Friday 08/01/21

1. In TRUMP & BITCOIN NEWS, Trump faces a backlash by politicians and Facebook while Bitcoin goes to the moon
2. In RETAIL NEWS, Eurozone retail sales fall, Sainsbury’s and B&M report glad tidings, Joules benefits from online and John Lewis abandons overseas delivery
3. In CORONATRENDS NEWS, China’s vaccine has decent efficacy, CureVac teams up with Bayer, arthritis drugs limit covid deaths but vaccine scepticism among medics causes alarm. Meanwhile, we’re not flying but we are entertaining ourselves
4. In MISCELLANEOUS NEWS, LafargeHolcim buys Firestone, Beijing zones in on Alibaba and Grant Thornton faces the Pat Val music
5. AND FINALLY, I bring you a video call warning and a brilliant wrap idea…

So Donnie T causes a ruckus, China apps face uncertainty, the NYSE makes a U-turn AGAIN, markets go bananas and Brexit causes problems…

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After Capital riot, resignations and calls for Trump’s removal (Wall Street Journal, Natalie Andrews, Alex Leary and Josh Mitchell) shows that Democrats are trying to get Trump removed from office just two weeks before the end

of his term. Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are talking about invoking the 25th amendment – and if that doesn’t work, impeachment. Various officials quit in apparent protest along with some of those seen to be accountable for the Capitol debacle. Defiant to the end, Trump made the following statement in his usual self-deprecating style, “While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again”. For all that posturing on the moral high ground, Twitter said that the president would be allowed to continue tweeting but Facebook blocks Trump account ‘indefinitely’ after riots (Financial Times, Hannah Murphy) shows that Facebook decided to make a token effort. He will be locked out of posting on Facebook and Instagram “indefinitely and for at last the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete”. I think, though, that the question in everyone’s mind at the moment will be – is Trump still going to be able to post TikToks of himself twerking in Mar-a-Lago 😂

Meanwhile, Bitcoin surges above $40,000 for record high (Daily Telegraph, James Titcomb) highlights the continued stellar rise of the cryptocurrency, meaning that it has doubled in value in less than a month! For the trivia fans among you, the total value of all Bitcoins in circulation is now above $700bn, which now makes it more valuable than almost all global currencies. Speculators justify their use of Bitcoin as a hedge against currency depreciation by pointing to limited supplies of Bitcoin. Amazing, eh?

Eurozone retail sales weaken, Sainsbury’s and B&M have a merry Christmas, Joules benefits from online but John Lewis decides to ditch overseas delivery…

Eurozone retail sales and inflation fall (Financial Times, Valentina Romei) shows that the bloc’s retail sales contraction was greater than expected in November and inflation fell for the fifth month in a row in December. Pressure continues to build on European policymakers to sort out a proper bailout plan.

Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s boost as smaller turkeys get Christmas vote (The Times, Ashley Armstrong) shows that sales of smaller turkeys and the continued boom in online grocery deliveries powered Sainsbury’s profits above expectations for Q3 and Billionaire brothers behind B&M take £30m payout after Christmas boom (The Guardian, Jasper Jolly) shows that Christmas bargain-hunters were

out in force. B&M’s impressive growth rate is continuing despite not selling online and it is benefiting from higher footfall in out-of-town stores.

Online sales keep out the cold during shutdown for Joules (The Times, Ashley Armstrong) shows that Joules has benefited from strong online sales (up 66%), cushioning the pain of store closures (store sales fell 58%) while John Lewis abandons overseas delivery service (Daily Telegraph, Louise Moon) highlights a potential trend as the reality of Brexit kicks in. John Lewis did actually say that its decision to ditch its international delivery service was not related to Brexit (they want to focus their efforts on the UK), but Asos, Fortnum & Mason and Debenhams are among those to scrap delivery to Europe or Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. * SO WHAT? * It seems to me that, pretty much, if you are an “essential retailer” then you will have had a bonanza this Christmas. The Brexit thing has made some retailers think twice about the cost of doing business in Europe – at least for the moment – and I suspect others will join the list as time goes on.

China’s vaccine looks good, CureVac gets Bayer’s help, arthritis drugs can be useful but vaccine scepticism among medics isn’t helpful. Meanwhile Ryanair loses passengers and we spend more on home entertainment…

In terms of the current state of vaccines and treatments, Chinese Covid vaccine shows 78 per cent efficacy in Brazilian trials (Financial Times, Bryan Harris, Michael Pooler and Christian Shepherd) is good news as it turns out that China’s Sinovac coronavirus vaccine has an efficacy rate of 78%, according to late-stage trials in Brazil. This is great for a rollout in Brazil and brilliant PR for the Chinese as well. CureVac teams up with Bayer to accelerate development of Covid vaccine (Financial Times, Joe Miller and Olaf Storbeck) heralds some good news in Germany as well in that CureVac has joined forced with Germany’s biggest pharmaceuticals company, Bayer, to accelerate the development and production of its coronavirus vaccine. It needed to do this because it just would not have had the capacity on its own to produce enough doses. Advantages of the CureVac vaccine are that it can remain stable for three months at normal fridge temperatures and its dosage is smaller, meaning that large amounts of the shot can be more easily transported.

Arthritis drugs found to reduce risk of death in severe Covid-19 cases (Financial Times, Anna Gross) shows that scientists have found that immunosuppressants tocilizumab and sarilumab, which are normally used to combat arthritis, can cut the risk of death from Covid-19 by 25%, according to researchers from Imperial College London. This is another example of an existing drug that

can ease the effects of coronavirus – the steroid Dexamethasone was found in June to cut the death rate of the most seriously ill patients by one third. * SO WHAT? * I think that this also great news – and the good thing about using existing drugs is that they have already been through a lot of testing (although presumably they’d have to be tested for the effects on coronavirus), which should save some time.

On the other hand, Vaccine scepticism among medics sparks alarm in Europe and US (Financial Times, Erika Solomon, Kiran Stacey, Leila Abboud and Davide Ghiglione) shows that a surprisingly high number of healthcare workers are unwilling to take the jab. 50% the nurses surveyed in Germany and 25% of doctors said that they did not want to be vaccinated. In France, 76% of senior care home staff said they didn’t want the jab and in Austria, only 50% of the staff of care facilities in the Vorarlberg region said they wanted it. * SO WHAT? * Now that we have vaccines, I think a big PR push is going to be needed to get people to take it.

In terms of coronavirus trends, though, lockdown continues to kill anything to do with aviation, as per Ryanair expects 95% fall in passenger numbers until April (The Guardian, Gwyn Topham) but we continue to spend money on amusing ourselves in Lockdowns fuel record year for home entertainment spending (The Guardian, Mark Sweney) where the latest figures from the Entertainment Retailers Association show that spending on entertainment including digital and physical video, music and gaming shot up by 17% in 2020 versus the previous year – the fastest annual rate for the ERA’s 25 year history! It showed that the rise in popularity of online entertainment continues to gather momentum…

LafargeHolcim buys Firestone, Beijing puts the screws on Alibaba and Grant Thorton faces a serious fine for its incompetence over the Patisserie Valerie audit…

LafargeHolcim agrees $3.4bn deal for Firestone Building Products (Financial Times, George Steer) highlights the purchase of Firestone Building Products from Japan’s Bridgestone Corporation by LafargeHolcim, the world’s biggest cement company in cash and shares. LafargeHolcim said that this acquisition would help it to break into the flat roof market, which is thought to be worth about $50bn globally. Firestone specialises in roofs that can can take solar panels and other heavy things. Firestone generated 90% of its sales in the US last year. Cement/climate change: hard questions (Financial Times, Lex) applauds the deal as it helps LafargeHolcim to diversify away from cement, which is likely to come under much closer scrutiny due to its heavy environmental costs as the industry accounts for up to 10% of global carbon emissions.

Beijing orders Chinese media to censor coverage of Alibaba probe (Financial Times, Lex) shows that China’s government is really cracking down on Jack Ma’s empire as it has told the media to restrict its reporting on an antitrust probe into Alibaba. This is its latest crackdown on his empire following the steam-rollering of Ant Group’s IPO. Jack Ma, meanwhile, appears to have disappeared. * SO WHAT? * It’s too early to tell yet whether or not this is just government posturing to put the cheeky upstart in his place OR the start of real change in the way big companies behave towards the government. Still, this latest move against the media is unusual and very strict. This is definitely a story that is worth monitoring…

Grant Thornton sued over Patisserie audit ‘negligence’ (The Times, Alex Ralph) highlights the potential price of the accountancy firm’s incompetence in auditing Patisserie Valerie as FRP Advisory has launched a £200m legal claim against Grant Thornton saying that it was “negligent in the preparation and conduct of the 2014 to 2017 financial statements”. * SO WHAT? * This is definitely a headache for the accountant but TBH, there are so many cases of accountant incompetence these days for corporate failures, it all kind of becomes much of a muchness. Time for more reform perhaps??

…in other news…

Given how many video calls we are all doing these days, I thought you should know about this cautionary tale: Mayor left red-faced after failing to spot reflection in mirror during live interview (The Mirror, Luke Matthews). And if you are feeling hungry during lockdown, why not try this – I think it’s a great idea: ‘Revolutionary’ wrap hack loved by foodies will upgrade your lunch game in minutes (The Mirror, Courtney Pochin) 👍 Nice, yes. Revolutionary? Not quite 😂