Stocks Waver After Jobless Claims Data – Wall Street Journal, 1/21/2021

• U.S. stocks wobbled Thursday after jobless claims data remained high, indicating the labor market was struggling to recover amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• All three major indexes notched new all-time-highs Wednesday, but investor enthusiasm seemed to slow after fresh data showed Thursday that 900,000 Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits for the week ended Jan. 16, as companies continued to lay off workers amid a surge in Covid-19 cases.
• Meanwhile, the U.S. reported 4,200 deaths for Wednesday, the second-highest daily number ever.
• Still, many investors are betting on an economic recovery this year as Covid-19 vaccinations ramp up, increasing prospects for future earnings. Traders are watching earnings closely to see if they support the strong run across markets in recent months.
• Regional bank KeyCorp rose 2.2% after it recorded higher revenue and a larger profit, with increased activity in its consumer-mortgage and investment-banking businesses driving fees.
• Shares of United Airlines fell 5.4% after the airliner said on Wednesday it expected the coronavirus to continue to weigh on travel demand this year.
• Chip giant Intel and International Business Machines are slated to report results after markets close.
• The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note ticked up to 1.106% Thursday, from 1.089% Wednesday. Yields rise when bond prices fall.

Coronavirus Live Updates: U.S. Reports Second-Highest Number of Deaths in a Day – Wall Street Journal, 1/21/2021

• The number of Covid-19-related deaths reported in a day in the U.S. reached its second-highest level yet, even as hospitalizations continued to edge downward and the number of newly reported cases rose only slightly.
• More than 4,200 deaths were reported in the U.S. for Wednesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University and reported early Thursday morning in Baltimore, up from 2,769 a day earlier and 3,963 a week earlier. It was the third time the number has exceeded 4,000, after doing so on Jan. 8 and again on Jan. 12.
• The country reported more than 178,000 cases for Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins data released early Thursday. The data may update later in the morning, Johns Hopkins said.
• That figure was up from 177,256 a day earlier but down from 230,166 a week earlier.
• Hospitalizations continued to edge downward, with 122,700 reported for Wednesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project. It was the eighth day in a row the number declined. There were 22,809 people in intensive-care units, the project reported.
• Europe broadcast mixed signals on the pandemic this week, as parts of the region saw steady falls in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths, while others registered a post-holiday spike in infections.
• Germany saw falling new cases, hospitalizations and positive Covid-19 test rates for several weeks, although the overall numbers remained high. The country recorded 20,398 new cases on Wednesday, according to the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases, down from 25,164 a week ago.
• Authorities extended Germany’s lockdown this week, largely over concerns about the more infectious variant of the virus that has been spreading from the U.K. It remains unclear how much of an inroad it has made into the continent.
• From Friday, the Netherlands will join France and Belgium in imposing a curfew and further restricting social interactions to curb rising infections.

EU leaders weigh travel curbs over virus variant fears – Reuters, 1/21/2021

• European Union leaders were seeking on Thursday to address the coronavirus pandemic’s mounting challenges, including increased calls to limit travel and tighten border controls to contain more infectious variants of the disease.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel said before an evening leaders’ video conference that European countries needed to take the new mutation found in Britain seriously to avoid a third wave.
• Alexander De Croo, prime minister of Belgium, where cases per capita are lower than in its neighbors, said he would ask fellow EU leaders to halt non-essential travel, such as tourism.
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that blanket border closures made no sense and were not as effective as targeted measures.

New COVID-19 variant defeats plasma treatment, may reduce vaccine efficacy – Reuters, 1/20/2021

• The new COVID-19 variant identified in South Africa can evade the antibodies that attack it in treatments using blood plasma from previously recovered patients, and may reduce the efficacy of the current line of vaccines, scientists said on Wednesday.
• “This lineage exhibits complete escape from three classes of therapeutically relevant monoclonal antibodies,” the team of scientists from three South African universities working with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) wrote in a paper published in the bioRxiv journal.
• “Furthermore, 501Y.V2 shows substantial or complete escape from neutralizing antibodies in COVID-19 convalescent plasma,” they wrote, adding that their conclusions “highlight the prospect of reinfection … and may foreshadow reduced efficacy of current spike-based vaccines.”
• The paper said it remained to be seen how effective current vaccines were against 501Y.V2, which would only be determined by large-scale clinical trials. But results showed the need for new vaccines to be designed to tackle the evolving threat, it said.

Lilly Antibody Drug Prevents Covid-19 in Nursing Homes, Study Finds – Wall Street Journal, 1/21/2021

• Eli Lilly said its antibody-based drug prevented Covid-19 among many residents and staff of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, results that point to the drug complementing vaccines while inoculations increase.
• The drug, called bamlanivimab, reduced the risk of both staff and residents getting sick with Covid-19 by about 57% compared with a placebo, Lilly said Thursday.
• The effect was more pronounced among residents, the company said, an 80% reduction in risk of Covid-19.
• The findings signal the potential for a new preventive weapon that could augment the fledgling Covid-19 vaccination effort to stem the pandemic.
• The partial results were from a last-stage, or Phase 3, study conducted in partnership with the National Institutes of Health. Lilly disclosed the data in a news release and said it plans to publish full results in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

United Airlines pledges more cost cuts after pandemic-driven quarterly loss – Reuters, 1/20/2021

• United Airlines said on Wednesday it aims to cut about $2 billion of annual costs through 2023 as it charts a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic that drove its fourth straight quarterly loss.
• Total operating revenue fell 69% to $3.4 billion, in line with forecasts.
• United’s adjusted net loss was $2.1 billion, or a loss of $7 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of $676 million a year earlier.
• The company burned an average of $33 million per day in the fourth quarter, including about $10 million of severance and debt payments, even as it continued to slash costs.
• In the current quarter, United said it expects revenue to fall by 65% to 70% from a year ago and its flight capacity to shrink by at least 51%.

Union Pacific quarterly profit beats on higher shipment volumes – Reuters, 1/21/2021

• Union Pacific on Thursday beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit, as the U.S. railroad operator benefited from higher volumes of grain and intermodal shipments.
• Total operating revenue fell to $5.14 billion from $5.21 billion.
• Volumes, as measured by total revenue carloads, rose 3% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.
• Freight revenue, however, fell 1% to $4.80 billion.
• The company’s net income fell to $1.38 billion, or $2.05 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, from $1.40 billion, or $2.02 per share, a year earlier.

Baker Hughes says energy downturn to bottom out this year – Reuters, 1/21/2021

• Oilfield equipment and services provider Baker Hughes on Thursday joined larger rival Halliburton in saying the energy industry’s worst downturn in decades would turn a corner this year.
• Total revenue for the reported quarter rose nearly 9% to $5.5 billion, compared with the third, and also beat estimates of $5.42 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
• The total revenue was down 13.4% and adjusted operating profit 15.4% lower from a year earlier, as drilling activity was well below last year’s levels.
• Baker Hughes’ adjusted operating profit nearly doubled to $462 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with the third.
• Halliburton on Tuesday predicted a recovery in the global oil and gas industry from the second quarter of this year.

Kinder Morgan beats estimates, flags concerns on spending by shale producers – Reuters, 1/21/2021

• Pipeline operator Kinder Morgan on Wednesday raised concerns over the pace of ramp-up in spending in top U.S. shale basins following a rebound in oil prices after beating Wall Street estimates for quarterly results.
• Revenue also rose sequentially to $3.12 billion, above analysts’ estimates of $3.05 billion.
• Kinder Morgan, which transports nearly 40% of the natural gas consumed in the United States, said natgas shipment volumes rose more than 6% sequentially, while total refined product volumes fell marginally.
• Excluding items, Kinder Morgan earned 27 cents per share, versus estimates of 24 cents, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
• “By our calculations, you’re getting close to a rig level in the Permian that could get you back to flat volumes to where we were pre-pandemic,” Kim Dang, president at Kinder Morgan said at a post-earnings call.

Tesla fourth-quarter registrations in California jump 63%: data – Reuters, 1/21/2021

• Tesla’s vehicle registrations in the U.S. state of California jumped nearly 63% during the fourth quarter compared with last year, largely due to the success of the company’s Model Y, according to data from Cross-Sell here, a research firm that collates title and registration data.
• The report released on Wednesday showed registrations in California, a bellwether for the electric carmaker and its largest U.S. market, recovered from a third-quarter low of about 16,200 vehicles to around 22,117 vehicles in the three months ended December.
• At about 11,417, registrations in the state for Tesla’s Model Y compact crossover utility vehicle surpassed those for the Model 3.
• California registrations for Tesla’s Model 3 mass-market sedan fell 34% on a yearly basis to 7,044.
• Total fourth-quarter vehicle registrations in the 23 states, where data was collected, stood at 44,749, with Model Y accounting for nearly half the registrations.

Chinese Telecom Carriers Ask NYSE to Make Another U-Turn on Delisting – Wall Street Journal, 1/21/2021

• China’s big telecom carriers asked the New York Stock Exchange to rethink their planned delisting, the latest twist in a to-and-fro about whether they should be allowed to trade in U.S. markets.
• In separate filings Thursday morning in Hong Kong, China Mobile, China Unicom (Hong Kong) and China Telecom said they had filed requests asking the NYSE to reverse its decision to delist their American depositary receipts.
• They said they had asked if a trading halt on their ADRs could be lifted in the meantime.
• The requests came hours after Joe Biden was sworn in as the new U.S. president. Mr. Biden signed 15 executive orders and two executive actions on his first day in office, reversing some of former President Trump’s key policies.
• The blacklist now includes 44 Chinese companies in sectors such as energy, aviation, transportation and technology. Treasury has also said it would add subsidiaries linked to the companies to the list.

TC Energy to cut 1,000 construction jobs, halt Keystone XL work – Reuters, 1/21/2021

• TC Energy will eliminate more than 1,000 construction jobs in coming weeks and halt work on the Keystone XL oil pipeline after U.S. President Joe Biden revoked the project’s presidential permit, the company said in an email to employees.
• The line was already under construction in Canada.
• It would have carried 830,000 barrels of oil per day through the United States to Nebraska.
• Calgary-based TC Energy separately confirmed the authenticity of the email, sent by KXL President Richard Prior on Wednesday and seen by Reuters.
• Prior, in his email, said they will start to shut down construction at U.S. pump station sites and the Canadian portion of the project in coming weeks.