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Democrats on course to pass $1.9T COVID bill without GOP support

FOX News congressional correspondent Chad Pergram has the latest from Capitol Hill on 'Special Report'

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  • Energy firms overcharged one million switching customers

    Households were overcharged by a total of £7.2m when they should have been protected from price rises.

  • Service Sector PMIs Put the EUR and USD in Focus, with ADP Nonfarms to also Influence

    It’s a busy day ahead on the economic calendar. Economic data from the U.S will draw plenty of interest, with service sector PMIs from the Eurozone also in focus.

  • Italy’s Green Bond Demand Smashes Peers in Debut Offering

    (Bloomberg) -- Italy’s first foray into the sustainable debt market looks set to pull in the biggest-ever orderbook for a sale of green bonds.The nation racked up over 80 billion euros ($97 billion) of bids for its 8.5-billion-euro sale of 2045 securities via banks, more than twice that seen for Germany’s debut last year. European nations are piling into the market to finance a greener recovery from the pandemic.“Investors are still buying like there’s no tomorrow,” said Jens Peter Sorensen, chief analyst at Danske Bank A/S. “The green investor base continue to grow.”The rush of demand allowed the nation to knock a few basis points off the pricing, the latest evidence of a so-called greenium for sustainable assets. Countries and companies issuing such debt, where spending is ringfenced for environmental projects, have often managed to achieve cheaper financing than from conventional bonds.The strong interest comes despite the market’s pullback from a year-long rally in Italy’s bonds, following a global selloff. Investor sentiment toward the nation has improved following the appointment of former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi as Prime Minister this year, and its debt remains among the region’s highest-yielding assets.Europe is at the forefront of debt tied to more sustainable activities. The European Union has sold a series of social bonds tied to a jobs program and is set to become the largest green debt issuer after its recovery fund sales get underway later this year.The Boom in ESG Shows No Signs of Slowing: Green InsightItaly published its framework for green bond issuance last week and said that it would align as much as possible with the EU’s green bond standard, due in the coming months. The proceeds of the bonds will be used to fund projects from renewable electricity to biodiversity, while part of it will go to refinancing previous projects between 2018-2020.Italy lowered the guidance twice on the sale to 12 basis points over its 2041 bonds, from 15 basis points initially. Previously, the 33-billion-euro orderbook for Germany’s sale in September was the largest recorded, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.The country mandated Credit Agricole SA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA as structuring advisors, and those plus BNP Paribas SA, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and NatWest Markets to joint lead manage the sale.“It comes at a perfect time,” said Althea Spinozzi, a fixed income strategist at Saxo Bank A/S. “By issuing a green bond Italy ensures to have more attention from the market, therefore better bidding metrics compared to a traditional issuance. It’s a win-win.”(Updates with sale and order sizes in second paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Faces Long Odds in Bid for Sixth Straight Monthly Gain

    Bitcoin started March nicely but whether it can match its previous winning streak is yet to be seen.

  • S&P 500 Has Best Day Since June; Treasuries Drop: Markets Wrap

    (Bloomberg) -- Stocks climbed as confidence returned to markets, with investors shaking off concern about the impacts of higher Treasury yields.In a broad-based rally, the S&P 500 notched its biggest advance in almost nine months, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 3% while the Russell 2000 of small caps outperformed. GameStop Corp. added to last week’s surge of over 150%, with retail investors promoting the stock on social-media platforms such as Reddit and StockTwits. After the close of regular trading, Zoom Video Communications Inc. soared as its revenue forecast topped Wall Street’s estimates.Read: Stock Bulls Have Stopped Pretending to Care About Balance SheetsLonger-dated Treasuries resumed their selloff even as intermediate maturities found support, with traders priming themselves for how Federal Reserve officials slated to speak this week might respond to the recent tumult. Investors piled back into risk assets as stocks rebounded following a rout that was triggered by concern that massive stimulus as well as progress in battling the coronavirus have left some areas of the economy at risk of possibly overheating. The S&P 500 extended a rally from its March 2020 lows to about 75%.“Equity investors are still looking at the rise in rates mostly as ‘a good thing’ and not yet as a threat, notwithstanding some shaking of the tree in high multiple stocks and other parts of the market last week,” wrote Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group. “The benefits of the vaccines versus the challenge of higher rates will be the theme this year.”Read: Investors Poured Record $86 Billion Into Equity ETFs in FebruaryBitcoin rallied after a volatile weekend session, riding a broad resurgence in risk assets and a bullish report from Citigroup Inc. The bank’s strategists laid out a case for the digital asset to play a bigger role in the global financial system, saying the cryptocurrency could become “the currency of choice for international trade” in the years ahead.There are some key events to watch this week:U.S. Federal Reserve Beige Book is due Wednesday.OPEC+ meeting on output Thursday.U.S. factory orders, initial jobless claims and durable goods orders are due Thursday.The February U.S. employment report on Friday will provide an update on the speed and direction of the nation’s labor market recovery.These are some of the main moves in markets:StocksThe S&P 500 Index surged 2.4% as of 4 p.m. New York time.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 1.8%.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 1.8%.The MSCI Emerging Market Index rose 1.7%.CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.1%.The euro declined 0.2% to $1.2046.The Japanese yen depreciated 0.2% to 106.78 per dollar.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points to 1.43%.Germany’s 10-year yield sank seven basis points to -0.33%.Britain’s 10-year yield declined six basis points to 0.759%.CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude declined 1.8% to $60.40 a barrel.Gold fell 0.6% to $1,723.42 an ounce.Silver dropped 0.6% to $26.51 per ounce.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Exxon touts growing dividends, cutting spending as climate challenges loom for Big Oil

    Exxon Mobil Corp on Wednesday unveiled plans to grow dividends and curb spending with projections that were less bold than previous years after the top U.S. oil and gas producer posted a historic annual loss for 2020. Investor pressure has mounted for Exxon to cut costs, improve financial returns and better prepare for the energy transition to lower-carbon fuels. At its investor day presentation, the company reaffirmed plans to keep project spending between $16 billion and $19 billion in 2021, and between $20 billion and $25 billion a year through 2025.

  • RBNZ Says It Can Increase Weekly Bond Purchases If Needed

    (Bloomberg) -- New Zealand’s central bank said it’s watching financial markets closely for signs of dysfunction and warned it has the ability to increase its weekly bond purchases to put more downward pressure on yields.The Reserve Bank “observed pockets of dysfunction” last week and has the operational flexibility to adjust its Large Scale Asset Purchase program up or down, Assistant Governor Christian Hawkesby said in an interview Tuesday in Wellington. Under the NZ$100 billion ($73 billion) program, the bank is currently buying NZ$570 million of government bonds a week.“We are watching markets very closely, we’re very aware of what’s going on and we do have that ability to adjust the size of our LSAP operations from week to week,” Hawkesby said. “We absolutely have the flexibility to adjust those purchases down or up.”Central banks are fighting back against runaway bets on inflation that have seen global bond yields surge, undermining monetary stimulus. The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday bought twice as many longer-dated government bonds as it usually does, spurring the biggest drop in yields there in a year.Hawkesby noted the RBA’s recent purchases and reiterated that the RBNZ remains committed to a prolonged period of stimulus. The bank could cut its official cash rate -- currently at 0.25% -- further if needed, even into negative territory, he said.“The message that we’re giving along with other central banks is that stimulus is going to be in place for a long time, that we need to have a very high degree of confidence that we’re going to achieve our mandate and that will take time and patience to occur,” Hawkesby said. “We have to ability to lower the official cash rate, and we need to keep reminding markets that we have that ability.”While the economic recovery in New Zealand has been stronger than elsewhere, “it has been very uneven, it is very fragile” and “there is a material probability that we may have to lower the official cash rate” to achieve the RBNZ’s mandate, Hawkesby said.He cited the current Auckland lockdown due to a Covid-19 outbreak as a reminder of the risks. “There’s still a long way to go. These periods can erode confidence,” he said.New Zealand Central Bank Told to Include Housing in Rate PolicyAsked about the government’s move last week to make the RBNZ take soaring house prices into consideration when setting both monetary and financial policy, Hawkesby said the directive on financial policy was “the first and most important part of the changes.”He said the RBNZ’s financial policy is now required to “have regard” to housing, while the bank has only been asked to “assess the implications” of its monetary policy decisions on the property market. He drew a distinction between the two, saying the former was a “higher threshold” than the latter, which amounted to “a point around transparency and communication.”“The key message is that the appropriate tool to use if we’re going to influence sustainable house prices is our macroprudential tools,” Hawkesby said. “When we make our monetary policy decisions we need to make them with a clear understanding of the broader context we’re operating in. The remit helps articulate that more fully.”It would take time for markets to understand these announcements “and the primacy of the macroprudential tools in that space.”The RBNZ would like to see mortgage rates fall further, Hawkesby said.(Updates with Hawkesby comments throughout)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Rocket Companies Short Squeeze Gives $25B Single-Day Boost To Dan Gilbert's Wealth

    Rocket Companies Inc (NYSE: RKT) founder Dan Gilbert’s wealth got a $25 billion booster on Tuesday as the holding company gets the attention of retail investors on Reddit’s r/WallStreetBets, according to Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index. What Happened: Gilbert, Age 59, has moved up 19 spots to No. 16 on the index that tracks 500 of the world’s richest. A large chunk of Gilbert’s fortune, 93% to be precise, is comprised of his stake in Rocket, reported Bloomberg. See also: How to Buy Rocket Companies (RKT) Stock Why It Matters: The one-day jump in Gilbert’s wealth is the largest so far in the year, noted Bloomberg. As of press time, Detroit-based Rocket Companies with subsidiaries such as Rocket Mortgage and Quicken Loans was the most discussed company on WallStreetBets, according to SwaggyStocks data. WallStreetBets investors previously carried out short squeezes in the stocks of GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME), AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE: AMC), Nokia Oyj (NYSE: NOK), BlackBerry Ltd (NYSE: BB), and others. Rocket reported 162% revenue growth and 350% growth in net income for the fourth quarter, which beat analyst estimates. The company’s shares have shot up since last Friday. S3 Partners data indicates the Rocket has currently $1.2 billion in short interest — making it one of the most shorted stocks in the market. Price Action: Rocket shares traded nearly 8.2% lower at $38.20 in after-hours trading on Tuesday after shooting up almost 71.2% in the regular session. Photo by Steve Jennings on Wikimedia See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaRocket Companies Overtakes GameStop, Palantir As WallStreetBets' Top Interest© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

  • Trudeau’s Tighter Covid-19 Rules Hit Canada’s Economic Growth

    (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claims there isn’t a trade-off between Canada’s strict lockdowns and economic growth will be tested this week with the release of new output data.Analysts expect gross domestic product shrank by more than 5% last year, a middling result among advanced economies. The U.S., with far less restrictive pandemic measures last year, shrank by just 3.5%.Canada’s lagging performance is expected to continue into 2021. Economists see a stronger rebound in the U.S. this year because of its faster pace of Covid-19 vaccinations, looser virus-related curbs and President Joe Biden’s stimulus plan.“It’s pretty obvious there is a trade-off,” Doug Porter, chief economist at Bank of Montreal, said in a phone interview.The good news is investors and analysts don’t appear worried. The Canadian dollar is one of five major currencies that’s appreciated against the U.S. greenback this year. And the rise in government bond yields has been faster in Canada than the U.S., another sign of optimism about growth.Despite the underperformance, Canada’s outlook remains positive.Economists anticipate growth of 4.7% this year. That’s slower than the U.S., but also the fastest in two decades. GDP data due Tuesday from Statistics Canada are also likely to show more resilience to the latest wave of restrictions this winter, in part because of a booming housing market.A rally in commodities, meanwhile, is another major tailwind for the resource-producing economy. The Bank of Canada’s index of commodity prices -- which tracks commodities produced in Canada and sold in world markets -- has more than doubled since its lows in April to the highest levels since 2014. Excluding energy, the index is at an all-time high.What Bloomberg Economics Says...“Even a soft start to the year is set to be quickly erased in the months ahead. High-frequency data in our weekly dashboard show 1Q will end on a stronger note, with momentum accelerating in 2Q as more sectors of the economy reopen. The main risk is a frustratingly-slow vaccine roll-out.”-- Andrew Husby, economistFor the full report, click hereThe debate is switching toward upside risks to forecasts.A massive accumulation of excess savings is one wild card. While other countries have seen a similar pickup in household savings during the pandemic, the trend has been more pronounced in Canada because of its stricter lockdowns and generous government aid programs. There were fewer opportunities to spend, even as Canadian incomes surged.Many economists, including those at the Bank of Canada, have chosen to make conservative assumptions about how much of a rush Canadians will be in to draw down those extra savings.Others, including Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, are more bullish.The reservoir of savings is so large, a bigger worry may be a rebound that is too strong, putting pressure on the central bank to raise interest rates.While there’s debate over who will hike first -- the Federal Reserve or the Bank of Canada -- markets are pricing in more aggressive increases in the policy rate north of the border amid expectations Governor Tiff Macklem will have less tolerance for price pressures.“There is a narrower inflation mandate for the Bank of Canada than the Fed,” Derek Holt, an economist at Bank of Nova Scotia, said by phone.Add rising wealth from a surging housing market and it may not require much to trigger a post-pandemic boom. Which would be great news for a Trudeau government that may face an election soon, but poses another challenge.Freeland wants to keep the spending taps open for the next few years on the grounds the economy will need continued support. That’s getting harder to argue.“With a large stock of excess household savings waiting on the sidelines, plus already highly supportive policy, governments do not need to spend much more to propel a strong economic recovery in the year ahead,” Porter said in a report to investors Friday. “An effective vaccine rollout would be the single most important contributor to growth.”(Updates with Bloomberg Economics box after 8th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • A $21 Trillion Treasuries Mystery Is Bedeviling Global Markets

    (Bloomberg) -- Bond traders have been saying for years that liquidity is there in the world’s biggest bond market, except when you really need it.Last week’s startling gyrations in U.S. Treasury yields may offer fresh backing for that mantra, and prompt another bout of soul-searching in a $21 trillion market that forms the bedrock of global finance. While stocks are prone to sudden swings, such episodes are supposed to be few and far between in a government-debt market that sets the benchmark risk-free rate for much of the world.Yet jarring moves occur periodically in Treasuries, forming a bit of a mystery as no two events have been the same. Some point to heightened bank regulations in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Scrutiny over liquidity shortfalls intensified in October 2014 when a 12-minute crash and rebound in yields happened with no apparent trigger. Panic selling during the pandemic-fueled chaos a year ago, exacerbated when hedge funds’ leveraged wagers blew up, brought the issue to the fore again.And then came last week, when the gap between bid and offer prices for 30-year bonds hit the widest since the panic of March 2020.The latest events “are a stark reminder what happens when liquidity suddenly vanishes in the deepest, largest bond market,” said Ben Emons, managing director of global macro strategy at Medley Global Advisors.At issue is whether this vast market is more vulnerable to sudden bouts of turbulence thanks to measures that have made it more difficult for banks to hold Treasuries. Some analysts say the tumult last week was magnified by questions over whether the Federal Reserve will extend an easing of bank capital requirements, which is set to end March 31. Put in place early on in the pandemic, the measure is seen as making it easier for banks to add Treasuries to their balance sheets.The 2014 episode triggered a deep dive into the market structure, and regulators have pushed through some changes -- such as increased transparency -- and speculation has grown that more steps to bolster the market’s structure may be ahead.“While the scale and speed of flows associated with the COVID shock are likely pretty far out in the tail of the probability distribution, the crisis highlighted vulnerabilities in the critically important Treasury market that warrant careful analysis,” Fed Governor Lael Brainard said Monday in prepared remarks to the Institute of International Bankers.There are plenty of potential culprits in last week’s bond-market tumble -- which has since mostly reversed -- from improving economic readings to more technical drivers. Ultra-loose Fed policy and the prospect of fresh U.S. fiscal stimulus have investors betting on quicker growth and inflation. Add to that a wave of convexity hedgers, and unwinding by big trend-following investors -- such as commodity trading advisers.Based on Bloomberg’s U.S. Government Securities Liquidity Index, a gauge of how far yields are deviating from a fair-value model, liquidity conditions worsened recently, though it was nothing like what was seen in March.For Zoltan Pozsar, a strategist at Credit Suisse, the action began in Asia with bond investors reacting to perceived hawkish signs from the central banks of Australia and New Zealand. That sentiment then carried over into the U.S. as carry trades and other levered positions in the bond market were wiped out. A disastrous auction of seven-year notes on Thursday added fuel to the unraveling.Last week’s drama “brings to mind other notable episodes in recent years in which a deterioration in the Treasury market microstructure was primarily to blame,” JPMorgan & Chase Co. strategist Henry St John wrote in a note with colleagues.One key gauge of Treasury liquidity -- market depth, or the ability to trade without substantially moving prices -- plunged in March 2020 to levels not seen since the 2008 crisis, according to data compiled by JPMorgan. That severe degree of liquidity shortfall didn’t resurface last week.The bond-market rout only briefly took a toll on share prices last week, with equities surging to start this week, following a sharp retreat in Treasury yields amid month-end buying.The Fed cut rates to nearly zero in March 2020, launched a raft of emergency lending facilities and ramped up bond buying to ensure low borrowing costs and smooth market functioning. That breakdown in functioning has sparked calls for change from regulators and market participants alike.GLOBAL INSIGHT: Recovery? Yes. Tantrum? No. Yield Driver ModelFor now, Treasuries have settled down. Pozsar notes that the jump in yields has provided an opportunity for some value investors to swoop in and pick up extra yield, effectively helping offset the impact of the leveraged investors who scrambled for the exits last week.“Some levered players were shaken out of their positions,” Pozsar said in a forthcoming episode of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast. “It’s not comfortable -- especially if you’re on the wrong side of the trade -- but I don’t think that we should be going down a path where we should redesign the Treasury market.”Why Liquidity Is a Simple Idea But Hard to Nail Down: QuickTake(Updates with details on Bloomberg’s liquidity index in 10th paragraph, and a chart)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • 13 years after investing in an obscure Chinese automaker, Warren Buffett’s BYD bet is paying off big

    A $232 million investment has ballooned into a $5.9 billion stake.

  • Monthly stimulus checks may be on the way for families later this year

    A bill in Congress would give families up to $300 a month per child starting this summer.

  • Staff at some major U.S. firms to keep masks on in Texas even as state lifts mandate

    Japanese carmaker Toyota, which has its U.S. headquarters and a factory in Texas, said it was looking into the move by Governor Greg Abbott to roll back the mask mandate, and it doesn't contemplate any immediate changes. "The early read is – no change for us," Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin said.

  • Is Bitcoin Useless?

    Bitcoin passed its tenth anniversary of the release of its whitepaper, first introducing it to the world, in 2018. But assessments of the cryptocurrency's impact in the last decade or so have mostly been negative. Is bitcoin useless?

  • Tesla Former Board Member Says Elon Musk Company Won't Remain 'King Of The Hill In Electric Forever'

    A former board member of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) said Tuesday that the company is unlikely to remain the “king of the hill” in electric vehicles forever, CNBC reported. What Happened: Steve Westly said on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” that he had been bullish on the Elon Musk-led automaker for the last 10 years and it’s “hard to imagine an auto company executing better than Tesla has.” Westly pointed to the company’s latest earnings release in January where it said it had a “multi-year horizon” and expected to achieve 50% average annual growth in vehicle deliveries. See also: How to Invest in Tesla Stock “No one else in the auto world is doing that. Having said that, Tesla is not going to be king of the hill in electric forever,” said Westly. Why It Matters: The venture capitalist noted that there have been large-scale commitments on EVs from legacy automakers such as General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) and Volkswagen AG (OTC: VWAGY). “Tesla is not just getting hit from the high end,” said Westly on the availability of EVs from Volkswagen marques such as Audi and Porsche. Tesla also faces increased competition from Chinese EV rivals, which have more affordable offerings. The analyst noted increased competition in Europe where according to him the company was “No. 1, they’re now No. 4.” See Also: Tesla's Share Of European EV Market Reduced To 3.5% “They’re getting competition from all sectors. They’re going to have to double down to compete.” Tesla’s plans to make a more affordable $25,000 vehicle have left Chinese rivals such as Xpeng Inc (NYSE: XPEV), Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO), and others unfazed. In January, a two-door $4,500 EV made by Wuling — a joint venture of GM and state-owned SAIC Motor — outsold Tesla’s Model 3 in China by nearly two-to-one. Price Action: Tesla shares closed 4.45% lower at $686.44 on Tuesday and gained 0.34% in the after-hours session. Click here to check out Benzinga’s EV Hub for the latest electric vehicles news. See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaNio Says Chip Shortage Will Hit EV Production In Q2Such Popularity, Much Wow! Dogecoin Now Available At 1,800 ATMs Across US© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

  • ASML extends sales deal with Chinese chipmaker SMIC to end of 2021

    ASML Holding NV has extended a deal to sell chip manufacturing equipment to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, China's largest chipmaker, until the end of this year, the Dutch company said in a statement on Wednesday. ASML made the statement after SMIC on Wednesday disclosed a volume purchase agreement under which it has already spent $1.2 billion with the toolmaker. In a clarifying statement issued several hours later, ASML said the agreement began in 2018 and was slated to expire at the end of 2020, but the two companies agreed in February to extend the deal to the end of this year.

  • EOS, Stellar’s Lumen, and Tron’s TRX – Daily Analysis – March 2nd, 2021

    It’s a bearish start to the day. Failure to move back through early highs would bring support levels into play.

  • Intel Told to Pay $2.18 Billion After Losing Patent Trial

    (Bloomberg) -- Intel Corp. was told to pay VLSI Technology LLC $2.18 billion by a federal jury in Texas after losing a patent-infringement trial over technology related to chip-making, one of the largest patent-damages award in U.S. history. Intel pledged to appeal.Intel infringed two patents owned by closely held VLSI, the jury in Waco, Texas, said Tuesday. The jury found $1.5 billion for infringement of one patent and $675 million for infringement of the second. The jury rejected Intel’s denial of infringing either of the patents and its argument that one patent was invalid because it claimed to cover work done by Intel engineers.The patents had been owned by Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors Inc., which would get a cut of any damage award, Intel lawyer William Lee of WilmerHale told jurors in closing arguments Monday. VLSI, founded four years ago, has no products and its only potential revenue is this lawsuit, he said.VLSI “took two patents off the shelf that hadn’t been used for 10 years and said, ‘We’d like $2 billion,”’ Lee told the jury. The “outrageous” demand by VLSI “would tax the true innovators.”He had argued that VLSI was entitled to no more than $2.2 million.“Intel strongly disagrees with today’s jury verdict,” the company said in a statement. “We intend to appeal and are confident that we will prevail.”Intel fell 2.6% to $61.24 in New York trading. The stock is up 23% since the beginning of the year.One of the patents was originally issued in 2012 to Freescale Semiconductor Inc. and the other in 2010 to SigmaTel Inc. Freescale bought SigmaTel and was in turn bought by NXP in 2015. The two patents in this case were transferred to VLSI in 2019, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Law.VLSI lawyer Morgan Chu of Irell & Manella said the patents cover inventions that increase the power and speed of processors, a key issue for competition.‘Willful Blindness’Federal law doesn’t require someone to know of a patent to be found to have infringed it, and Intel purposely didn’t look to see if it was using someone else’s inventions, he said. He accused the Santa Clara, California-based company of “willful blindness.”The jury said there was no willful infringement. A finding otherwise would have enabled District Court Judge Alan Albright to increase the award even further, to up to three times the amount set by the jury.“We are very pleased that the jury recognized the value of the innovations as reflected in the patents and are extremely happy with the jury verdict,” Michael Stolarski, chief executive of VLSI, said in an e-mailed statement.Officials with NXP couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.The damage request isn’t so high when the billions of chips sold by Intel are taken into account, Chu said. Intel paid MicroUnity Systems Engineering Corp. $300 million 2005 and in 2011 paid Nvidia Corp. $1.5 billion even though a settlement in that case involved a cross license of technology, he said.“Operating companies are going to be disturbed by not only the size of the award but also the damages theory,” said Michael Tomasulo, a Winston Strawn lawyer who attended the trial. “They more or less seemed to have bought the entire VLSI case.”The damage award is about half of Intel’s fourth-quarter profit. The company has dominated the $400 billion chip industry for most of the past 30 years, though it’s struggling to maintain that position.The verdict is smaller than the $2.5 billion verdict won by Merck & Co. over a hepatitis C treatment. It was later thrown out. Last year, Cisco Systems Inc. was told by a federal judge in Virginia to pay $1.9 billion to a small cybersecurity companies that accused it of copying a feature to steal away government contracts. Cisco has asked the judge for a new trial.The case is among the few in-person patent trials in recent months, with many courts pressing pause amid the coronavirus pandemic. It was delayed a week because of the winter storm that wreaked havoc across much of Texas.Intel had sought to postpone the case because of the pandemic, but was rejected by Albright, a former patent litigator and magistrate who was sworn in as a federal judge in 2018 and has quickly turned his courtroom into one of the most popular for patent owners to file suit.The case is VLSI Technology LLC v. Intel Corp., 21-57, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (Waco).(Updates with VLSI comment in 12th paragraph. An earlier version corrected the spelling of law firm name in eighth paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Rocket shares soar more than 70% as analysts eye 'GameStop-esque' short squeeze

    Heavily shorted mortgage provider Rocket Companies saw its stock surge on Tuesday, in an eye-popping move reminiscent of the rallies that powered GameStop and other so-called meme stocks earlier in the year. Shares of Rocket, the parent company of Quicken Loans, closed up 71.2% at $41.60 after being halted several times for volatility. The outsized move puts Rocket among the stocks that have experienced wild gyrations after becoming a focus of investors on sites such as Reddit’s WallStreetBets, where mentions of the company have multiplied in recent days.

  • Warren Buffett says this is how you stay financially healthy in the pandemic

    Buffett has shared these bits of wisdom to protect your money from COVID.