(Alliance News) - The following is a summary of top news stories Thursday.
----------
COMPANIES
----------
Goldman Sachs announced plans to buy Dutch asset management firm NN Investment Partners for around EUR1.6 billion. The deal for the Hague, Netherlands-based firm is expected to complete by the end of the first quarter of 2022, subject to regulatory approval. NN Investment Partners forms part of financial services group NN Group and has around USD355 billion in assets under supervision and approximately USD70 billion in assets under advice. "This acquisition allows us to accelerate our growth strategy and broaden our asset management platform. NN Investment Partners offers a leading European client franchise and an extension of our strength in insurance asset management," commented Goldman Sachs Chief Executive & Chair David Solomon. Goldman shares were down 1.2% in the New York pre-market.
----------
Lloyds Banking has set a target of buying 50,000 homes in the next 10 years as it moves into the private rental market, the Financial Times reported. The bank set a "strategic challenge" of buying 10,000 properties by the end of 2025, then 50,000 by 2030, the FT said, citing an internal job advertisement. Last month, Lloyds announced the plan to start renting out housing under the Citra Living brand. The advert estimates that Citra would have a balance sheet worth GBP4 billion and generate GBP300 million in pretax profit with 10,000 homes. It said Citra may consider mergers and acquisitions or strategic alliances to reach the targets. The UK's largest private residential landlord is Grainger, with 9,000 homes.
----------
Chilean miner Antofagasta's first half revenue surged on the back of strong copper demand and multi-year high prices, but it lowered its production guidance for the rest of the year. In the six months to June 30, pretax profit spiked to USD1.78 billion from USD387.5 million a year before. Revenue surged 68% year on year to USD3.59 billion from USD2.14 billion. Copper sales volume slipped 6.3% to 325,100 tonnes, and gold sales fell 4.3% to 103,700 ounces, but the firm's realised copper price jumped 80% to USD4.42 per pound while the gold price increased to USD1,776 per ounce from USD1,680 a year before. As a result, Anto's cash flow from operations grew to USD2.46 billion from USD906.9 million, allowing the miner to declare a dividend of 23.6 US cents, up from 6.2 cents a year before. Anto noted the driest year of a 12-year drought in Chile will hurt production in the second half. The miner lowered its full-year outlook for copper production to be between 710,000 to 740,000 tonnes versus previous guidance of 730,000 to 760,000.
----------
Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday said it is in talks with US regulators including the Food & Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control & Prevention over a possible booster shot for its Covid-19 vaccine. In July, J&J published results from a study's interim findings on its vaccine showing that there was no waning of an immune response "for at least eight months" - which was the length of time that had been evaluated to date. The study found the single-shot vaccine generated "strong, persistent immune activity" against the Delta variant and other Covid variants. The medical devices and pharmaceutical maker's vaccine has so far been known as a 'one shot wonder', only needing one dose to provoke a satisfactory immune response against the virus.
----------
Two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appears to have greater effectiveness initially against new Covid-19 infections associated with the Delta variant when compared to the Oxford University-AstraZeneca jab, but its efficacy also declines faster, preliminary research suggests. Scientists from the University of Oxford have said that after four to five months, the level of protection offered by both vaccines is similar, with the AstraZeneca jab maintaining its effectiveness throughout the duration. The findings, which have not yet been peer reviewed, also suggest that those infected with the Delta variant after their second jab had similar peak levels of virus to unvaccinated people. Based on their work, the researchers said that although jabs did not eliminate chances of getting Covid-19, they did reduce the risk and remained the most effective way to ensure protection against the Delta variant – which has become dominant in the UK.
----------
Rank Group posted a swing to an annual loss as the casino operator's venues faced strict Covid-19 lockdown measures for more than half its trading days. The Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca owner said that without including government support schemes, it made monthly cash losses of GBP15.0 million during periods of closure. Revenue in the year ended June 30 fell 48% to GBP329.6 million from GBP629.7 million. Rank swung to a pretax loss of GBP107.3 million, from a GBP13.4 million profit. Covid-19 closures meant its venues businesses, where more than three-quarters of its revenue is derived from, was closed for 59% of available operating days. It also said capacity constraints and reduced opening hours further held back revenue in the period.
----------
The UK government has ordered a probe into Ultra Electronic's planned GBP2.6 billion takeover by former London listing Cobham, on the grounds of national security. The UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng has issued a Public Interest Intervention notice to intervene in the proposed deal. As a result, the UK Competition & Markets Authority is required to investigate the proposed transaction and make a report by January 18, 2022. London-based aerospace and defence engineering company Ultra Electronics on Monday accepted the GBP35.00-per-share offer from Cobham.
----------
Nvidia on Wednesday reported a record second-quarter performance, through continued strength from its Data Center and Gaming units. For the three months ended August 1, the Santa Clara, California-based graphics card and chipsets maker posted a net income of USD2.37 billion, more than tripled from USD622 million the same period a year before, as did diluted earnings per share to 94 US cents from 25 cents. This was on second quarter revenue which grew 68% year-on-year to a record USD6.51 billion from USD3.87 billion. Revenue growth was driven by its Gaming segment, where revenue rose 85% to USD3.06 billion, driven by higher sales in game console system-on-chips and GeForce graphics processing units.
----------
Cisco Systems late on Wednesday delivered a rise in annual earnings as the cybersecurity and teleconferencing products manufacturer continued to benefit from remote working. For the financial year ended July 31, revenue was up 1% at USD49.8 billion from USD49.3 billion the year before. Full-year net income was down 6% at USD10.6 billion from USD11.2 billion year before, with earnings per share of USD2.50, down from USD2.64. For the fourth quarter alone, revenue was USD13.1 billion, up 8% from USD12.2 billion in the fourth quarter of financial 2020. Fourth quarter net income was USD3.0 billion, up 14% from USD2.6 billion, with EPS of USD0.71 from USD0.62.
----------
MARKETS
----------
Stock markets were a sea of red around the world on Thursday, after the minutes of the most recent US Federal Open Market Committee meeting showed policymakers expect the tapering of monetary stimulus to occur as soon as this year. The dollar was higher against the euro and pound, but the safe-haven yen remained firm. Gold rose, but oil slumped amid the stronger dollar. "FOMC minutes sent bond yields higher temporarily, while equities fell and stayed down, and the dollar rallied and stayed up. With concerns about Covid and growth in Asia, oil prices are at their lowest since May, and risk is firmly 'off'," summarised Kit Juckes at Societe Generale.
----------
CAC 40: down 2.9% at 6,574.63
DAX 30: down 2.0% at 15,651.62
FTSE 100: down 2.1% at 7,020.91
----------
Hang Seng: closed down 2.1% at 25,316.33
Nikkei 225: closed down 1.1% at 27,281.17
S&P/ASX 200: closed down 0.5% at 7,464.60
----------
DJIA: called down 1.0%
S&P 500: called down 0.9%
Nasdaq Composite: called down 0.8%
----------
EUR: down at USD1.1685 (USD1.1705)
GBP: down at USD1.3676 (USD1.3750)
USD: down at JPY109.62 (JPY109.92)
Gold: up at USD1,785.30 per ounce (USD1,779.25)
Oil (Brent): down at USD66.14 a barrel (USD68.75)
(currency and commodities changes since previous London equities close)
----------
ECONOMICS AND GENERAL
----------
A reduction in monthly asset purchases could begin as early as this year, minutes from the US Federal Reserve's July meeting showed on Wednesday. In the monetary policy meeting concluded July 28, all members of the Federal Open Market Committee said the US economy had made progress toward the Fed's maximum-employment and price-stability goals since the adoption of the guidance on USD120 billion in monthly Treasury and mortgage-backed securities purchases in December. In addition, policymakers discussed when to end pandemic support and how to respond to higher-than-expected inflation. "A couple of participants noted that recent readings on forward inflation compensation could be read as suggesting investor concern that inflation over the longer term could run persistently below the Committee's 2.0% inflation goal," the minutes said.
----------
US President Joe Biden said Wednesday it had been impossible to leave Afghanistan without chaos, as the US pleaded with the victorious Taliban to allow safe passage for people to flee. Amid desperate scenes at the Kabul airport where American forces are racing against the clock to evacuate tens of thousands of people, Biden stood by his decision to end the 20-year US war in Afghanistan. "The idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens," Biden said in an ABC News television interview. The Biden administration had long promised an "orderly drawdown" of America's longest war, with the president saying US forces no longer have any national interest in fighting in a protracted conflict. Biden, in the ABC interview, said that he hoped the thousands of US troops sent back to Afghanistan for the evacuations would be out by August 31, the deadline he set to end the war.
----------
The eurozone recorded a current account surplus of EUR22 billion in June, up from a EUR14 billion surplus the previous month, the European Central Bank said. Surpluses were recorded for goods of EUR22 billion and services of EUR11 billion and primary income EUR3 billion. This was partly offset by a deficit for secondary income of EUR14 billion.
----------
Swiss industrial production enjoyed a sharp rise in the second quarter, data from Swiss Statistics showed. Secondary sector production rose by 14% in second quarter of 2021 versus the same quarter a year earlier. Turnover rose by 16%. Compared with the previous year, production in the industrial sector rose by 16% in April, 17% in May and 13% in June.
----------
New Zealand reported a breakthrough Thursday in tracing the source of a Covid-19 outbreak that plunged the nation into lockdown, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying it should help "stamp out" the virus. Health officials have been trying to determine how an Auckland man contracted the coronavirus this week, ending a six-month run of no community cases in New Zealand. Tests showed the man had a version of the Delta strain found in Australia, and Ardern said investigations narrowed down the origin to a person who arrived from Sydney on August 7. She said the traveller had been in quarantine and hospital since touching down, indicating the virus had not been in the community as long as initially feared.
----------
A first coronavirus case has been detected in the Paralympic Village, days before the games open, organisers said Thursday as Japan battles a record wave of infections. Organisers have so far reported 74 cases linked to the Paralympics, mostly among contractors and games staff who live in Japan. The Paralympics open on August 24, around two weeks after the Olympics ended, with organisers saying they were able to prevent any major spread of infection at the games through tough anti-virus measures. In recent days, Japan has recorded more than 20,000 daily virus cases, more than ever before, and the government has expanded and extended virus states of emergency to cover 13 regions until September 12. The measure largely shortens restaurant and bar opening hours and bans them from selling alcohol, but experts have questioned the efficacy of the restrictions with cases continuing to rise.
----------
By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
