The global equity rally took a breather in Asia Tuesday as investors mulled stimulus prospects and the impact of rising inflation expectations with stocks at record highs. The dollar declined.
Stocks were little changed in Japan and fell in Australia. They edged higher in China and Hong Kong. U.S. and European futures were flat. Earlier, U.S. shares rose for a sixth straight session with the S&P 500 closing at an all-time high, spurred by fresh signs the Biden administration is committed to passing a sizable aid bill to address unemployment. Treasuries edged higher.
Commodities prices pointed to renewed optimism in the global economic recovery. Brent oil extended an advance above $60 a barrel on signs the global market is tightening and demand is improving. Bitcoin jumped to a record after Tesla Inc. bought $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency. Asian cryptocurrency shares surged. The average yield on U.S. junk bonds dropped below 4% for the first time ever on Monday.
US After Hours GLUU +33.8% jumps as EA will acquire co; SLQT +12.2%, VRNS +8.1%, CHGG +4% jump on earnings; DHT -9.3%, CORT -8.3%, KFRC -7.1%, RAMP -5.5% fall on earnings
Nikkei +0.40% Hang Seng +0.34% CSI +2.09% Shanghai +1.93% Shenzen +2.40%
Eur$ 1.2080 CNH 6.4424 CNY 6.4495 JPY 104.84 GBP 1.3778 CHF 0.8961 RUB 74.0370 TRY 7.0832 WTI$ 58.50 +0.91%
S&P -0.06% Nasdaq -0.08% EuroStoxx -0.14% FTSE -0.19% Dax -0.27%SMI -0.34%
Macro :
- EU Lawmakers Want Big Tech to Pay for News, FT Says
Keep an eye on :
- AMS SW : AMS Sees 1Q Revenue $500M to $540M
- AAPL US : EU’s Vestager Says Apple Must Treat All Apps Equally: Reuters
- AZN LN : Astra’s Covid Shot Still Useful in Variant-Hit Areas, WHO Says
- AZN LN : Astra’s Covid Shot Still Useful in Variant-Hit Areas, WHO Says
- ATEA NO : Atea 4Q Revenue Beats Estimates
- ATRLJB SS : Atrium Ljungberg FY Dividend Per Share Beats Estimates
- BG AV : Bawag Plans Staggered EU460m Dividend Distribution in 2021 (1)
- BKT IM : Bankinter, Plenium Receive EU1.3B Offers for Helia: Cinco Dias
- BETSB BB : Betsson 4Q Revenue Meets Estimates
- IAG LN : British Airways Plans 2022 Test With U.S. Sustainable-Fuel Maker
- BP/ LN : BP Swaps High Returns for a Cleaner Future with Unproven Profits
- BMPS IM : Paschi Says It’s Not Planning to Issue a Subordinated Bond
- CEC GY : Ceconomy 1Q Adjusted Ebit EU346M Vs. EU289M Y/y
- CVAL IM : Credito Valtellinese to Continue Study Credit Agricole Offer
- DAE SW : Daetwyler FY Net Loss CHF346.3M Vs. Loss CHF86.6M Y/y
- EQN LN : Equiniti Draws GBP600m Takeover Interest From Siris: Sky News
- ERICB SS : Samsung Case Against Ericsson to Be Probed at U.S. Trade Agency
- ESKN LN : Esken CEO Brady to Quit to Become Swissport CEO: Sky
- EVT GY : Evotec, Related Sciences in Drug Discovery Partnership
- FOXT LN : FOXT LN (Speculation of interest by Alchemy Partners and Catalist Partners)
- HEI GY : HeidelbergCement Plans to Sell Five Assets, CEO Tells Reuters
- HOFI SS : Hoist Finance 4Q Operating Income Beats Estimates
- IPN FP : Ipsen Says New Trial Data Show Superior Results for Cabometyx
- LSS FP : Lectra Plans to Buy Gerber Technology for About EU300 Million
- LTAB SS : Lindab 4Q Operating Profit Beats Estimates
- LONN SW :
- LOTB BB : Lotus Bakeries FY Revenue Beats Estimates
- MLP GY : MLP Buys 100% of RVM for Mid-Double-Digit Million Amount
- NENTB SS : NENT 4Q Sales Miss Estimates; Sees Viaplay Price Adjustments
- OSR GY : Osram Seeking New Best Owner For One of Firm’s Digital Segments
- QIA GY : Quidel Is Said to Mull Deal With $12 Billion Testing Firm Qiagen
- RAND NA : Randstad 4Q Gross Margin Beats Estimates
- ROG SW : Roche Files for FDA Emergency Authorization for Virus Test
- SAGAA SS : Sagax 4Q Income From Property Management SEK594M Vs. SEK518M Y/y
- SAN FP : Sanofi Says New Indication for Plavix Approved in EU
- SBMO NA : SBM Offshore Prices $850 Mln Senior Sec Notes Transaction
- SCR FP : Scor Says January Renewals Grow 15.9%
- SEV FP : Suez Contests Validity of Veolia Offer Filing (Feb. 8)
- TMV GY : TeamViewer Sees 2021 Revenue EU525M to EU540M
- FP FP : *Total SE: Share Capital Decrease by Way of Treasury Shares Cancellation
- TRYG DC : Tryg Has Gotten Many Approaches for Codan Denmark Unit: Borsen
- TUI! GY : TUI 1Q Sales Slump as Tour Operator Continues to Bet on Summer
- VIE FP : Veolia Says Suez Offer Validly Filed This Morning With AMF
- VIE FP : Suez Contests Validity of Veolia Offer Filing (Feb. 8)
- VIV FP : TikTok Expands Pact With Vivendi’s Universal Music Group
- VOE AV : Voestalpine FY Ebitda Forecast Beats Estimates
>>> Up
* Aggreko PT Raised at RBC on Chance of Higher Bid Emerging
* Ceconomy Raised to Add at AlphaValue
* Cementir Raised to Buy at AlphaValue
* Dialog Semi PT Raised to 70 euros from 60 euros at Deutsche Bank
* Electrocomponents Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan
* GEA Group Raised to Add at Baader Helvea; PT 34 euros
* GEA Group Raised to Add at Baader Helvea; PT 34 euros
* HSBC Raised to Sector Perform at RBC; PT 420 pence
* Iliad Raised to Buy at HSBC; PT 190 euros
* Vinci Raised to Buy at HSBC; PT 98 euros
>>> Down
>>> Down
* Carlsberg Cut to Sector Perform at RBC; PT 1,000 kroner
* Dialog Semi Cut to Market Perform at Cowen; PT 67.50 euros
* Entra Cut to Equal-Weight at Barclays; PT 205 kroner
* Sagax Cut to Hold at Pareto Securities; PT 165 kronor
* Sagax Cut to Hold at Pareto Securities; PT 165 kronor
* Spire Healthcare Cut to Hold at Liberum; PT 180 pence
>>> Initiation
* Aptitude Software Group Rated New Buy at Panmure Gordon
>>> Initiation
* Aptitude Software Group Rated New Buy at Panmure Gordon
* JDE Peet's NV Rated New Buy at Berenberg; PT 41 euros
* MPC Energy Solutions Rated New Buy at Fearnley; PT 90 kroner
* Red Electrica Rated New Market Perform at Bernstein
>>> Call
>>> Call
* GEA Group Delivering on Margin Improvement, Raise to Add: Baader
* Richemont Upgraded at Citi, Focus Moves Toward Jewelry Business
* Richemont Upgraded at Citi, Focus Moves Toward Jewelry Business
After Hours Summary: GLUU +33.8% jumps as EA will acquire co; SLQT +12.2%, VRNS +8.1%, CHGG +4% jump on earnings; DHT -9.3%, CORT -8.3%, KFRC -7.1%, RAMP -5.5% fall on earningsAfter Hours Gainers:
Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: SLQT +12.2%, VRNS +8.1% (also announces 3-for-1 stock split), CHGG +4%, OMF +3%, SPG +2.3%, BECN +1.9%, KKR +0.9%, SSD +0.2%
Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: GLUU +33.8% (EA to acquire GLUU for $12.50/sh in cash; also reported earnings), GRNV +13.8% (to combine with Helbiz; deal includes $30 mln PIPE investment), FRLN +12.6% (presents data on its Gaucher Disease and Fabry Disease AAV-Based Gene Therapies), COLL +11.2% (to be added to the S&P SmallCap 600), TRUE +6.9% (to operate auto-buying program for Navy Federal and its members), AFMD +6.7% (Point72 Asset Mgmt discloses 4.8% stake (prior 1.72%)), IPI +2.9% (announces $50 increase to potash price), MPWR +2.4% (to be added to the S&P 500), EA +1.6% (EA to acquire GLUU for $12.50/sh in cash), JNJ +0.1% (Janssen Pharma announces results from Phase 3 ACIS study and Phase 3 TITAN study), BMY +0.1% (reports Phase 3 data on OPDIVO), SR +0.1% (announces planned issuance of $150 mln in equity units in public offering), MTN +0.1% (announces renewals with strategic partners), NCLH +0.1% (2023 Around the World voyage sold out within one day)
After Hours Losers:
Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: DHT -9.3%, CORT -8.3%, KFRC -7.1%, RAMP -5.5% (also to acquire DataFleets), CDK -5.4%, TTWO -4.6%, OPCH -4.6% (also announces stock offering), LMNX -4.4%, HQY -4.4%, NUAN -2.9% (also announces acquisition of Saykara), AMKR -1.8%, ACM -0.3%, LEG -0.2%, RGA -0.1%
Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: EKSO -11.2% ($10 mln bought deal offering), ZOM -7.4% (announces public bought deal offering of 13,157,895 shares priced at $1.90/sh), CLF -5.7% (stock offering), OPRX -5.3% (stock offering), SIEN -4.9% (stock offering), IRDM -4.5% (to be added to the S&P MidCap 400), AQUA -4.4% (stock offering), OSH -4.4% (stock offering), LSPD -4% (launches public offering of 7 mln subordinate voting shares), NNOX -3.7% (stock offering), LBRT -3.4% (commences 8.7 mln share offering by selling shareholders), LESL -2.7% (stock offering), BEP -2.2% (stock offering), AUTL -1.5% (stock offering), EXEL -1.2% ( reports "positive findings" at ASCO GU for CABOMETYX), NNDM -0.7% (ADS offering), TEN -0.1% (Carl Icahn lowers active stake following the recent sale)
What Is Dogecoin, How to Say It, and Why It’s No Longer a Joke (Thanks, Elon!)
The cryptocurrency was created for laughs, serves no purpose, and is now worth more than Western Union or Under Armour
Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk won’t stop tweeting about Dogecoin. Rapper Snoop Dogg put online a mock album image captioned “Snoop Doge.” And Gene Simmons, co-founder of the rock band Kiss, calls himself the “God of Dogecoin.”
So, what is dogecoin, and why are people so excited about it? We’ve got answers to your questions about the cryptocurrency that has the internet abuzz.
First things first: How do you pronounce “dogecoin”?
According to the cryptocurrency’s co-founder Billy Markus, the correct pronunciation is “dohj coin.” Some prefer to pronounce the first syllable like “dog” or “doggy.”
What is dogecoin?
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency that literally started as a joke in 2013. It is a satirical homage to bitcoin, designed to serve no real purpose other than generating a few laughs.
It is named after an internet meme centered around the image of a Shiba Inu dog with bad spelling habits—thus “doge” instead of “dog.”
Why has dogecoin’s popularity exploded?
On Jan 28, Mr. Musk, Tesla’s billionaire boss, tweeted a faux “Dogue” magazine cover. It isn’t clear why, or what caught his attention.
He has since continued to tweet about the cryptocurrency. Once, it was a meme based on the movie “The Lion King,” imposing the Shiba Inu dog on Simba’s face. Another time, he wrote “Who let the Doge out,” and “No highs, no lows, only Doge.” Perhaps in an effort to be helpful, he also tweeted what he described as an instructional video titled “D is for Dogecoin.”
His cryptic comments have prompted the cryptocurrency’s popularity to skyrocket, with rappers Snoop Dogg and Soulja Boy, as well as Mr. Simmons, sharing memes and tweets with their followers.
The cryptocurrency’s price, which had been at about half a cent at the start of the year, shot up to more than 7 cents apiece following Mr. Musk’s tweets.
That means it has climbed almost 1,500% this year, and has a market value of roughly $10 billion, making it more valuable than Western Union, Under Armour and Xerox.
Fans of dogecoin online are rooting for it to reach $1 apiece.
How can I buy dogecoin?
Dogecoin can be bought with a credit card on cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bittrex Global GmbH and Payward Inc.’s Kraken, as well as trading platforms including the popular brokerage Robinhood Markets Inc.
On Monday, deVere Group said it added dogecoin to its crypto-trading app because demand has surged due to what CEO Nigel Green called “The Elon Effect.”
Can I buy anything with dogecoin?
Most traditional online retailers don’t accept any cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
The folks behind website Shibe Mint sell copper tokens—stamped with a “D” and the year 2014—for $12 apiece. You can pay for these dogecoins with dogecoin, but the tokens are currently sold out.
You can also get your doge swag from dogeswag.com. A “doge dealer” T-shirt will cost you about 738 dogecoin, or $26.
And the website Bitrefill will let you buy gift cards for various retail platforms, such as Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc.’s app store, using dogecoin.
Exchanges that trade dogecoin will also let you convert your cryptocurrency into traditional currencies.
Who invented dogecoin?
Developers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus co-created dogecoin in 2013.
They set it up as a joke. Even the way people originally obtained the coin was meant to be ridiculous: In return for solving mathematical puzzles, dogecoin miners operating fast-running computers received anywhere from one dogecoin to hundreds of thousands of dogecoins.
Neither work on the project anymore, and Mr. Markus has said he sold all of his dogecoin in 2015. He made just enough from it to buy a used Honda Civic.
“The idea of dogecoin being worth 8 cents is the same as GameStop being worth $325,” Mr. Markus, 38 years old, said recently. “It doesn’t make sense. It’s super absurd. The coin design was absurd.”
(GameStop traded Monday at roughly $60 apiece, after hitting an intraday high last month of $483.)
What are the risks of investing in dogecoin?
Cryptocurrencies are volatile, and prone to large swings in either direction.
Bitcoin, for instance, jumped 13% to $43,143 on Monday after Mr. Musk’s electric-vehicle company Tesla said it invested $1.5 billion in the digital currency. Tesla said it plans to start accepting bitcoin as payment for its products soon. The price had already quadrupled in 2020.
Dogecoin could as easily lose 90% of its value, cautions Garrick Hileman, head of research at blockchain.com, a cryptocurrency transactions company. “I do worry about all the attention paid to a cryptocurrency that historically has not seen real-world traction and is a bit of a joke—literally.”
Why is dogecoin so popular?
Some argue that it is yet another sign of the market madness that has seen surges in stocks touted on online forums.
Despite nearly a decade passing since its creation, dogecoin has remained beloved by a small community that has Photoshopped the dog’s furry face onto everything from astronauts to Twinkies.
That community is now growing, and growing rapidly.
DoorDash Adds Startup Chowbotics for Meal Preparation
Food-delivery company is exploring how automation could help restaurants expand menu and market
The companies didn’t disclose the terms of the deal, which The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Monday. Chowbotics was valued at $46 million in 2018, when it last raised money, according to data firm PitchBook.
Chowbotics’ technology can whip up salads and poke bowls, among other things, and DoorDash is exploring how to deploy it across restaurants, a person familiar with the matter said. Ideas include using the technology to help restaurants expand their menu—such as enabling a pizzeria to offer salads—or to allow a salad bar to try out new locations—a kiosk at an airport, for instance—without the need for more manpower.
“We’re working on solutions to help merchants grow in an ever-challenging and changing landscape, and with Chowbotics we hope to enhance that level of support,” DoorDash said in a blog post announcing the acquisition. The company said Chowbotics had installed its meal-making robots in hundreds of locations, including universities, hospitals, and grocery stores.
While automating food production could save restaurants time and cost, it’s unclear how amenable potential diners are to these technologies.
Uber Technologies Inc. UBER 1.21% invested in building delivery drones for its Eats business, but dialed back those ambitions amid a broad restructuring last year.
Food delivery has grown at a blistering pace during the coronavirus pandemic. DoorDash Chief Executive Officer Tony Xu said in a December interview that the company became more operationally efficient during the health crisis, resulting in faster deliveries. The San Francisco-based company controlled almost half of the U.S. food-delivery market as of mid-October, up from one-third a year earlier, giving it a lead over Uber Eats, Grubhub Inc. and other rivals.
Food-delivery companies have expanded their offerings during the lockdown. Uber agreed to buy alcohol-delivery service Drizly for $1.1 billion last week. Both Uber and DoorDash made forays into grocery-delivery last year.
The health crisis also pushed the money-losing industry to consolidate. Grubhub agreed to merge with the U.K.’s Just Eat Takeaway last year while Uber acquired Postmates Inc.
Founded in 2014, Hayward, Calif.-based Chowbotics’ signature robot, called Sally, has 22 compartments that can be used to stock greens, vegetables, fruits, nuts and more. Customers order at a touch screen that provides real-time nutrition information as they build their meals. The company’s website says Sally has been used to craft meals ranging from brisket bowls to salads and yogurt bowls.
Tesla Buys $1.5 Billion in Bitcoin: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Elon Musk’s bitcoin purchase for Tesla is another warning for investors in the wake of GameStop mania
GameStop mania was a wake-up call, but now the capital markets have truly reached ludicrous mode.
Electric-car maker Tesla TSLA 1.31% said in a securities filing Monday that it has purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and that it expects to begin accepting payment in the cryptocurrency for its products in the future. Tesla shares and bitcoin both traded higher after the announcement. This follows social media posts by the auto maker’s influential boss, Elon Musk, that already had helped drive bitcoin’s price to a record. All told, the rally spurred by the announcement on Monday added more than $100 billion to bitcoin’s market value, while Tesla shares also rose yet again.
The investment is more than symbolic for the company, being equivalent to Tesla’s research-and-development tab for 2020. And while uniting two of the most popular investment themes under one roof is undoubtedly a winner today, the decision introduces even more risk to owning what is already one of the most speculative stocks of the current bull market.
As Tesla itself said in the filing, prices for digital assets such as bitcoin have been volatile in the past. Cryptocurrencies are a fairly recent development and their long-term adoption by consumers, investors and businesses is highly uncertain. That adds to the speculative fervor already gripping Tesla’s stock price in a feedback loop. Indeed, the manager of the most popular active fund recently, Cathie Wood of ARK Invest, has made big bets on both Tesla and a trust that owns bitcoin, fueling a record pace of inflows.
At a market value of about $800 billion, Tesla trades at about 6.5 times the combined value of Ford and General Motors, despite controlling a small fraction of the global auto market. And Tesla lately has been losing market share in Western Europe to competitors including Volkswagen, which has begun to compete aggressively in the electric category. The news of Tesla’s bitcoin investment eclipsed a negative headline for the company Monday about quality issues identified in the important Chinese market.
While digital assets are relatively new, a tour of financial history suggests similar speculative use of an industrial company’s funds aren’t—and they have ended badly. About a century ago, General Motors required a bailout due to the stock speculation activities of founder William Durant. In the 1980s, widespread corporate speculation on Japanese land prices helped drive a stock bubble that eventually collapsed.
Those cautionary tales aren’t likely to concern investors who are enjoying a giant stock-market party. But Tesla’s monetary experiment, coupled with the individual-investor-driven stock-market madness of recent weeks, should have investors concerned that the consequences of staying at the party too late will be worse than leaving early.
Travellers entering UK to face tougher Covid testing rules
New regulations to tackle spread of variants will demand all take 2 follow-up tests on top of pre-flight checks
All travellers entering the UK from abroad will have to take two Covid-19 tests after arriving in the country as the government seeks to bolster its borders against new variants of the disease.
The new system, to be announced as early as Tuesday, will mean all arrivals must have a negative test from before their departure — which is already the case — then take further tests on days two and eight of their self-isolation after entering the UK. Passengers will be responsible for paying for the tests themselves.
The changes mark a significant tightening of the current regime, under which most people arriving in the country self-isolate for 10 days in a private home without having to take any post-flight tests.
At present only those arriving from risky “red list” countries such as South Africa or Brazil will — from February 15 — have to stay in government-mandated hotels for 10 days under close security guard.
The imminent announcement that all passengers will need to take the multiple Covid tests comes amid growing concern among ministers over the threat from new, more virulent mutations of the disease.
Meanwhile ministers are closer to striking their first deals with hotels to provide quarantine accommodation for passengers arriving from the most risky countries. An announcement is expected on either Tuesday or Wednesday, two weeks after the system was announced, following days of wrangling with the industry.
Downing Street admitted on Monday that it still had not signed up any hotels to take part in its new system, under which British residents returning from more than 30 high-risk countries would be bussed to guarded accommodation where they would have to stay for 10 days. Time is running out for the scheme to be operational by the target date next week.
But industry and Whitehall figures said the government was close to signing up a clutch of hotels just outside Heathrow airport and was optimistic of striking more deals with venues within two miles of Manchester, Gatwick, Birmingham and London City airports.
The protracted negotiations are understood to reflect hotel operators’ unhappiness at the government’s refusal to provide revenue guarantees while expecting them to cancel all future bookings.
Hoteliers said the government was offering to pay only for rooms used for quarantining passengers despite requiring that the hotels be open only to such guests, resulting in a potential loss of revenue.
Venues also face having large numbers of empty rooms as the government plans to contract more hotels than required for the expected number of arrivals in case they underestimate how many people will need accommodation.
One industry executive said the lack of notice was also problematic: “It doesn’t give hotels much time if the announcement is Wednesday to do that in a way that won’t upset the [existing] guests who will need new accommodation.”
Hotels are currently permitted to allow key workers and those that must travel for business to stay. “Hotel bosses are not keen on doing this. If they go along with it, it will only be to try to buy some goodwill with ministers,” said one industry figure.
The government resisted pressure to apply its new hotel quarantine to all passengers coming into the UK, instead introducing a more targeted programme for those returning from around 30 “red list” countries with mutant variations of coronavirus.
However, the list is updated every Thursday and could be further extended in the coming weeks, not least given the newfound concerns about the efficacy of certain vaccines against the variant first detected in South Africa.
Meanwhile Ireland is examining whether its coronavirus travel rules should be tightened after reports that British tourists were avoiding UK quarantine by returning from Middle East holidays via Irish airports.
Officials in Dublin are concerned that loopholes in travel restrictions have opened the potential for the country’s airports to be used as a “back door” by British holidaymakers who would otherwise face quarantine on their return to the UK.
Unlike travellers arriving from other parts of the world, the UK does not require people arriving from Ireland to quarantine because of the common travel area between the two countries. While people flying into Ireland from all countries must produce a negative coronavirus test, that rule does not apply to people transferring to other international flights after arriving in Irish airports.
“The issue has come up,” said a senior Irish official familiar with discussions in Micheál Martin’s government. “They have to look at the issue and see if it is something that needs to be acted on — if it’s being exploited.”
Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, has said the government would act if it found that a “serious problem” had emerged.
EU ready to follow Australia’s lead on making Big Tech pay for news
Move by MEPs would strengthen hand of publishers against Google and Facebook
EU lawmakers overseeing new digital regulation in Europe want to force Big Tech companies to pay for news, echoing a similar move in Australia and strengthening the hand of publishers against Google and Facebook.
The initiative from members of the European parliament would be a serious blow to Google, which has threatened to leave Australia in protest at a planned new law that would compel it to pay for news.
Facebook has also warned it will stop users in Australia from sharing news if the legislation is passed in its current form.
MEPs working on two landmark draft European digital regulations, the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), told the Financial Times the laws could be amended as they pass through the EU parliament to include aspects of the Australian reforms.
These include the option of binding arbitration for licensing agreements and requiring tech companies to inform publishers about changes to how they rank news stories on their sites.
Alex Saliba, a Maltese MEP who led the parliament’s first report on the DSA, said the Australian approach to Google and Facebook had managed to address “the acute bargaining power imbalances” with publishers.
“With their dominant market position in search, social media and advertising, large digital platforms create power imbalances and benefit significantly from news content,” he said. “I think it is only fair that they pay back a fair amount.”
Google and Facebook have stepped up their efforts to reach licensing deals for news in Europe since the EU overhauled its copyright laws in 2019. The changes give publishers the right to compensation for snippets of content that appear on online platforms.
But some MEPs say the regime remains too weak.
Andrus Ansip, an Estonian MEP and former commissioner who helped craft the copyright directive, said he was open to further changes. “The idea of the copyright directive was to create a stronger negotiating position for news publishers,” he said.
“We now know that the same process is going on in Australia. I don’t want to reopen the copyright directive but we will have to [look at the DSA] if we need to bring more clarity.”
Ansip, an MEP for the liberal Renew group, is vice-chair of the committee handling the main pieces of digital legislation. “We will never accept this situation when somebody is using content . . . and authors are not remunerated at all,” he added
While support is growing for Australia-style measures, MEPs are more divided over how best to introduce such reforms, and whether it is better to wait for the impact of the copyright overhaul to become clear. In the EU system, MEPs wield most influence in amending proposals by the commission, which must be agreed with EU member states to become law.
Arba Kokalari, a Swedish centre-right MEP who as a shadow “rapporteur is responsible for helping to shepherd the DSA through parliament, said it was “problematic” to consider new legislation “before even seeing how the new copyright directive will be implemented”.
But she added that measures such as the right for publishers to know when tech companies tweaked their algorithms, affecting the ranking of news stories, “is something that I think we need to address in the DSA”.
Google recently reached licensing deals in France, in part because a court intervened to require it to negotiate with news publishers. Stephanie Yon Courtin, an MEP with the Renew group and a former adviser to the French competition authority, pointed to Google’s threats to pull out of Australia and recent negotiations in Europe as showing there still remained a need “to address imbalances”.
“It’s time to oblige online platforms to engage in fair negotiations to remunerate the news content they obtain from press publishers and advise them on algorithm changes that would affect content ranking,” she said.
Google, which has pledged to spend $1bn worldwide on licensing news over the next three years, said the EU copyright directive “aims at striking the right balance” between publishers and platforms.
“People trust Google to help them find relevant and reliable information from a range of websites, and this helps publishers by sending them valuable traffic to their sites,” Google said. “We are willing to pay to further support journalism and we are doing that around the world.”
Facebook declined to comment.
Closing Stock Market SummaryEach of the major indices set intraday and closing record highs on Monday, with the S&P 500 advancing 0.7% for its sixth straight gain and surpassing the 3900 level for the first time. The Nasdaq Composite (+1.0%) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (+0.8%) performed slightly better, while the Russell 2000 (+2.5%) pulled ahead with a 2.5% gain.
The positive bias started in the futures market after Treasury Secretary Yellen said on Sunday that the economy can reach full employment in 2022 if a stimulus bill is passed, which is two years sooner than the projection issued from the Congressional Budget Office last week.
This observation fueled the so-called recovery trade in which value, cyclical, and small-cap stocks outperformed due to expectations for improved economic, and earnings, growth. The S&P 500 energy sector (+4.2%) rallied another 4%, further aided by higher oil prices ($57.97/bbl, +1.08, +1.9%) and Exxon Mobil (XOM 52.09, +2.14, +4.3%) receiving an upgrade to Neutral from Underperform at Exane BNP Paribas.
The financials (+1.2%), information technology (+1.0%), and industrials (+0.9%) sectors follows suit with gains of about 1%, while the utilities sector (-0.8%) was the only group that closed in negative territory.
Tesla (TSLA 863.42, +11.19, +1.3%) provided key support for the consumer discretionary sector (+0.4%) after disclosing a $1.5 billion investment in bitcoin with plans to accept the cryptocurrency as a payment option, subject to applicable laws.
The price of bitcoin spiked more than 15% to fresh all-time highs following the news, and stocks with bitcoin exposure like NVIDIA (NVDA 577.55, +33.91, +6.2%), PayPal (PYPL 282.17, +12.73, +4.7%), and MicroStrategy (MSTR 1041.00, +235.00, +29.2%) posted noticeable gains. NVIDIA also benefited from an appreciation that the chip industry is overwhelmed with strong demand.
U.S. Treasuries finished mixed after investors bought the early weakness in longer-dated maturities. The 2-yr yield increased two basis points to 0.11%, while the 10-yr yield decreased one basis point to 1.16% after touching 1.20% at its intraday high. The U.S. Dollar Index decreased 0.1% to 90.96.
Investors did not receive any economic data on Monday. Looking ahead, investors will receive the NFIB Small Business Optimism Survey for January and the JOLTS - Job Openings report for December on Tuesday.
- Russell 2000 +16.0% YTD
- Nasdaq Composite +8.5% YTD
- S&P 500 +4.3% YTD
- Dow Jones Industrial Average +2.6% YTD