Reuters Newsletter

Thursday, January 28, 2021

by Linda Noakes and Nigel Stevenson

Good morning, .

Here’s what you need to know.

How far from GameStop to game over?

The battle between small-time traders and hedge funds that has shaken U.S. and European stock markets moved into Asia, with surges in several Australian companies squeezing another batch of financial institutions that have bet on the stocks falling.

The war began last week when famed short seller Andrew Left of Citron Capital bet against GameStop and was met with a barrage of retail traders betting the other way. Consequently, the video game chain rallied as much as 1,700% in two weeks, costing some large short hedge funds billions.

The squeeze has made Reddit required reading on Wall Street. Discussions on the social media forum fueled the action around individual stocks.

Calls for a probe are building. This week’s turmoil caught the attention of the White House, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on her first full day on the job "monitoring the situation.”

Read our explainer on why regulators may scrutinize GameStop's stock surge.

Wall Street saw its worst sell-off since October as funds scrambled to sell their positions in stock market darlings, such as Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, to make up for surging losses from bets made against struggling smaller companies.

Today’s biggest stories

Pandemic

Europe's vaccine row escalates
Europe's fight to secure COVID-19 vaccine supplies sharpened on Thursday when Britain demanded that it receive all the shots it had paid for after the European Union asked AstraZeneca to divert supplies from the UK.

India says it has contained spread
India said on Thursday it had curbed an increase in infections, with a fifth of its districts reporting no new cases for a week.
The country of 1.35 billion has recorded the highest number of cases in the world after the United States, though the rate of infection has come down significantly since a mid-September peak.

WHO team in Wuhan leaves quarantine
A World Health Organization-led team investigating the origins of the pandemic left its quarantine hotel in Wuhan on Thursday to begin field work, two weeks after arriving in the Chinese city where the virus emerged in late 2019.

New Zealand and Vietnam most successful against COVID
New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan rank as the top three in a COVID Performance Index of almost 100 countries for their successful handling of the pandemic, with Britain and the United States near the bottom of the pile.

At the urging of nursing homes, a law is amended and COVID court claims are slowed. Garnice Robertson wants accountability for her mother’s death from COVID-19 caught while she was living at a Kansas nursing home that allegedly failed to prevent an outbreak of the disease. An unexpected legal hurdle stands in her way.

Pandemic spurs quest to enroll more Black Americans in vaccine trials. Enrollment of Black people in clinical trials is a particular challenge. Mistrust runs high, in part because of the nation’s history of unethical practices in medical research on African Americans.

World

The United States rejects China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea beyond what it is permitted under international law and stands with Southeast Asian nations resisting its pressure, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release of an Islamist convicted of beheading U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl, a decision that has left his family in “complete shock”, lawyers said.

A Russian court on Thursday ordered Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to be kept in jail and rejected his appeal against his detention.
Navalny was remanded in custody for 30 days on Jan. 18 for alleged parole violations that he denies. He could face years in jail.

Business

Apple logs record quarterly smartphone shipments, Huawei in freefall
Apple’s smartphone shipments jumped 22% to record levels in the fourth quarter, making it the world’s biggest seller, while those for Huawei plunged as U.S. sanctions took effect.

Toyota beats Volkswagen to become World's No.1 car seller in 2020
Japan’s Toyota overtook Germany’s Volkswagen in vehicle sales last year, regaining pole position as the world’s top selling automaker for the first time in five years as the pandemic demand slump hit its German rival harder.

In a first, most North American robots last year didn't go to automotive plants
For the first time last year, most of the robots ordered by companies in North America weren’t destined for automotive factories.
The shift is part of a long-term trend of automation spreading into more corners of the economy which was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Breakingviews: Corona Capital - Tequila, Prada, Japan activists

The Paloma cocktail, comprising grapefruit juice and tequila, is lifting Diageo’s spirits, Prada is returning to its former glory and chalk one up for pushy investors. Read concise views on the pandemics financial fallout from Breakingviews columnists across the globe.

Quote of the day

"We warn those 'Taiwan independence' elements: those who play with fire will burn themselves, and 'Taiwan independence' means war"

Wu Qian

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman

China sharpens language towards Taiwan

Video of the day

A Bernie doll made $40,000 for charity on eBay

And finally…

Wanted: bison rangers for woodland in the Garden of England

A Bison is seen at Wildwood Trust, Wild Animal Park, Blean Woods, Canterbury, Britain, January 27, 2021. REUTERS/Paul Childs

Conservationists in England are looking for the country’s first ever rangers to look after European bison, Europe’s largest land mammal, which is being introduced to Kent more than 15,000 years after its ancestors roamed the landscape.

The Reuters Daily Briefing