Major International Business Headlines Brief::: 22 February 2021

Mon Feb 22 16:31:34 CAT 2021

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ü  Sudan devalues currency in effort to access debt relief

ü  Bitcoin Rally Faces Potential Test From Falling Market Liquidity

ü  Robinhood boss says GameStop episode 'unacceptable'

ü  AngloGold unveils five-fold dividend lift, plots gold production growth to 2025

ü  Amplats to increase PGM production a fifth to 3.6 million oz/year by 2030

ü  Boeing recommends airlines suspend use of some 777s after United incident

ü  Australia says no further Facebook, Google amendments as final vote nears

ü  Biden to revise small business loans to reach smaller, minority firms

ü  White House says stock-trading tax is worth studying after GameStop frenzy

ü  A Giant Fund Bought EV Stocks NIO and Tesla, and Intel. Here’s What It Sold

ü  Tesla Stops Taking Orders For Base Versions Of Model Y: Report

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Sudan devalues currency in effort to access debt relief

The move meets key demand by international financial institutions to help Sudan’s transitional authorities overhaul its battered economy.

The Central Bank of Sudan has sharply devalued the currency, announcing a new regime to “unify” official and black-market exchange rates in an effort to overcome a crippling economic crisis and access debt relief.

The change on Sunday is a key reform demanded by foreign donors and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but was delayed for months as shortages of basic goods and rapid inflation complicated a fragile political transition.

The central bank set the indicative rate at 375 pounds to the US dollar, several commercial banking sources said, from a previous official rate of 55 pounds. Recently, the dollar traded at between 350 and 400 Sudanese pounds on the black market.

The central bank will set a daily indicative rate in a “flexible managed float”, a circular sent to banks said. Banks and exchange bureaus are required to trade within 5 percent above or below that rate.

The circular also set a profit margin between buying and selling prices of no more than 0.5 percent. Authorities would not control the rate, the central bank governor told reporters, though Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim said unspecified foreign funds were on their way to Sudan and the central bank could intervene if needed.

“The decision is not a float, but a policy of flexible management,” said central bank Governor Mohamed al-Fatih Zainelabidine.

Steps had been taken to streamline imports of strategic commodities and limit imports of non-essential goods before the devaluation, officials said.

Ibrahim said Sudan’s customs exchange rate was not included in the devaluation and its reform was still under study.

Sunday’s move had been expected late last year under an IMF staff monitoring programme that could lead to relief on Sudan’s estimated $60bn in foreign debt, but was held up by political uncertainty.

As well as paving the way for debt relief, the devaluation would help stabilise the currency, reduce smuggling and speculation, and attract remittances from Sudanese working overseas, the central bank said in a statement.

It comes less than two weeks after Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok appointed a new government to add rebel group leaders who signed a peace deal in October, including Ibrahim.

Hamdok is serving under a joint military-civilian council that took power after the overthrow of veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

The success of the transition is seen as crucial to stability in a volatile region, as Sudan emerges from decades of international isolation.

Last year the government lifted most fuel subsidies, meeting another key demand from lenders, and the United States removed Sudan from its “state sponsors of terrorism” list as its leaders agreed to take steps towards normalising relations with Israel.

However, an economic crisis that triggered mass protests against al-Bashir has continued, marked by shortages of fuel, bread and electricity. Annual inflation has accelerated to more than 300 percent, one of the world’s highest rates.

Unusually violent protests that authorities blamed on ex-regime loyalists broke out in several regions early this month.

A donor-funded family support programme meant to soften the blow of subsidy cuts was delayed due to the exchange rate gap, though Zainelabidine said funds to be spent at the new rate would be disbursed to the finance ministry from Monday.

Some economists said they expected the effect of devaluation on inflation to be limited because almost all transactions were already being carried out at the black market rate.-Al Jazeera

Bitcoin Rally Faces Potential Test From Falling Market Liquidity

(Bloomberg) -- The rally in Bitcoin that took the digital token to a fresh peak over the weekend could face a test from declining liquidity in the market for the largest cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin rose as high as $58,350 on Sunday before retreating to about $56,200 as of 2:30 p.m. in Tokyo on Monday. The token has roughly tripled in the past three months but its liquidity has deteriorated, according to Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a strategist at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

“Market liquidity is currently much lower for Bitcoin than in gold or the S&P 500, which implies that even small flows can have a large price impact,” he wrote in a note on Friday.

Such a backdrop opens up the possibility of sharp moves higher or lower in the cryptocurrency depending on the prevailing ardor for digital assets. Of late, even some of the token’s biggest backers appear surprised by its ascent. In a recent tweet, Elon Musk said Bitcoin prices “seem high,” having earlier called it a “less dumb” version of cash.

Bitcoin trading volumes are around $10 billion daily for the spot and futures market combined, compared with an equivalent figure of $100 billion for gold, Panigirtzoglou wrote. That’s consistent with “much lower liquidity in Bitcoin than in gold,” he said.

Cryptocurrencies have enjoyed a strong start to the year, leaving other assets in the dust. The Bitcoin faithful argue corporate treasurers and institutional investors are new sources of demand and that the token can hedge risks such as faster inflation. Others see a prime example of speculative froth stoked by hedge funds and day traders in markets awash with stimulus.

“Bitcoin seems impervious to the barrage of fear, uncertainty and doubt waged against the industry,” Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, wrote in an email.

Shares of Asian cryptocurrency stocks advanced Monday in the wake of Bitcoin’s all-time high. One of the biggest movers was Japan’s Monex Group Inc., which jumped as much as 16%.

Ether, the largest token after Bitcoin, also rallied over the weekend, topping $2,000 for the first time on Saturday. It’s up about 150% year-to-date.

Robinhood boss says GameStop episode 'unacceptable'

The head of the Robinhood trading platform has apologised to customers at a US congressional hearing prompted by last month's GameStop trading frenzy.

Vlad Tenev said the situation the firm faced in January - when financial strains led it to limit certain stock purchases - was "unacceptable to us".

"We are doing everything we can to make sure this won't happen again," he said.

Lawmakers said the move, which sparked outrage, had raised questions about fairness in financial markets.

"Many Americans feel that the system is stacked against them and no matter what, Wall Street always wins," said congresswoman Maxine Waters, who heads the House Financial Services Committee holding the hearing.

Mr Tenev said the firm, which is popular among everyday investors, was forced to temporarily limit trades in GameStop and some other firms due to new financial requirements it faced because of the surge in trading.

He said the firm moved quickly to raise new funds, which would help it avoid making similar moves in the future.-BBC

He also denied that Robinhood had been acting at the behest of anyone else.

"I'm sorry for what happened. I apologise," he said. "I'm not going to say that Robinhood did everything perfectly, and that we haven't made mistakes in the past, but what I commit to is that we improve from this."

Other key players called to testify at the hearing also denied wrongdoing in the affair, which saw the price of GameStop shares rise from less than $20 at the beginning of January to more than $350 in a matter of weeks.

The astonishing rise, apparently fuelled by a swarm of independent traders swapping tips on social media forums such as Reddit, has sparked probes examining the possibility of market manipulation and other potential conflicts of interest.

Robinhood's ties to Wall Street firm Citadel Securities have faced particular scrutiny.

Robinhood receives fees from the market maker Citadel Securities, which pays to execute Robinhood customer orders. Citadel, the hedge fund business, and its partners last month invested in Melvin Capital, one of the hedge funds hit by losses after betting that GameStop's shares would fall.

Kenneth Griffin, the founder of Citadel Securities, said no-one in his company had any discussions with Robinhood about restricting trades in GameStop or other so-called "meme stocks".

"I first learned of Robinhood's trading restrictions after they were announced," he said.

Mr Griffin and Mr Tenev attracted most of the attention at the sometimes combative hearing, which saw lawmakers raise potential regulatory changes, such as requirements that firms disclose when they have made large bets against a stock.

Melvin Capital hedge fund manager Gabriel Plotkin told lawmakers that he was wary of holding short positions again after retail investors pushed GameStop shares higher, causing the firm shed 53% of its value.

Industry needs to adapt

"They exploited an opportunity around short selling and we will have to adapt and the whole industry will have to adapt," he said.

Republicans sought to head off new rules, noting that it was government requirements that precipitated Robinhood to limit trades.

"Piling on more and more regulations only increases complexity and does not help investors," said Barry Loudermilk, a Republican representative from Georgia.

Ms Waters hit back at characterisations of the hearing as "political theatre" - but also suggested that she was not rushing to additional action.

"I didn't hear anyone here say they were ready to pile on regulations," she said.

Others testifying at the hearing included Melvin Capital chief executive Gabriel  Plotkin, Reddit chief executive Steve Huffman, and Keith Gill, a Reddit user and YouTube streamer known as Roaring Kitty who promoted his investment in GameStop.

Shares in the loss-making video games retailer have fallen back since January, closing at about $40 on Thursday.

AngloGold unveils five-fold dividend lift, plots gold production growth to 2025

ANGLOGOLD Ashanti today declared a five-fold increase in the full-year dividend and set out plans for 5% higher annual gold production by 2025.

These measures are part of a strategy intended to mark the end of a difficult 2020 in which AngloGold parted ways with its CEO and chairman, both within six months of each other.

However, the company has not yet fastened down a permanent CEO following Kelvin Dushnisky’s August departure. Sipho Pityana, chairman of AngloGold Ashanti for six years until his surprise December resignation, was succeeded by Maria Ramos.

Last year was also historic in that AngloGold completed the sale of its remaining South African assets, divesting of Mponeng and Mine Waste Solutions to Harmony Gold for about $300m. AngloGold Ashanti was founded in 2004, but its history reaches back to when Anglo American started mining gold on the Witwatersrand.

“After several years of rationalising our portfolio, we have a clear and credible path to disciplined, high-return growth,” said interim CEO, Christine Ramon in a statement. “We’ve built a solid balance sheet, which allows us to continue self-funding our capital investment while rewarding shareholders.”

Headline earnings for the 12 months ended December came in at $1bn, equal to 238 US cents per share which compares to $379m (91 US cents/share) in 2019. The group consequently declared a full year dividend of 48c/share compared to 9c/share last year. In rand terms the full-year dividend was 705c/share (2019: 165c/share).

AngloGold pays out 20% of free cash flow before growth expenditure, a rate it doubled last year. Free cash flow increased to just over $1bn in the 2020 financial year.

Ramon said in a media conference call today that she was confident the dividend payout was sustainable despite the possibility of the gold price trending lower.

Based on certain organic growth projects, AngloGold Ashanti said it would grow annual production to between 3.2 million ounces and 3.6 million oz by 2025. Production for 2020 totalled 3.05 million oz. Production growth would come mainly from the ramp-up of its Obuasi mine in Ghana and incremental improvements elsewhere in the portfolio. There were also plans to approve the development of greenfield gold prospects in Colombia which it holds in joint venture with B2Gold, a Toronto-listed gold miner.

AngloGold said it had increased ore reserves by six million oz of gold through extensions of existing operations and brownfields exploration, especially at Obuasi in Ghana – by 1.8 million oz – and Geita in Tanzania (1.4 million oz). This more than replaced depletion from mining and extended the overall reserve life of the firm’s portfolio to 11 years.

Commenting in a media call, Ramon said the board understood the urgency of appointing a new CEO. “The board is seized with the matter,” she said.

Plans to change the company’s primary listing – it had previously been part of strategy whilst Dushnisky was CEO – was not an immediate priority. “It could add value at the right time,” said Ramon.-Miningmx

Amplats to increase PGM production a fifth to 3.6 million oz/year by 2030

ANGLO American Platinum (Amplats) has targeted a one-fifth increase in attributable platinum group metals (PGMs) production to 3.6 million ounces annually by 2030 by which time its portfolio would consist only of mechanised and modernised mines.

The increase in production is a sign of growing confidence in supply deficit forecasts for PGMs, palladium and rhodium especially, as well as platinum which is expected to from a market surplus to a deficit next year.

Last week, Sibanye-Stillwater announced R6.8bn worth of new PGM projects which would add 250,000 oz in production in the next two years.

Natascha Viljoen, who will be 12 months into the job as CEO of Amplats in April, said the company had “a strong platform for growth”, adding that it owned “… diverse, low cost, and long-life mining and processing assets”.

As a result of its expansion ambitions, Amplats will increase total capital expenditure (stay in business plus expansionary capital) from the R10bn to R11bn forecast for this year to R12bn for 2022 and the 2023 financial years, potentially increasing to R13bn and R23bn thereafter.

The wide forecast range in capital expenditure in the later years is owing to options Amplats has regarding its Mogalakwena expansion. Currently an open pit mine, Mogalakwena has “a real opportunity of going underground,” said Viljoen in an interview today. A consideration in this respect is whether to risk the ‘ESG impacts’ of developing “a mega-pit” by continuing to mine Mogalakwena’s open pit.

Another major consideration in the capital expenditure estimate is the addition of a third concentrator at Mogalakwena. Viljoen said that based on present understanding, there would be a gradual, modular build-out approach with a third concentrator.

As Amplats had announced a mechanisation and modernisation of its mines, there were no plans to sell or close Amandelbult, an operation in the portfolio that still operates as a conventional, labour-intensive mine. “Not unless we get an absolutely amazing offer for the mine,” said Craig Miller, CFO of Amplats.

Amplats is, however, conducting a sale process for its stake in Bokoni Platinum Mines which it holds with Atlatsa Resources, its former empowerment partner. Miller said the sale ought to be concluded in the current financial year.

There were no plans to expand the group’s Zimbabwean footprint where there will be a marginal production increase owing to debottlenecking processes at is Unki mine. “We would love Zimbabwe to be higher,” said Viljoen of Unki’s future contribution to group production, but the country’s political risks were too high.

Amplats attributable production in the 2020 financial year – in which the group increased the full-year dividend 65% to R45.58/share – totalled about three million oz. A final dividend of R35.35/share was announced – equal to R9.4bn – reflective of the firm’s 40% of headline earnings payout policy.

The 2020 financial year was a difficult period for Amplats largely owing to the shutdown of its processing unit in Rustenburg which kept sales of refined metal to about 2.7 million oz, a year-on-year decline of 42% at a cost of R12.8bn to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA).

Nonetheless, a 71% increase in the average rand price for the PGM basket of metals helped Amplats to a 64% improvement in basic earnings of just over R30bn. Net cash increased 8% or R1.4bn to end as of December 31 at R18.7bn.

“We are committed to disciplined capital allocation and continued our base dividend pay-out of 40% of headline earnings,” said Viljoen. “I am excited about the impact we will make and the value we will return to stakeholders in our purpose-led journey,” she said.

It would take about 24 months to roll out the capital build-up associated with the downtime of Amplats’ processing facilities, said Miller.

For the 2021 financial year, Amplats has targeted PGM concentrate production of between 4.2 to 4.6 million oz and refined production and sales of 4.6 to five million oz. Mining EBTDA margin of 35% to 45% had been targeted and a return on capital employed of 25% through the cycle. Carbon neutrality in respect of Scope 1 and 2 criteria had been set for 2040 with a 30% carbon emissions reduction for 2030.-miningmx

Boeing recommends airlines suspend use of some 777s after United incident

(Reuters) - Boeing Co urged airlines to suspend the use of 777 jets with the same type of engine that shed debris over Denver at the weekend after U.S. regulators announced extra inspections and Japan suspended their use while considering further action.

The moves involving Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines came after a United Airlines 777’s right engine failed on Saturday, scattering its protective outer casing over a residential area.

United said the next day it would voluntarily and temporarily remove its 24 active planes, hours before Boeing’s announcement.

Boeing said 69 of the 777 planes with PW4000 engines were in service and 59 were stored, at a time when airlines have grounded planes due to a plunge in demand associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The manufacturer recommended airlines suspend operating them until U.S. regulators identified the appropriate inspection protocol.

It falls short of a mandatory global grounding but is another headache for the plane maker after its 737 MAX crisis and comes after criticism of U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversight regarding the 737 MAX.

The 777-200s and 777-300s affected are older and less fuel efficient than newer models and are currently being flown by just five airlines - United, Japan Airlines Co Ltd (JAL), ANA Holdings Inc, Asiana Airlines Inc and Korean Air Lines Co Ltd. Most of them are phasing them out of their fleets.

The problem concerns Pratt & Whitney, one of three engine makers originally involved in the 777, whose engines power less than 10% of the delivered fleet of more than 1,600 planes.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said its initial examination of the 26-year-old plane indicated most of the damage was confined to the right engine, with only minor damage to the airplane.

It said the inlet and casing separated from the engine and two fan blades were fractured, while the other fan blades exhibited damage.

Pratt & Whitney, owned by Raytheon Technologies Corp, said it was coordinating with operators and regulators to support a revised inspection interval for the engines.

METAL FATIGUE

Japan’s transport ministry ordered JAL and ANA Holdings to suspend their use while it considered whether to take additional measures, acting before the FAA.

An official at South Korea’s transport ministry said it was waiting for formal action by the FAA before giving a directive to its airlines. The U.S. agency said it would soon issue an emergency airworthiness directive.

“Based on the initial information, we concluded that the inspection interval should be stepped up for the hollow fan blades that are unique to this model of engine, used solely on Boeing 777 airplanes,” the FAA said.

Japan’s transport ministry said that on Dec. 4, 2020, a JAL flight from Naha Airport to Tokyo returned to Naha due to a malfunction in the left engine.

Its Transport Safety Board said on Dec. 28 that it had found two of the left engine’s fan blades were damaged, one from a crack due to metal fatigue. The investigation is ongoing.

Japan said ANA operated 19 of the type and JAL operated 13, though the airlines said their use had been reduced during the pandemic. JAL said its fleet was due for retirement by March 2022.

Korean Air - which has 16 of the planes, 10 of them stored - said it will follow the relevant authorities’ directives on any measures.

The Dutch Safety Board said on Monday it was investigating what had caused a Boeing 747-400 to lose parts of a different type of PW4000 engine shortly after taking off from Maastricht airport on Saturday.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency meanwhile said it was requesting information on the cause to determine what action was needed.

In February 2018, a 777 of the same age operated by United suffered an engine failure when a cowling fell off about 30 minutes before the plane landed safely. The NTSB determined that incident was the result of a full-length fan blade fracture.-reuters

Australia says no further Facebook, Google amendments as final vote nears

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will not alter legislation that would make Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google pay news outlets for content, a senior lawmaker said on Monday, as Canberra neared a final vote on whether to pass the bill into law.

Australia and the tech giants have been in a stand-off over the legislation widely seen as setting a global precedent.

Other countries including Canada and Britain have already expressed interest in taking some sort of similar action.

Facebook has protested the laws. Last week it blocked all news content and several state government and emergency department accounts, in a jolt to the global news industry, which has already seen its business model upended by the titans of the technological revolution.

Talks between Australia and Facebook over the weekend yielded no breakthrough.

As Australia’s senate began debating the legislation, the country’s most senior lawmaker in the upper house said there would be no further amendments.

“The bill as it stands ... meets the right balance,” Simon Birmingham, Australia’s Minister for Finance, told Australian Broadcasting Corp Radio.

The bill in its present form ensures “Australian-generated news content by Australian-generated news organisations can and should be paid for and done so in a fair and legitimate way”.

The laws would give the government the right to appoint an arbitrator to set content licencing fees if private negotiations fail.

While both Google and Facebook have campaigned against the laws, Google last week inked deals with top Australian outlets, including a global deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

“There’s no reason Facebook can’t do and achieve what Google already has,” Birmingham added.

A Facebook representative declined to comment on Monday on the legislation, which passed the lower house last week and has majority support in the Senate.

A final vote after the so-called third reading of the bill is expected on Tuesday.

Lobby group DIGI, which represents Facebook, Google and other online platforms like Twitter Inc, meanwhile said on Monday that its members had agreed to adopt an industry-wide code of practice to reduce the spread of misinformation online.

Under the voluntary code, they commit to identifying and stopping unidentified accounts, or “bots”, disseminating content; informing users of the origins of content; and publishing an annual transparency report, among other measures.-reuters

Biden to revise small business loans to reach smaller, minority firms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will launch changes on Monday to the main U.S. coronavirus aid program for small businesses to try to reach smaller, minority-owned firms and sole proprietors left behind in previous rounds of aid.

Biden administration officials said that for two weeks starting on Wednesday, the Small Business Administration will only accept applications for forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from firms with fewer than 20 employees to ensure that they are not crowded out by larger firms.

The changes, to be formally announced by Biden on Monday afternoon, come as small business bankers say demand for Paycheck Protection loans is slowing as firms reopen. The White House released a fact sheet outlining the changes on Monday morning.

When the PPP was launched in April 2020 at the height of coronavirus lockdowns under a $3 trillion relief bill, its initial $349 billion ran out in two weeks. Congress approved another $320 billion in May, but the program expired in August with about $130 billion in unused funds.

The program was re-launched on Jan. 19 with $284 billion in new funds from a coronavirus aid bill passed at the end of December, and a Biden administration official said about $150 billion of PPP money is still available.

But Biden administration officials said there are still many minority and very small firms in low-income areas that have not been able to receive aid.

The changes aim to make it easier for firms with no employees -- sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed people such as house cleaners and personal care providers -- that could not qualify previously because of business cost deductions.

The Small Business Administration will revise the rules to match the approach used to allow small farmers and ranchers to receive aid, the businesses said.

The officials said the program will also set aside $1 billion for businesses without employees in low- and moderate-income areas, which are 70% owned by women and people of color.

The SBA will provide new guidance making it clear that legal U.S. residents who are not citizens, such as green card holders, cannot be excluded from the program. The Biden Administration will also eliminate exclusions that prohibit a business owner who is delinquent on student loans from participating in the program.

Business owners with non-fraud felony arrests or convictions in the previous year are excluded from the program. However, Biden administration officials said they will adopt bipartisan Senate proposals to remove this restriction, unless the applicant is currently incarcerated.

According to the White House fact sheet, the Biden administration is also improving the program’s operations by strengthening and streamlining fraud checks, revamping the loan application and government web sites that communicate with small businesses, talking more with borrowers about their needs, and deepening the government’s relationship with lenders.

White House says stock-trading tax is worth studying after GameStop frenzy

(CNN Business)The White House supports studying the merits of a financial transaction tax — a move favored by progressives and despised by Wall Street — in the wake of the GameStop trading frenzy.

The GameStop situation highlights the serious issues of investor protection and market integrity, a White House spokesperson told CNN Business on Sunday. The potential impact of a financial transaction tax on GameStop-like trading deserves additional study and can be part of a greater evaluation of such a tax for revenue and market stability, the spokesperson said.

Some Democrats have backed a tax on stock trading as a way to raise badly needed revenue and address concerns about the health of financial markets. On Thursday, House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters said she's "very interested" and "certainly looking at" a financial transaction tax.

A 0.1% tax on stock, bond and derivative transactions could raise $777 billion for the federal government over a decade, according to a 2018 estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

However, such a tax would face fierce opposition from Wall Street and it's unclear whether moderate Democrats would support it. Opponents warn it would backfire on retail investors by raising costs and making financial markets less liquid.

"This approach has a long history of unintended consequences that will penalize workers, pensioners and American families," a spokesperson for the Coalition to Prevent the Taxing of Retirement Savings told CNN Business.

That coalition includes the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and UBS. Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial, two high-speed trading firms that would be hurt by a financial transaction tax, are also members.

"An FTT will increase trading costs for investors -- including individuals -- undermine the competitiveness of our capital markets and harm the U.S. economy just as we work to recover from this pandemic," the spokesperson said.

During a heated exchange at a hearing last week, Democratic congresswoman Rashida Tlaib pushed back against Citadel Securities founder Ken Griffin's concerns about a tax.

"Let's not gaslight the American people. Y'all will be fine with the tax," she said. "Our folks are tired of bailing you all out when you screw up."-CNN

A Giant Fund Bought EV Stocks NIO and Tesla, and Intel. Here’s What It Sold.

South Korea’s sovereign-wealth fund recently made big changes in some of its biggest U.S.-traded stock investments.

Korea Investment Corp. substantially increased investments in electric-vehicle firms NIO (ticker: NIO) and Tesla (TSLA), bought more Intel (INTC) stock, and halved an investment in General Electric (GE) stock. The fund disclosed the trades, among others, in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Korea Investment, which managed $20.2 billion in assets at the end of 2019, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the investment changes.

The fund bought 295,687 more American depositary receipts of NIO to end 2020 with 642,087 ADRs of the Chinese EV maker.

NIO ADRs rocketed more than 12 times in value in 2020. So far in 2021, through Friday’s close, they have gained 12.9%. In comparison, the S&P 500 index, a measure of the broader market, rose 16.3% in 2020, and is up 4.0% year to date.

NIO ADRs have slumped in recent days, but the move appears to be the result of volatility ahead of the company’s earnings report, which is scheduled for March 1. NIO vehicles could be sold in the U.S. soon. Deliveries have been strong.

Korea’s fund bought 152,400 additional Tesla shares to end the fourth quarter with 409,900 shares of the EV giant.

Tesla stock soared nearly nine times in value last year, and has surged 10.7% so far this year.

Tesla earlier this month disclosed that it bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. One analyst thinks the company’s market value could be more than $1 trillion. Tesla recently cut car prices in Japan.

Intel stock slid 16.8% last year, but it has surged 26.5% so far this year, wiping out that loss.

Intel stock surged in January when the chip giant announced a CEO change. Shares slipped later that month when investors didn’t get the clarity they wanted about how the company will manufacture its next generation of chips. Outgoing CEO Bob Swan bought stock in his last weeks in his post.

The fund bought 709,461 Intel shares to end 2020 with 3.8 million shares.

Korea’s fund sold 2.5 million GE shares to lower its investment to 1.9 million shares.

GE stock slipped 3.2% in 2020, and year to date it has gained 11.3%, more than compensating for the previous year’s loss.

GE’s turn for the better has drawn compliments from a longtime bear on the stock, J.P. Morgan’s Stephen Tusa. Fourth-quarter free cash flow was strong, overshadowing a lackluster bottom line. Jeff Immelt, a former GE CEO, is assessing his legacy and the conglomerate’s status of recent years in a book to be published on Monday.-Barrons

Tesla Stops Taking Orders For Base Versions Of Model Y: Report

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) has apparently stopped taking orders for the cheapest version of its Model Y, Electrek has reported.

What Happened: Electrek reported that Tesla has cancelled the midsize SUV in the latest in a series of confusing changes of direction over the vehicle. The company also has removed the model from its online configurator, Electrek said.

Tesla didn't communicate any reason behind this change.

Why It Matters: The carmaker has been aiming to make some its vehicles more affordable. Earlier this month, Tesla slashed the price range of the base model of Model Y by $2,000 to $39,990. It also lowered the price of long-range AWD versions by $1,000 to $48,990.

In January, Tesla cut prices of its European Model 3. In Germany, the Model 3 became up to 4,000 euros cheaper, and in France the price fell by as much as 6,000 euros.

It has been ramping up its deliveries as well, shipping 499,550 vehicles in 2020.-Yahoo! Finance

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INVESTORS DIARY 2021

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FMHL

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

DISCLAIMER: This report has been prepared by Bulls ‘n Bears, a division of Faith Capital (Pvt) Ltd for general information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for any securities. The information contained in this report has been compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty is made or guarantee given as to its accuracy or completeness. All opinions expressed and recommendations made are subject to change without notice. Securities or financial instruments mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors. Securities of emerging and mid-size growth companies typically involve a higher degree of risk and more volatility than the securities of more established companies. Neither Faith Capital nor any other member of Bulls ‘n Bears nor any other person, accepts any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from any use of this report or its contents or otherwise arising in connection therewith. Recipients of this report shall be solely responsible for making their own independent investigation into the business, financial condition and future prospects of any companies referred to in this report. Other  Indices quoted herein are for guideline purposes only and sourced from third parties.

(c) 2021 Web: <http://www.bullszimbabwe.com>  www.bullszimbabwe.com Email:  <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw Tel:  +263 77 344 1674 | +27 715 444 769

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