Stocks Climb Toward Records as Tech Shares Recover – Wall Street Journal, 1/7/2021

• Political unrest in Washington didn’t dent the stock market’s ongoing rally Thursday, with U.S. stocks climbing toward fresh records.
• Financial and technology stocks led Thursday’s gains, pushing the S&P 500 up 1.5% and putting the broad index on pace to close at its first record of 2021.
• Investors largely looked past Wednesday’s violent clash between pro- Trump protesters and law enforcement in the Capitol building that left four people dead, instead focusing on what the shift of political power from Republicans to Democrats means for the market, analysts said.
• The prospect of additional fiscal stimulus has again rose to the forefront of investors’ minds after Democrats won control of the Senate by flipping two Republican seats in Georgia.
• A joint session of Congress early Thursday morning also affirmed Mr. Biden’s defeat of President Trump, who committed to an orderly transition of power.
• With the Senate, the House of Representatives and the White House in the hands of Democrats starting Jan. 20, priorities like boosting emergency relief payments to individuals to $2,000 will be easier to push through without the support of most Republicans, analysts say.
• Investors are also tracking a flurry of data releases for fresh insight into the U.S. economy’s fitful recovery. Jobless claims were nearly steady last week, slipping to 787,000 from a revised 790,000 the prior week as an extra $300 in benefits kicked in for laid-off workers.
• Meanwhile, the U.S. services sector continued to expand in December, despite the latest wave of Covid-19 cases.
• The ISM Services Report on Business PMI for December increased to 57.2 from the 55.9 in November.

Coronavirus Live Updates: Newly Reported U.S. Infections Top 250,000 – Wall Street Journal, 1/7/2021

• The number of people hospitalized in the U.S. due to Covid-19 hit a record as newly reported coronavirus cases rose to over 250,000 and deaths set a single-day record.
• The U.S. daily case total for Wednesday was higher than the nearly 230,000 new coronavirus cases reported Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
• The nation also reported 3,865 fatalities for Wednesday, a single-day record, according to Johns Hopkins, pushing the overall death toll to more than 361,000.
• More than 132,000 people were hospitalized because of the disease as of Wednesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Intensive-care units were also stretched, with more than 23,700 patients in ICUs across the country.
• The U.S. has so far identified 52 cases of Covid-19 caused by a new variant first detected in the U.K., according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Wednesday.
• More countries across Europe are imposing or weighing new lockdowns to contain the spread of a more infectious variant of the virus that causes Covid-19, as the U.K, where it was first identified, recorded its highest daily tally of deaths since April.
• In Ireland, which had done better in containing the virus than many other European countries, the government ordered the closure of most schools and construction sites for three weeks, adding to measures that have already shut down hospitality and retail businesses and prohibited indoor household mixing.
• One of France’s senior government advisers, Jean-François Delfraissy, warned that it, too, might have to impose stricter lockdown measures despite seeing lower infection rates than countries such as Germany or the U.K.
• Japan’s prime minister declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and surrounding areas in an attempt to reverse an acceleration of Covid-19 infections.
• Mr. Suga said the emergency period would run until Feb. 7. However, some members of a panel of experts that advises the government on handling the pandemic say the state of emergency may need to stay in place for several months.
• Meanwhile, at least 29 people in the U.S. have developed severe allergic reactions to Covid-19 vaccines, federal health authorities said Wednesday.
• The rate is far higher than for the seasonal flu vaccine, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said.
• Florida medical authorities said they are investigating the death of a 56-year-old physician two weeks after he received the first dose of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, and whether his death was caused by or related to the vaccine.
• The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner and Florida Department of Health said they were working with the CDC.

Covid-19 Vaccines Expected to Work on South Africa Coronavirus Strain – Wall Street Journal, 1/7/2021

• A new variant of the coronavirus that is surging across South Africa may make the existing Covid-19 vaccines less effective, but is unlikely to be totally resistant to the shots, according to leading researchers who have studied the mutations and the vaccines.
• The variant, which has already shown up in patients in Europe and other African countries, has quickly become the predominant one in South Africa, exacerbating a second wave of infections that is overwhelming hospitals and has driven daily deaths to record highs.
• South African researchers are racing to determine whether it makes patients more seriously ill than other variants of the virus.
• They are also testing how it responds to antibodies from people who have recovered from Covid-19 and those who have received coronavirus vaccines.
• Their official conclusions are eagerly awaited by researchers around the globe, since one of the variant’s mutations has in earlier laboratory experiments shown increased resistance to some of the antibodies the body uses to fight off Covid-19.
• U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier this week that he was “incredibly worried about the South African variant.”

Walgreens maintains full-year profit growth forecast; shares rise – Reuters, 1/7/2021

• Drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance stuck to its full-year forecast for earnings growth on Thursday, despite anticipating a hit to its current-quarter earnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, sending its shares up nearly 3%.
• Revenue rose to $36.31 billion from $34.34 billion.
• Same-store sales at its U.S. pharmacies rose 3.7% in the quarter as it filled 297.3 million prescriptions.
• Boots UK pharmacies recorded a 2.5% rise in sales.
• Excluding items, the company earned $1.22 per share, while analysts were expecting a profit of $1.03 per share, according to Refinitiv IBES.
• Walgreens maintained fiscal 2021 forecast of low single-digit growth in adjusted EPS, after it beat analysts’ estimates for adjusted first-quarter profit, driven by higher sales at its retail pharmacy stores and robust prescription volumes.
• The drugstore chain expects to see some benefit from COVID-19 vaccinations in the second half of fiscal year 2021, company executives said on a conference call, although that could be offset by the hit to its retail sales from the pandemic.

Conagra’s profit forecast upbeat as pandemic continues to fuel grocery demand – Reuters, 1/7/2021

• Conagra Brands on Thursday forecast current-quarter profit above Wall Street estimates, betting on continued demand for its frozen dinners, cake mixes and snacks as the COVID-19 pandemic shows little signs of easing.
• Sales rose 6.2% to nearly $3 billion, in line with expectations.
• Overall, net profit attributable to Conagra was $378.9 million, or 77 cents per share.
• Conagra said it continued to see a “sustained increase” in demand from its retail customers so far into the third quarter. It expects adjusted earnings between 56 and 60 cents per share for the period, compared with analysts’ estimates of 57 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
• Organic sales are expected to rise in the 6% to 8% range, with adjusted operating margins seen between 16% and 16.5%.

GM Passes Ford in Closely Watched Truck Race – Wall Street Journal, 1/7/2021

• General Motors in 2020 dethroned rival Ford Motor in Detroit’s closely watched “truck wars,” securing the top slot in the lucrative market for large pickup trucks.
• U.S. sales of GM’s two pickup models—the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra—rose 3.9% last year, to 839,691 trucks, even as industrywide sales sank nearly 15% amid disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Ford’s F Series line, which includes its F-150 truck as well as the larger Super Duty, fell 12%, to 787,422, the company said Wednesday.
• GM said its U.S. vehicle sales fell 11.8%, while Ford’s sales declined 15.8%.
• Overall, U.S. auto industry’s sales dropped 14.6%, to 14.6 million vehicles, according to data provided Wednesday by Motor Intelligence. Large pickups accounted for 16.7% of overall sales last year, up from 12.5% in 2015.
• The average price paid for a light-duty full-size pickup truck rose 9% last year, to about $45,800, according to J.D. Power.

U.S. Weighs Adding Alibaba, Tencent to China Stock Ban – Wall Street Journal, 1/7/2021

• U.S. officials are considering prohibiting Americans from investing in Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, a potential escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to unwind U.S. investors’ holdings in major Chinese companies.
• State and Defense Department officials in recent weeks have discussed expanding a blacklist of companies prohibited to U.S. investments over alleged ties to China’s military and security services, according to people familiar with the matter.
• While Alibaba and Tencent aren’t controlled by the Chinese government, the State Department and Pentagon have long voiced concerns that the companies could be coerced to share data on U.S. citizens and businesses, potentially serving as a conduit for Beijing to extend its influence.
• Tencent operates the hugely popular WeChat app, which has become one of Beijing’s most powerful surveillance tools.
• Tencent also owns stakes in several U.S. videogame companies.

Thicker pickles, bigger fillet: KFC revamps fried chicken sandwich in U.S – Reuters, 1/7/2021

• Kentucky Fried Chicken will switch to a new chicken sandwich nationally by the end of February, it said on Thursday, amid a fast food frenzy to win a share of the growing chicken market.
• The company, owned by Yum Brands Inc, said its existing Crispy Colonel Sandwich was not “living up to our legacy as experts in fried chicken” so it will eventually be pulled off menus in favor of the KFC Chicken Sandwich.
• KFC’s new sandwich will contain a quarter pound of white meat fillet – 25% larger than in its existing sandwich – that is double-breaded, fried and served on a new buttered brioche bun with thicker crinkle-cut pickles. It includes mayonnaise or spicy sauce.
• KFC tested the new item in Orlando in 2020 and “nearly doubled our sales expectations,” KFC U.S.’s chief marketing officer, Andrea Zahumensky, said in a statement.
• McDonald’s Corp on Monday confirmed that it will launch three new versions of a crispy chicken sandwich late next month.