Jake Novak's Morning Business Briefing, 1/5
STOCKS/ECONOMY
-Stock futures are lower after Monday's 383-point loss for the Dow, and similar 1.5 percent drops for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. Investors are focusing on rising COVID-19 infection rates and today's runoff elections in Georgia which could tilt the U.S. Senate to the Democrats.
-The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond is at 0.93 percent, with the 2-year yield 82 basis points behind at 0.11 percent.
-Gold is up to the $1,951 per ounce level. Bitcoin is down to the $31,800 level.
-Asian markets were mostly higher today. Shanghai's Shenzhen composite rose 0.7 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.6 percent. Japan's Nikkei index fell 0.4 percent. Once again, the big Asian market winner was South Korea's Kospi index which rose 1.6 percent after gaining closing to 3 percent Monday.
OIL/ENERGY
-U.S. crude prices are up more than 1 percent to the $48 a barrel level ahead of the OPEC meeting on February output levels.
-Gasoline prices are up to $2.26 a gallon, national average.
CHINA TENSIONS
-The New York Stock Exchange said it no longer plans to delist three Chinese telecommunications giants: China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom. Shares of all three companies rallied in Hong Kong trading on the news.
-Several major Chinese cities have reportedly gone dark as authorities limit power usage, citing a shortage of coal. Analysts said prices of the commodity in the country have shot up due to the reported crunch and some tie the shortages and blackouts to the unofficial ban on Australian coal.
CORONAVIRUS LATEST
-Britain has imposed a full national lockdown, in effect through the middle of February.
-Moderna is increasing the number of doses it expects to make of its COVID-19 vaccine this year by 20 percent to 600 million. Moderna shares are up 2 percent in the premarket after rising 7 percent Monday.
-The Federal Aviation Administration briefly halted departures at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Monday to clean a facility after an air traffic controller tested positive for COVID-19.
ELECTRIC CAR WARS
-Apple iPhone maker Foxconn has signed a deal with Chinese electric carmaker Byton to help produce its first vehicle. Taiwan's Foxconn has already been supplying automakers including Tesla with specific components. Foxconn shares, which trade under the name of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., rose 4 percent in Taiwanese market trading today.
GOOGLE UNION
-Workers at Google parent Alphabet have formed a union, and will operate as a branch of the Communication Workers of America.
HAVEN HALTED
-Haven, the joint venture formed by Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, and Berkshire Hathaway to use in-company solutions to lower costs and improve outcomes in health care for their workers, is disbanding after three years. The companies will continue to pursue the lower cost goals separately, but found that they could not work effectively together.
DEFENSE
-Israeli's Elbit Systems shares are up 5 percent in the Nasdaq premarket after Elbit just announced it has been awarded a deal to establish and operate the International Flight Training Center of the Greek Air Force. The deal is worth $1.68 billion over 20 years and is the largest ever defense deal between Israel and Greece.