TheChek News Flow

• After the Biden administration announced it would maintain the Trump administration’s historically low refugee cap, backlash from Democrats and human rights activists prompted the White House to reverse course and announce it will permit an increase.

• Over the past month or so, Russia has deployed what analysts are calling the largest military buildup along the border with Ukraine since the outset of Kiev’s war with Russian-backed separatists seven years ago.

• The pandemic is undoing decades of progress for India, which has slowly brought hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, only to see that progress erode amid deep structural problems and prime minister Narendra Modi’s erratic policies.

• A Hong Kong court sentenced pro-democracy leader Jimmy Lai to 12 months in prison for his role in a peaceful demonstration in 2019 against Beijing’s harsh policies, and gave sentences of eight to 18 months to three others.

• In his short time in office, Italian prime minister Mario Draghi has quickly leveraged his European relationships, his skill in navigating EU institutions, and his reputation to make Italy a player on the continent in a way it has not been in decades.

• The Treasury Department put Taiwan, Vietnam, and Switzerland on notice over their currency practices, but it struck a more conciliatory tone than the Trump administration by stopping short of labeling any of them a currency manipulator.

• The National Association of Realtors is advocating an end to a pandemic-era order meant to keep renters in their homes, just as the real estate market heats up and realtors prepare to sell more homes.

• The US government invested $800M in plasma when the country was desperate for Covid-19 treatments, but a year later, the program has fizzled after strong evidence for its success never materialized.

• Japan, South Korea, and Australia were able to counter the pandemic in its early stages, but only a small portion of their populations have received coronavirus vaccines, which could undo their earlier successes. • Critics say that after nearly 16 years in office, chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats party lacks ideas on how to keep Germany thriving when its industrial model is outdated, faith in the US is down, and China and Russia are more assertive. • President Biden’s choice for deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, is a veteran of national security posts and is expected to be a key player in the administration’s push to combat domestic extremism, and investigate the January Capitol siege. • The US and China have said they will fight climate change “with the seriousness and urgency that it demands” by stepping up efforts to reduce carbon emissions, a rare demonstration of cooperation amid escalating tensions on other issues.• American shoppers are flocking to high-waisted, loose-fitting jeans in droves and companies believe they may become a hallmark of the post-pandemic world in which so-called skinny jeans, popular for more than a decade, lose ground.

Weekend

• Investors are growing wary of special-purpose acquisition companies, one of the hottest bets on Wall Street, as regulators intensify scrutiny of black-check companies and the share prices of many of them tumble.

• Federal debt recently hit a high, thanks in part to foreign investors who are happy to park their cash in the US because of the safety and stability of its securities, but some say the traditional debt-to-GDP ratio is no longer meaningful.

• Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and his wife violated ethics rules by asking department employees to carry out tasks of a personal nature, including pet care, according to a watchdog report.

• Most companies and trade groups that said they would suspend contributions after the Capitol riot have done so, with business and industry PAC contributions falling by about 80 percent for Republicans who voted against certifying Biden’s win.

• “Policing overhauls at the federal level have stalled, with mutual recriminations over who sunk last year’s legislative efforts—but the failure masks a growing bipartisan consensus on issues less emotionally fraught than police use of force.”

• Russia said it would expel 10 US diplomats and bar a number of senior America officials from entering the country in response to measures against Moscow over alleged election interference, cyberattacks and other damaging activity.

• Two months after arctic weather paralyzed Texas, most of the people who participate in the state’s electricity market agree that the freeze wasn’t a one-off event, and that the state’s power market should undergo major changes.

• Story profiles Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX—which processes $10.7B in trades every day and is one of the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges—a billionaire now moving into tokenized stocks and other new markets.

• H.O.T.S.: New York’s 13 percent levy on legal cannabis sales should help it avoid the mistakes of states like California, whose hefty taxes help underground dealers; FAANG companies may eventually feel the effects of a chip shortage, but near-term results should remain strong; Two exceptionally profitable quarters for Mercedes-Benz highlight what DAI has to lose from the transition to electric vehicles.

Weekend

• “China’s economy continued its strong recovery from coronavirus in the first quarter of 2021 as the country reported a record growth rate compared to last year, but the figures masked the lingering damage left by the pandemic.”

• In a letter to investors, hedge fund manager David Einhorn criticized US regulators for allowing “quasi anarchy” in markets, with their inaction on issues such as the GME frenzy exposing small investors to harm.

• The Biden administration will invest $1.7B in federal funds to research Covid-19 variants, as public health experts warn that new strains of the virus could cause infections in the US to spike.

• Big Read piece says Britain’s record on combatting corruption is good, but abuses—such as former prime minister David Cameron’s lobbying for Greensill Capital—are hiding in plain sight.

• Lex Column: Man Group’s AHL subsidiary has provided a steadying effect for the company; On multiple metrics stock valuations look steep—on price-to-book, banks are now back to pre-crisis levels from 2020; The City of London needs to up its game to compensate for Brexit losses.

• Comment: As with much else that Joe Biden is doing these days, his decision to pull out the remaining US troops from Afghanistan will be popular, says Andrew Exum—but the withdrawal will not be without risks.

• Hometown International Inc., which owns a single deli in South New Jersey, has become worth more than $100M on the stock market in recent months, the latest example of the “meme stock” trend.

• New York restaurants, which are now open at 50 percent capacity, don’t have enough employees to make their businesses work, and are having trouble hiring new staff.

• Robinhood traders harshly criticized the mobile trading app after its cryptocurrency platform suffered a major outage just as Dogecoin was in the midst of a major rally.

• Commodities trader Donald Turnbull claims in court papers he was fired from JPM’s precious metals trading group after executives discovered the extent of his cooperation with the Justice Department in a market manipulation case.

• + DAI: Mercedes-Benz unveiled a battery-powered counterpart to its top luxury sedan as German carmakers ramp up their challenge to electric upstart TSLA. - Source TradeTheNews.com