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Duke Health part of clinical trial testing COVID-19 vaccine in kids

Sophie Holland, 12, is one of about 100 children enrolled in the study through Duke.

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  • Policy hawks, courts will test ECB and euro debt markets

    Euro zone politicians, courts and policy hawks will pose a stiff challenge this year to the ECB's resolve to pin down the bloc's borrowing costs, precisely at a time when higher U.S. Treasury yields are tempting investors away from European markets. The European Central Bank has held sovereign debt yields low through bond purchases, and recently increased buying in its 1.85 trillion-euro ($2.22 trillion) emergency stimulus scheme, known as PEPP. And it is no longer battling alone to support the euro economy, as the pandemic induced governments to spend more and to create an 800 billion-euro Recovery Fund, seeded by joint European Union borrowing.

  • Bitcoin tumbles after Turkey bans crypto payments citing risks

    ANKARA (Reuters) -Bitcoin tumbled more than 4% on Friday after Turkey's central bank banned the use of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets for purchases citing possible "irreparable" damage and transaction risks. In legislation published in the Official Gazette, the central bank said cryptocurrencies and other such digital assets based on distributed ledger technology could not be used, directly or indirectly, to pay for goods and services. The decision could stall Turkey's crypto market, which has gained momentum in recent months as investors joined the global rally in bitcoin, seeking to hedge against lira depreciation and inflation that topped 16% last month.

  • Multiple U.S. trade partners risk 'manipulator' label in Yellen's first currency report

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Taiwan and Thailand risk joining Vietnam and Switzerland in running afoul of U.S. currency manipulation triggers in Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's first foreign exchange report, expected this week, but whether she applies that label is unclear. The Biden administration has sought to engage more constructively with trading partners and allies, and currency experts say that Yellen could veer from the aggressive approach applied by the Trump administration in the currency report, taking into account the trade and capital flow distortions of the coronavirus pandemic and reviewing the structure of the report.

  • U.S. Stocks Add to Record; Treasuries, Dollar Fall: Markets Wrap

    (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks extended all-time highs as record growth figures from China lifted materials companies and added fuel to bets on the global economic recovery. The dollar slipped.The S&P 500 Index headed for its sixth weekly advance in the past seven as strong economic data and a solid start to the corporate earnings season bolstered optimism. Tech shares lagged behind. Chinese stocks outperformed in Asia after a report showed the nation’s economy soared in the first quarter. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was poised for a seventh week of advances, its longest streak since May 2018.The data from Beijing added to Thursday’s string of positive economic figures out of the U.S., pushing the MSCI All-Country World Index to a fresh record. Treasuries extended Thursday’s gain. Morgan Stanley became the latest American bank to post record first-quarter results.Along with healthy corporate earnings, China’s first-quarter gross domestic product numbers are giving fresh impetus to the reflation trade. In the U.S., Thursday’s retail sales and weekly jobless claims data signaled an accelerating recovery in the world’s biggest economy. Investors will look for further confirmation as the reporting season picks up pace next week, with around 80 S&P 500 members and more than 50 Stoxx 600 firms announcing.“As the economic reopening accelerates in the coming months, we believe the bull market remains on a solid footing,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management. “We maintain a cyclical bias and prefer U.S. consumer discretionary, energy, financials and industrials.”Elsewhere, copper remained on course for the best week in about two months and oil was poised for its biggest weekly advance in five. Bitcoin slipped.These are some of the main moves in financial markets:StocksThe S&P 500 Index climbed 0.2% as of 11:17 a.m. New York time.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index jumped 0.6%.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 0.3%.The MSCI Emerging Market Index gained 0.5%.CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.1%.The euro jumped 0.1% to $1.1983.The British pound gained 0.1% to $1.3798.The onshore yuan was little changed at 6.52 per dollar.The Japanese yen weakened 0.1% to 108.84 per dollar.BondsThe yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 1.57%.The yield on two-year Treasuries climbed less than one basis point to 0.16%.Germany’s 10-year yield advanced one basis point to -0.28%.Britain’s 10-year yield jumped two basis points to 0.757%.Japan’s 10-year yield increased less than one basis point to 0.093%.CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude climbed 0.1% to $63.51 a barrel.Brent crude increased 0.2% to $67.10 a barrel.Gold strengthened 1% to $1,781.48 an 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.

  • U.S. Drops Switzerland, Vietnam Currency-Manipulator Labels

    (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. refrained from designating any trading partner as a currency manipulator in the Biden administration’s first foreign-exchange policy report, even as Switzerland, Taiwan and Vietnam met thresholds for the label.The Treasury Department said Friday that those three economies met criteria for the manipulator label, including a large trade surplus with the U.S. But the administration said there was “insufficient evidence” to conclude that the three trading partners showed the intent of “preventing effective balance of payments adjustments or gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade” to apply the tag.A Treasury official told reporters that the decision not to designate any nation a manipulator should not be seen as a mixed message. In December, the last report done under President Donald Trump designated Switzerland and Vietnam as manipulators.The new assessments signal the Biden administration is taking a less confrontational approach to international currency policy after the Trump administration’s labeling of China and other countries as manipulators proved ineffective and spurred concerns of politicization.Covid ImpactThe U.S. acknowledged that the unprecedented nature of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the global economy led to creative policy responses by governments and central banks. For that reason, the Treasury said it seeks a deeper understanding of Switzerland’s, Taiwan’s and Vietnam’s currency actions in order to determine if the interventions were done with the intent of gaining an unfair trade advantage, or to cope with the crisis.Ireland and Mexico were added to the Treasury’s watch list, which means they met two of the three criteria for designation. The Treasury kept China, Thailand, India, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore and Malaysia on the monitoring list.The Treasury Department said China’s “failure” to be more transparent around activities at state-owned banks warrants close monitoring. Those banks can act in currency markets with official guidance due to close relationships with China’s central bank.“Treasury is working tirelessly to address efforts by foreign economies to artificially manipulate their currency values that put American workers at an unfair disadvantage,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement accompanying the report.The manipulator designation has no specific or immediate consequence, beyond any short-term market impacts. But the law requires the administration to engage with the trading partners to address the perceived exchange-rate imbalance. Penalties, including exclusion from U.S. government contracts, could be applied after a year unless the label were removed.Trump EraDuring the Trump era, the Treasury abruptly designated China a manipulator in mid-2019 outside its usual release schedule, only to lift the label five months later to win concessions in a trade deal.Concerns about the Treasury’s politicization of its foreign-exchange report continue under Yellen.In 2019, her predecessor Steven Mnuchin used the older of the two active trade laws that inform Treasury’s currency assessments to label China a currency manipulator. Now, Yellen is using that same law to decide that no nation warrants the designation.“The inconsistent use of the same criteria by successive administrations certainly undercuts the notion of the Treasury currency report being a dispassionate and nonpolitical evaluation of other countries’ currency practices,” said Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University who formerly worked in the International Monetary Fund’s China division.Still, he said that the Biden administration’s “less overtly political approach” may restore some credibility.Swiss officials have denied the manipulator charge and continued the nation’s purchases of foreign currencies as part of a long-running campaign to fight deflation through negative interest rates and currency intervention.Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund gave the Swiss National Bank a green light for its purchases of foreign exchange, while also recommending that officials follow counterparts with a strategy review.The Swiss National Bank spent 110 billion francs ($120 billion) on foreign-exchange interventions in 2020.The U.S. moved Taiwan from its watch list to the separate list of those meeting all three criteria for distortionary currency policies. As with Switzerland and Vietnam, Treasury officials said Taiwan met the criteria laid out in a 2015 law by a wide margin, but declined to name the country as a “manipulator” under a related 1988 act.Taiwan’s central bank has acknowledged intervening in foreign exchange markets to pare gains by Taiwan’s currency against the dollar. Daily efforts to stabilize the Taiwan dollar began in earnest in June 2020 until September. Since then, it appears that the bank has been managing the currency’s appreciation.The bank’s governor, Yang Chin-long, said in March he believed the U.S. might designate Taiwan a currency manipulator, but he didn’t expect serious negative impact for the local economy, given robust U.S. demand for semiconductors. Semiconductors, he said, were the main factor driving Taiwan’s trade surplus with the U.S.(Updates with analyst comment in fourth paragraph under Trump Era subheadline.)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.

  • Brevan Howard’s Hedge Fund to Start Buying Cryptocurrencies

    (Bloomberg) -- Brevan Howard Asset Management is preparing to start investing in digital assets, becoming the latest money manager seeking to exploit the cryptocurrency boom.The firm led by Aron Landy will begin by investing up to 1.5% of its $5.6 billion main hedge fund in digital assets, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The initial allocation will be overseen by Johnny Steindorff and Tucker Waterman, co-founders of crypto investment firm Distributed Global, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.A spokesman for Jersey-based Brevan Howard declined to comment.The move is the latest signal that cryptocurrencies are going mainstream as Brevan Howard joins the likes of billionaire hedge fund managers Paul Tudor Jones and Marc Lasry in betting on digital assets. Only on Wednesday, crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc. went public and hit a valuation above $112 billion.Brevan Howard’s fund will bet on the rising values of digital assets, and will focus on a wide range beyond just Bitcoin, the person said.Familiar GroundBrevan Howard is no stranger to digital assets. Co-founder Alan Howard invests his personal money into cryptocurrencies and the firm recently acquired a 25% stake in One River Asset Management, a $2.5 billion firm whose cryptocurrency funds are backed by Howard.The billionaire has been an investor in Distributed Global since early 2018, the person said. That firm also runs a crypto venture capital fund in partnership with Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte. All trading will take place through Elwood Asset Management, an affiliate platform started by Howard four years ago, the person said.Bitcoin has more than doubled this year, boosting the market for cryptocurrencies past $2 trillion, while the entry of big financial institutions into the space has been one of the biggest trends in the industry over the past few months. Tesla Inc. now accepts Bitcoin for its electric vehicles, and the company disclosed a $1.5 billion investment in the currency earlier this year.Both Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have also announced plans to offer clients access to crypto investments.On its part, Brevan Howard had been developing its digital trading technologies and assessing the sector’s suitability for investors for the last few years, according to the person. It decided in the fourth quarter of last year that the industry had matured enough for it to deploy a small part of clients cash.Brevan Howard, best known for its macro trading prowess, is in expansion mode following a record year of gains. Investors who abandoned the firm amid years of mediocre returns are coming back: Assets that collapsed by over 80% from their peak to about $6 billion two years ago have since rebounded to above $13 billion.The firm’s main fund is run by a group of traders including Howard himself, Fash Golchin, Alfredo Saitta and Minal Bathwal. It gained 27.4% last year in its best annual return since 2003.(Updates with industry background in 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.

  • Wall Street Can’t Stop Smashing Records While Pandemic Lingers

    (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. struggled to emerge from the pandemic, and its biggest bank broke an earnings record. JPMorgan wasn’t alone -- Citigroup and Morgan Stanley did the same. And Goldman Sachs? Yes, Goldman too.Wall Street thrived during 2020’s year of global catastrophe, and it’s doing even better in 2021. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s soaring investment-banking fees boosted profit to $14.3 billion, the most the centuries-old firm has ever earned in a single quarter. Citigroup Inc., where fees from underwriting shares quadrupled, saw record quarterly profit of $7.94 billion. And Morgan Stanley posted its highest net revenue yet.And Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s $17.7 billion of revenue and $6.84 billion of earnings both set records in a quarter of Reddit-fueled stock-market mania. Fees from putting together deals for companies helped lift investment-banking revenue to a record $3.77 billion, while revenue for Goldman’s asset-management arm reached a high of $4.61 billion.Other lenders had records too. Bank of America Corp.’s investment-banking fees climbed more than 60% to a record $2.25 billion. It also helped that banks released money from the stockpiles they had set aside for loan losses. Even at Wells Fargo & Co., plagued for years by scandal, profit soared sevenfold -- but not to a record.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.

  • Stocks Drop From Record Highs; Bond Yields Rise: Markets Wrap

    (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks retreated after climbing to an all-time high. Treasuries fell with the dollar. Oil rallied.PayPal Holdings Inc. and Nvidia Corp. paced losses among tech companies in the S&P 500, which had fluctuated for much of Wednesday’s session as traders sifted through earnings from some of the world’s biggest banks. Bitcoin slid in the wake of the debut by cryptocurrency company Coinbase Global Inc. on the Nasdaq.Read: Goldman, JPMorgan Traders Show the Reddit Crowd How It’s DoneWith equities lingering near a record, investors are looking to the earnings season for further catalysts. Expectations of a strong profit rebound have helped markets rally, setting the bar high as reporting gets underway. More broadly, investors are monitoring vaccine developments for any threats to the economic recovery. The Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book that activity has picked up pace amid an improvement in consumer spending.“You’re going to see this tug-of-war continue within markets as investors weigh the prospects of a strengthening economy with the risk of rising inflationary pressures,” said Adam Phillips, managing director of portfolio strategy at EP Wealth Advisors.A quarter that began with retail investors declaring the end of the status quo on Wall Street just ended with big banks tallying surprisingly massive hauls. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. -- two of the most gilded names in finance -- kicked off bank earnings season with revenue windfalls from trading and dealmaking, defying warnings from within the industry that good times couldn’t last.Goldman Sachs’s stock jumped, while JPMorgan’s slipped -- undermined by concern over weak demand for loans.Some key events to watch this week:U.S. data including initial jobless claims, industrial production and retail sales come Thursday.China economic growth, industrial production and retail sales figures are on Friday.These are some of the main moves in financial markets:StocksThe S&P 500 fell 0.4% at 4 p.m. New York time.The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.2%.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.7%.CurrenciesThe Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.2%.The euro climbed 0.3% to $1.1979.The Japanese yen appreciated 0.2% to 108.89 per dollar.BondsThe yield on two-year Treasuries rose less than one basis point to 0.16%.The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points to 1.63%.The yield on 30-year Treasuries climbed two basis points to 2.31%.CommoditiesWest Texas Intermediate crude gained 4.5% to $62.89 a barrel.Gold weakened 0.5% to $1,736.65 an 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.

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    (Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s central bank is likely to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged in the first monetary policy meeting of its newly appointed governor.Installed after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan abruptly fired his predecessor following a bigger-than-expected rate increase, Sahap Kavcioglu is under pressure to reduce rates but has so far signaled he would not rush to loosen the stance he inherited.All but two respondents in a Bloomberg survey of 25 analysts expect the central bank to keep the one-week repo policy rate at 19% on Thursday. The dissenters, HSBC Bank PLC and Capital Economics Ltd, predict the meeting will deliver a reduction of 50 and 200 basis points, respectively.“Kavcioglu’s initial communication to markets has done enough to alleviate apprehensions about a major policy reversal at the April meeting,” said Ehsan Khoman, Head of Emerging Market Research for Europe, Middle East and Africa at MUFG Bank in Dubai. Turkey “does not have the policy room to lower rates this year given the elevated inflation outlook” but Kavcioglu’s dovish views suggest the central bank will eventually take a more accommodative stance.In a written interview with Bloomberg after his appointment last month, Kavcioglu said markets shouldn’t view a rate cut at the April 15 Monetary Policy Committee meeting as a given, easing some concerns among investors.Turkey raised its benchmark one-week repo rate by 200 basis points on March 18, at Naci Agbal’s final rate-setting meeting as governor, citing concerns about inflation. A professor of banking, Kavcioglu was among the critics of that move, saying it could damage economic growth.Last week, Erdogan said the government was determined to both reduce inflation and cut interest rates to single digits, prompting a slide in the lira. The currency has weakened more than 10% against the dollar since the unexpected appointment of Kavcioglu.What Our Economists Say:“Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would like the new-look central bank to lower interest rates, but market forces will likely delay the delivery of his orders. With inflation rising and the lira weakening, we expect the monetary policy committee to keep rates on hold when it meets on Thursday.” --Ziad Daoud, Bloomberg Economics (Read More: Market Forces to Keep Turkey Central Bank on Hold)Inflation accelerated to an annual 16.2% through March, up from 15.6% the previous month because of a global oil rally and weaker currency, leaving the new central bank chief little room to enact the interest-rate cuts that would mollify Erdogan, who holds the unorthodox view that high interest rates cause inflation.Among the dissenters, Jason Tuvey, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, said they are basing their forecast of a big rate cut more “on the basis of pressure from Erdogan.”“If I was governor, I would hike interest rates,” he said, “but I’d probably get sacked the next day.”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.

  • When will ‘plus-up’ stimulus check payments arrive? Catch-up COVID payments sent to 700,000 Americans in latest batch

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  • Hedge Funds Nailed Treasuries Rout With $100 Billion in Sales

    (Bloomberg) -- Hedge funds have been a major player in this year’s Treasury selloff, offloading more than $100 billion of the securities since the start of January, according to holdings data.The world’s biggest net sales of U.S. government debt so far in 2021 has been in the financial center of the Cayman Islands, well known as a domicile for leveraged accounts. Investors there dumped $62 billion of US. sovereign bonds in February, after selling $49 billion the previous month, Treasury Department data show.The January and February selling flow also appears to offer some clues about recent price action. Treasuries rallied on Thursday despite stronger-than-expected U.S. economic data, with many participants pointing to short-covering demand as the reason.“Hedge funds overall were probably keenly involved in the rates move, but I don’t think they were alone,” said Richard Kelly, head of global strategy at Toronto-Dominion Bank. “The market broadly built up some decent short positions in a relatively short time.”U.S. 10-year yields have jumped more than 60 basis points since the end of December to trade at 1.58% on Friday. Among the catalysts for the bearish tilt were Democratic victories in the Georgia Senate run-off race that paved the way for another round of stimulus spending, and the rollout of coronavirus vaccines. Rising yields then prompted a return of convexity-type hedging flows.Hedge Fund Research Inc.’s Macro Total Index, which tracks discretionary macro managers among others, climbed 0.2% in January and clocked a 2.8% gain in February.(Updates with Toronto-Dominion Bank comment in fourth paragraph and hedge fund index data in final 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.

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