, with plans to file for emergency authorization in the second half of the year. They are also planning to see if the experimental therapy works for post-exposure prophylaxis. In a separate news release, Merck said it is discontinuing MK-7110 as a treatment for patients hospitalized with COVID-19, saying that the Food and Drug Administration's request for additional clinical information would push the launch into 2022. "Merck is now focusing its efforts on advancing molnupiravir, which, as an oral medicine for outpatient use, represents a promising potential new approach, and on accelerating production of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine," Dr. Roy Baynes, chief medical officer for Merck Research Laboratories, said in the release. Merck's stock has gained 6.6% since the start of the year, while the broader S&P 500 is up 9.8%.
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Oil futures climbed Thursday to tally a fourth session gain in a row. A higher forecast for global oil demand from the International Energy Agency and recent data from the Energy Information Administration showing a third straight weekly decline in U.S. crude inventories continued to provide support for prices. Traders also eyed the latest talks on the Iran nuclear deal. May West Texas Intermediate crude rose 31 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $63.46 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after climbing 4.9% on Wednesday. Prices for the front-month contract logged another finish at their highest since March 17, FactSet data show.
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Exchange-traded funds tracking the banking sector fell Thursday even as big banks reported quarterly results that blew away analyst expectations. The broad Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund lost 0.5% midday Thursday, while funds more focused on banks were down more sharply: the Invesco KBW Bank ETF slid 1.7% and the First Trust Nasdaq Bank ETF was off 1.2%. Shares of JPMorgan Chase , which reported on Wednesday, were flat, but Citigroup Inc. and Well Fargo & Company both lost 0.7%.
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The latest in our series of writers sticking up for reviled films is a defense of the ‘toyetic’ action fantasy flop that puts monsters in … trucks
There is nothing pure about Monster Trucks. It is not a work of art born from some noble truth. It is a product – brightly-colored content meant to generate toys. The idea originated around 2013 when Adam Goodman, then president of Paramount’s Motion Picture Group, watched his four-year-old son playing with toy trucks. By 2014, Paramount issued a press release calling their new title Monster Trucks a “movie which has great toyetic appeal.” This unapologetic ploy to sell plastic made for an ignoble start to Monster Trucks, and things wouldn’t improve. The general concept – monster trucks that have real, but friendly, monsters inside them – didn’t inspire much confidence outside of “toyetic appeal,” either.
Related: Hear me out: why The Wedding Planner isn't a bad movie
Continue reading...A deflating pattern is emerging in rural, conservative and vaccine-hesitant states as authorities worry that stakes could not be higher in those same communities
Teton county, Wyoming, is at the vanguard of America’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign – but it isn’t celebrating.
The county has vaccinated far more people proportionally than in most of America – 39% – compared to less than a quarter nationally. Local authorities are concerned they may have hit a saturation point. Vast, rural and conservative Wyoming is one of the most vaccine hesitant places in the nation, and fewer people are signing up for vaccine clinics. Similar patterns are emerging across the US.
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Exclusive: publication by Labour MPs in once safe seats warns party’s problems predate Corbyn’s leadership and Brexit
Labour will never get back into government unless it can reinvent itself to appeal again to working-class voters, a major examination of the party’s future has warned, saying the problems go far beyond Brexit or Jeremy Corbyn’s time as leader.
The conclusion comes in a collection of pieces written by Labour MPs representing once safe seats which are now at risk, among them several shadow ministers, including John Healey, the shadow defence minister, who edited the report.
Continue reading...ClientEarth calls for tobacco-like health warnings on advertisements from fossil fuel firms
Some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies have used advertising to “greenwash” their ongoing contribution to the climate crisis, according to files published by the environmental lawyers ClientEarth. They describe the practice as “a great deception”.
The files compare the adverts produced by ExxonMobil, Aramco, Chevron, Shell, Equinor and others with the companies’ operations and products, overall climate impact and progress toward climate-safe business models.
Continue reading...Last August, Bob Pape and his family went on a city break to Birmingham, making the most of the chancellor Rishi Sunak’s ‘eat out to help out’ scheme. The day after he arrived home, his Covid symptoms began. Guardian writer Sirin Kale looks at the links between the scheme and the rise in Covid numbers
Like millions of people, Bob Pape and his family took advantage of the government’s “eat out to help out” scheme last August. They took a mini-break to Birmingham and ate at a handful of restaurants. Upon his return, Pape fell ill, was put on a ventilator, and died a few weeks later.
As part of her Lost to the Virus series, the Guardian writer Sirin Kale wrote about Pape and his family, and reports here on the story of their ill-fated holiday. She talks to Rachel Humphreys about the links between EOTHO and rises in Covid cases, telling her about her conversation with the University of Warwick economist Thiemo Fetzer. He has published a paper analysing the impact of EOTHO on Covid infections. Fetzer found that areas with higher take-up of the scheme experienced an increase in Covid infection rates, with between 8% and 17% of new Covid infection clusters attributable to EOTHO.
Former Liberal Democrat minister Tom Brake responds to an article by Polly Toynbee on the 2014 act
In response to Polly Toynbee’s article (Cameron passed a lobbying act, but it was never meant to curb corruption, 15 April), as a Liberal Democrat minister in coalition, I was involved in drawing up the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014. At no point did I, or any of my colleagues, ever discuss introducing measures designed to target the National Union of Students because we “lived in terror” of it.
What we did discuss was the risk of groups similar to the US National Rifle Association emerging as major players in UK politics. These organisations support a preferred candidate by viciously targeting their main opponent, but because they act “independently”, their spending does not count against their favoured candidate’s election spending limit.
Continue reading...Fall comes amid warnings over speculation by novice investors in cryptocurrencies such as dogecoin
Bitcoin has posted its biggest one-day drop in almost two months, amid warnings that novice investors could suffer heavy losses from speculating in crypto assets such as “meme coin” dogecoin.
Bitcoin tumbled more than 11% on Sunday, dropping from about $62,000 (£45,000) to $55,000 – its lowest level since the end of March. Last week, the cryptocurrency had hit fresh record highs at nearly $65,000.
Continue reading...‘Cosy relationship’ between government and lobbyists ‘stinks of sleaze’, says Rachel Reeves
Labour has accused the government of being too complacent about the lobbying crisis after a cabinet minister claimed the current rules were “pretty good” and “quite robust”.
George Eustice, the environment secretary, used the phrases in interviews in which he also defended David Cameron’s lobbying on behalf of Greensill Capital and played down the need for any wide-ranging reform of the Whitehall probity rules.
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China dominates supply of the elusive metals, which are vital to modern technology, but finding new sources is becoming a global priority
There are an estimated 1.4bn cars on the world’s roads today. Around 78m new cars are sold every year. To head off the worst effects of climate change, every single one will need to go electric eventually.
Whether it rolls off a production line in Fremont, California, or comes together in a vast megafactory in Qinghai, China, a colossal amount of human effort must go into building the components and obtaining their base minerals. In each car, for instance, there is roughly a kilogram of magnet providing the motion needed to fire engines and electrify windows. Roughly 30% of this material is made up of rare earth material known as neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr).
Continue reading...Howard Dean, ex-governador democrata no estado de Vermont, se junta à indústria farmacêutica para lutar contra o compartilhamento de propriedade intelectual para vacinas de baixo custo.
The post Pressão sobre Biden contra vacinas genéricas de covid-19 para outros países vem até de ex-governador democrata appeared first on The Intercept.
When a democratic socialist slate won in March, establishment staffers rushed to drain party funds. Now the new staff has raised it back — and then some.
The post Nevada’s New Democratic Party Raises Back Funds Shuttled by Ex-Staff appeared first on The Intercept.
We would like to hear from pub owners and workers in England about their first week of reopening
The reopening of pubs in England on 12 April saw people having a drink in outdoor spaces and supporting their local businesses.
We would like to hear from pub owners and workers on how the first week has been. What is your most memorable moment?
Continue reading...Hungary has one of the lowest birthrates in Europe, and the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is spending significant money trying to convince young people to have babies. Leah Green and Ekaterina Ochagavia visit Budapest, where they meet three women of similar age and with very different outlooks on the country’s parenting drive
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