US FINANCIAL MARKET

U.S. Stocks Rise, Led by Tech Sector – Wall Street Journal, 11/11/20

• Technology shares lifted major indexes Wednesday after lagging earlier this week as promising vaccine news sent U.S. stocks rallying.
• Megacap tech stocks powered markets higher through 2020 but took a hit earlier this week as investors cheered progress toward a Covid-19 vaccine and began rotating into cyclical sectors such as manufacturing and energy.
• The rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine is likely to power the global economic recovery and lift stocks across sectors, giving momentum to a new leg of the market’s rally, investors said.
• Still, some investors are focusing on the hurdles facing making a vaccine widely available, and questions about the size of the next fiscal stimulus package.
• Coronavirus hospitalizations set a record in the U.S. on Tuesday, a fresh reminder that the pandemic is far from over.
• The main benchmarks in both Hong Kong and China ended the day lower. Shares in some of China’s biggest tech companies fell sharply for a second day.
• The move echoed a pullback in U.S. tech stocks on Tuesday, and came after China released new draft antimonopoly rules for online platforms. The rules signaled an increased appetite by Beijing authorities to rein in its dominant technology companies.

Coronavirus Live Updates: U.S. Cases Hit Another Record High – Wall Street Journal, 11/11/20

• The U.S. set another single-day record for coronavirus cases, as the total number of new infections topped 136,000, while hospitalizations due to Covid-19 were at their highest level since the pandemic began.
• Texas became the first state in the country to surpass one million cases, according to Johns Hopkins. California now has the second-highest number of cases in the U.S., with more than 990,000.
• Daily caseloads for Tuesday hit record levels in Illinois, Ohio, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming, according to Johns Hopkins. And the number of new cases on Guam also continued to rise rapidly with the U.S. territory reporting 180 new cases on Tuesday, bringing its total to 5,659.
• Hospitalizations, up around 30% since the beginning of the month, reached 61,964 as of Tuesday, exceeding the previous high of 59,940 reached on April 15, according to the Covid Tracking Project. A summer surge also saw hospitalizations reach just shy of 60,000 in July.
• Intensive-care units are also facing an upsurge in patients due to the pandemic, with 11,952 people in ICUs in the U.S. as of Tuesday, the highest number since May 7.
• The U.S. death toll surpassed 239,000 as 1,420 new fatalities were reported Tuesday, the highest daily figure since Aug. 12.

Lyft’s Pandemic Challenges Continue, but Business Is Improving – Wall Street Journal, 11/10/20

• Lyft’s active riders and revenue improved in the third quarter from the previous three months as coronavirus shutdowns eased in some cities, but business remained sharply down from a year earlier because of the pandemic.
• Third-quarter revenue almost halved to $500 million from $955.6 million, but rose 47% from the second quarter.
• The San Francisco-based ride-hailing company said Tuesday it had 12.5 million active riders in the three months ended Sept. 30. That compares with 22.3 million in the year-earlier period and 8.7 million riders in 2020’s second quarter.
• Mr. Zimmer said that riders were taking shorter trips during the pandemic, resulting for the third quarter in a 7% year-over-year drop in revenue per active rider to $39.94.
• Lyft’s third-quarter net loss narrowed to $460 million from $463.5 million a year earlier, as the company cut 17% of its workforce and trimmed other costs during the pandemic.
• However, its adjusted loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization widened to $240 million from $128.1 million.

Boeing loses more 737 MAX orders, eyes jet’s U.S. return but Europe tariffs loom – Reuters, 11/10/20

• Boeing lost another 12 orders for its grounded 737 MAX jetliner in October, and delivered 13 aircraft to customers, down from the 20 jets delivered in the same month a year ago, company data showed on Tuesday.
• Airbus sold 11 jets last month and booked 72 jet deliveries, easing concerns over a cash-depleting overhang of unwanted jets.
• Boeing said it lost orders for four 737 MAX jets from China Development Bank Financial Leasing Co, one from Czech Airlines owner Smartwings, three from Oman Air, and four from an undisclosed buyer or buyers.
• Canceled MAX orders, including those where buyers converted to a different model, was 448 jets – and 460 for all jets across Boeing’s portfolio, Boeing said.
• For 2020 through October, the number of MAX orders canceled, or removed from Boeing’s official backlog when it applies stricter accounting standards, stood at 1,043 aircraft.

Apple launches MacBook laptops powered by its own computing chips – Reuters, 11/10/20

• Apple on Tuesday introduced a MacBook Air notebook and other machines with its first central processor designed in-house for Macs, a move that will tie its computers and iPhones closer together technologically.
• The new chip, called the M1, marks a shift away from Intel technology that has driven the electronic brains of Mac computers for nearly 15 years.
• The MacBook Air will start at $999, the same as its predecessor, and have up to twice the battery life, Apple said. The M1 will also power the MacBook Pro notebook, which starts at $1299, and its $699 Mac Mini computer, which comes without a monitor.
• Apple executives said on Tuesday that the M1 was intended to be efficient as well as fast, to improve battery life, and that Apple’s newest version of its operating system was tuned to the processor.

OPEC Deepens Forecast for Drop in Global Oil Demand – Wall Street Journal, 11/11/20

• Coronavirus lockdown measures in Europe and weakening consumption in the Americas will result in global oil demand taking a larger hit in 2020 than previously expected, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said Wednesday.
• In its closely-scrutinized monthly report, OPEC deepened its forecast for a drop in global oil demand in 2020 by 300,000 barrels a day to 9.8 million barrels a day, a 10% drop from last year’s levels.
• The cartel also softened its forecast rebound in demand for 2021 by 300,000 barrels a day.
• Those cuts, when combined with the Vienna-based organization’s resilient non-OPEC supply forecasts and its cut to its 2021 global growth rebound forecast—now 4.4% from 4.5% previously—present a dismal outlook for oil markets in the coming months.
• OPEC hedged its forecasts, saying that “further [economic] support, currently unaccounted for, may come from an effective and widely distributable vaccine as soon as the first half of 2021.”

U.S. power use to drop over 3% in 2020 due coronavirus: EIA – Reuters, 11/11/20

• U.S. electricity consumption will decline 3.6% this year as coronavirus lockdowns cause businesses to close, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday in its Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO).
• The EIA projected power demand will drop to 3,813 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2020 from 3,957 billion kWh in 2019 before rising to 3,849 billion kWh in 2021.
• Those declines follow a 1.2% drop in usage in 2019 due to mild weather from 2018’s record 4,003 billion kWh, according to data going back to 1949.
• EIA said natural gas’ share of generation will rise from 37% in 2019 to 39% in 2020 before dropping to 33% in 2021 as gas prices increase, while coal’s share will slide from 24% in 2019 to 20% in 2020 before rising to 25% in 2021.
• Nuclear’s share of generation will rise from 20% in 2019 to 21% in 2020 before sliding back to 20% in 2021, while renewables will rise from 18% in 2019 to 20% in 2020 and 22% in 2021.

BMW unveils electric SUV to challenge Tesla, plans U.S. launch in early 2022 – Reuters, 11/11/20

• German luxury automaker BMW AG unveiled on Wednesday an electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) called the BMW iX, planned to go on sale in the United States in early 2022 to compete with Tesla Inc and other rivals.
• BMW said the iX should have a driving range of 300 miles (480 km). That’s less than the estimated driving range of the Tesla Model X Long Range, which is rated at 371 miles in the United States.
• BMW said drivers would be able to add 75 miles of range in ten minutes at a fast-charging station.
• BMW said the iX would be comparable in size to the current BMW X5 SUV. The dashboard will be a sweeping, curved screen.