The U.S. makes its final flight from Kabul. South African scientists say they’ve found a new coronavirus variant. And Singapore has a new richest person. Here’s what you need to know this morning.
The U.S. completed its 20-year military presence in Afghanistan with its final flight from Kabul. America's longest war ended after more than $1 trillion in spending with a rushed withdrawal of more than 120,000 people. The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding safe passage for anyone still seeking to leave the country and unhindered access for humanitarian relief agencies. Qatar confirmed it's in talks with the Taliban and Turkey about helping to run Kabul airport after the pullout. The Pentagon acknowledged that civilians died in a U.S. drone strike on a vehicle carrying explosives in Kabul Sunday.
China will limit the amount of time children can play video games to just three hours most weeks, as part of its ongoing regulatory crackdown to make the world a better place. Gaming platforms from Tencent to NetEase can only offer online gaming to minors from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, weekends and public holidays. Escalating restrictions on the lucrative gaming business are likely to spook investors who had cautiously returned to Chinese stocks in recent days. Xi’s campaign calling for “common prosperity” has intensified in recent weeks, with agencies vowing to step up tax enforcement, crack down on labor abuses and take action against “fan culture” in the entertainment industry. A commentary published widely in Chinese state-run media described Xi Jinping’s crackdown as a “profound revolution” sweeping the country.
Asian stocks look set for a steady open as traders assess a technology-led rally in U.S. shares and the latest escalation in China’s regulatory crackdown on private enterprise. Futures were steady for Japan and edged up for Australia and Hong Kong. U.S. contracts fluctuated after the S&P 500 notched its 12th all-time high in August and the Nasdaq 100 advanced, including a jump in Apple’s market value past $2.5 trillion. Treasuries pushed higher. The dollar was little changed.
Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid shot got the backing of key U.S. health advisers, putting the vaccine on the cusp of a final signoff that would help the government and business push wider adoption. Key U.S. health bodies voted unanimously in favor of the two-dose regimen in people 16 and older. Elsewhere, South African scientists said they identified a new coronavirus variant that has a concerning number of mutations; a study in Israel found a third booster shot appeared to significantly curb a delta-led surge in cases and prevent severe illness; and EU countries voted to reimpose restrictions on non-essential travel from the U.S.
Days after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an international probe into the origins of the coronavirus, Chinese bots swarmed on to Australian government networks and ran hundreds of thousands of scans, apparently looking for vulnerabilities that could later be exploited. Then followed months of active hacks, whose victims included the parliamentary email network, the Bureau of Meteorology and the departments of defense and health, that reverberated across the Australian economy. This is what can happen to even the wealthiest nations if they annoy China enough.
What We’ve Been Reading
This is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours:
And finally, here’s what Tracy’s interested in today
The crackdowns just keep coming. Overnight, China's securities watchdog announced it was going after private equity. Meanwhile, Xinhua reported that gaming companies like Tencent and NetEase will only be able to offer online gaming to kids for a maximum of three hours per week. Commentary published widely in Chinese state-run media described President Xi Jinping’s recent crackdowns as a “profound revolution” and a "return from the capital group to the masses of the people."
There are signs that markets are learning to live with this "profound revolution." ADRs of Tencent fell as much as 3.3% in the U.S. on Monday, but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the 10% plunge seen in July. Meanwhile, professional investors are looking for opportunities in the new landscape, with companies that make vital hardware such as the semiconductors which seem so valued by the state being the obvious candidates. Bloomberg reports today that venture capital firms upped the amount of money they're pouring into that space to $5.4 billion in the first-half of the year, surpassing the $5.1 billion raised over the entirety of 2020. So even if investors aren't quite sure exactly what Xi's endgame is, there are signs that they're trying get onboard with the broader message.
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August 31, 2021 at 06:19AM
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Five Things You Need to Know to Start Your Day - Bloomberg
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