Morning Brief: Top Financial Stories Dominating on Monday, June 13

CNBC

JPMorgan Remains Bullish On Alibaba And Other Chinese Stocks - Here’s Why

• JPMorgan saw some respite for the Chinese stocks like Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA and Tencent Holding Ltd TCEHY following relaxation in lockdowns and regulatory pressures.
• Chinese markets got ravaged due to its “zero-Covid” strategy and lockdowns stifling economic activity, with a double whammy from the regulatory crackdowns.
• The retreat reflects China’s realization of the unsustainability of the Covid policy and some respite in their regulatory approach towards the tech titans to stimulate the economy, strategist Tilmann Galler said.

More Pain Ahead For Ethereum? Celsius Crashes 55% As It Halts Withdrawals Over ‘Extreme Market Conditions’

• Cryptocurrency lending firm Celsius CEL/USD says it is pausing all withdrawals, swaps, and transfers between accounts.
• Celsius said in a statement late Sunday it is taking the steps “due to extreme market conditions.”
• “We are announcing that Celsius is pausing all withdrawals, Swap, and transfers between accounts. We are taking this action today to put Celsius in a better position to honor, over time, its withdrawal obligations,” the firm said.

Reuters

BlackRock’s Equity Index Clients Will Now Be Able to Control Votes In AGM Of Invested Companies

• BlackRock Inc BLK said that clients owning nearly half of its $4.9 trillion in equity index assets could control vote casting at the annual meetings of the companies in which their funds invest, Reuters reported.
• The move marks an expansion of BlackRock’s ‘Voting Choice’ program, launched last October, and could offer institutional clients more say on topics that matter to them, Reuters reported.
• “While BlackRock’s Voting Choice program is an industry first, we see it as just a beginning,” Salim Ramji, Global Head of iShares and Index Investments, said.

Ferrari Likely To Shed Light On Its EV Endeavor

• Ferrari N.V. RACE CEO Benedetto Vigna will soon elaborate on maintaining its cachet and top-tier prices amid growing competition from electric cars.
• The Italian luxury sports carmaker will likely showcase its business plan on June 16.
• Ferrari has already introduced four hybrid models and pledged its EV debut in 2025.
• Ferrari considered collaborations to access new technologies, including bio and synthetic fuels, while controlling capital expenditure.

Benzinga

DHL Hikes Parcel Delivery Prices For Private Customers

• Deutsche Post’s DPSGY DHL Paket has adjusted its prices for private customers, and the logistic giant will charge more for parcel deliveries from July 1, 2022.
• The company mentions that the higher transport, delivery, and labor costs and general cost inflation make price increases in national and cross-border parcel business unavoidable.
• Prices in retail outlets will also increase slightly for the Päckchen S and M product categories.

Apple Has Been Working On AR Glasses For Over 27 Years: What We Know So Far

• This is the second article of a two-part deep dive into Apple Inc.’s AAPL development of its two upcoming mixed reality (MR) device lines. Before reading any further, we suggest reading our explanation of augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), MR, and extended reality (XR), as well as the first article of this series.
• Apple is expected to launch a VR headset with passthrough AR features for professionals at a hefty $3,000 next year after it will ready its even more ambitious AR-focused glasses for general consumers. That is the first generation of a device meant to replace the iPhone further down the line, at a much more accessible price of $499.
• The Cupertino tech giant has been working on AR and VR at least since 1995.

TECO 2030 Launches Hydrogen Tanker Concept With Partners

• TECO 2030 TECFF is launching a hydrogen-powered tanker concept, Hy-Ekotank, together with our partners Ektank AB, Shell Shipping and Maritime, and DNV.
• The hydrogen-powered tanker will allow zero-emission at berth and up to 100% reduction of GHG emissions during the voyage.
• “We are humble to work on Hy-Ekotank with Ektank, Shell and DNV, as we believe these partners are a perfect match. With a cargo owner, shipowner, classification society, and a fuel cell provider, we will show the world what hydrogen is capable of doing for the maritime shipping industry.” says Tore Enger, Group CEO, TECO 2030. “Remember, it is all about eliminating emissions, and increasing value-adding activities.”

Why Is Dogecoin Crashing So Hard Today?

• Dogecoin DOGE/USD traded over 11% lower at $0.06 over 24 hours leading up to early Monday. The price of DOGE crashed along with other major coins as the global cryptocurrency market plunged 7.5% to $1.02 trillion.
• Over $3.1 million worth of DOGE was liquidated over 24 hours as the price of the meme coin dropped heavily, according to Coinglass.
• Major coins declined over the weekend after inflation came in hotter than expected by analysts on Friday.

Pfizer/BioNTech’s Three-Dose COVID-19 Vaccine Safe, Effective In Younger Kids

• According to the FDA briefing document, Pfizer Inc PFE-BioNTech’s SE BNTX COVID-19 vaccines were effective and safe for children aged six months to 4 years.
• The FDA reviewers said that their evaluation did not reveal any new safety concerns related to using the vaccine in young children.
• The FDA analysis of data from Pfizer’s trial was published ahead of a June 14-15 meeting of its outside advisers.

Sanofi-GSK’s Next-Gen COVID-19 Booster Shows Potential Against Variants Of Concern

• Sanofi SA SNY said the next-gen COVID-19 vaccine candidate it has developed with GSK Plc GSK in two trials showed a potential to protect against the virus’s main variants of concern when used as a booster.
• In the Phase 3 VAT02 Cohort 2 study, the vaccine candidate showed a 15-fold increase against the parent virus and a 30-fold increase against Beta strain in adults previously primed with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
• In particular, against omicron, preliminary data show a 40-fold increase against BA.1.

$500M Liquidated In 24 Hours As Bitcoin (BTC) Plunges To $25K Level

• The last 24 hours saw high-value liquidations across crypto markets as Bitcoin BTC/USD dropped as low as $25,117.
• According to data from CoinGlass, at the time of writing around $513 million was liquidated from over 180,000 traders.
• The majority of liquidations were seen by traders in long positions — a total of $339 million longs were liquidated while $169 shorts were liquidated.

Amazon Asked To Pay $25M Fine To Future Group In India

• In a blow to U.S. e-commerce giant Amazon Inc AMZN, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) of India upheld the competition watchdog’s order suspending approval of the investment deal between Amazon and a Future Group firm dating back to 2019.
• The tribunal has also ordered Amazon to pay the penalty of INR 200 crore ($25 million) within 45 days for non-disclosure of relevant information on combinations under the Competition Act, 2002, Bar and Bench reported.
• Confirming the Competition Commission of India’s ruling, the tribunal said that it is in full agreement with the antitrust watchdog that the U.S.-based e-commerce giant had not fully disclosed its strategic interest in Future Retail Ltd — a Future Group’s firm.

Troubled Michigan-Based EV Startup To File For Bankruptcy

• Michigan-based electric vehicle startup Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc ELMS said on Sunday it plans to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
• The late Sunday disclosure follows a series of developments at the startup, including the resignation of its CEO Jim Taylor and Chairman and founder Jason Luo, linked to share purchases and subsequent regulatory investigation.
• “Based on the findings of the same Board-initiated investigation that led to the resignations of Mr. Taylor and Mr. Luo, ELMS was forced to withdraw financial guidance and declare the Company’s past financial statements unreliable,” the startup said.

Tesla Gets Indonesia Invite To Set Up Massive EV Factory: Report

• Tesla, Inc. TSLA has reportedly received an invite from Indonesia to add to its list of growing factories across the world.
• Indonesia has asked Tesla to set up an electric vehicle manufacturing plant near Batang Regence in the Central Java province, Teslarati reported, citing Luhut Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister.
• The proposed plant will likely have an annual production capacity of 500,000 cars, possibly powered by renewable sources, the report said.

Google Engineer Suspended After Saying AI Chatbot Is Sentient

• A senior software engineer at Alphabet Inc’s GOOG GOOGL Google has reportedly been put on administrative leave after revealing some confidential insights about the company’s artificially intelligent chatbot generator LaMDA.
• Blake Lemoine shared transcripts of his conversations with LaMDA featuring a three-way conversation between himself, a Google collaborator and LaMDA (or language model for dialogue applications.)
• In the “interview” with LaMDA, conducted over several sessions, Lemoine and the AI chatbot generator touched on the latter’s sentient nature and its existential fears.

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