Plus, the U.S. is about to surpass 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations, Tesla’s electric vehicles have been banned on Chinese military complexes on security concerns, and Amazon clinched exclusive streaming rights for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football games.
Stocks were mixed at the open on Friday with the Dow dropped 4 points, or less than 0.1%. The S&P 500 also slid less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq traded just above the flatline.
The Federal Reserve declined to extend a pandemic-era rule that relaxed the amount of capital banks had to maintain against Treasurys and other holdings. The Fed said this morning that it will allow a change to the supplementary leverage ratio to expire at the end of March, and will solicit public comment on how to adjust the supplementary leverage ratio in the future. Expiring the temporary capital break comes as a disappoint banks and bond traders, as many industry analysts had wanted the Fed to push the deadline out another few months, especially amid the recent volatility seen in the Treasury market, but Fed officials argue the market is sufficiently stable and banks’ capital is high enough to return to the pre-pandemic requirement as long-term changes are considered. “It is surprising,” said Michael Schumacher, head of rates strategy at Wells Fargo. “You can see it to some degree from the markets reaction. I think some people figured if the Fed was going to kill it, they would give it more than 12 days.”
As the U.S. nears President Joe Biden’s goal to vaccinate 100 million Americans ahead of schedule, a dozen states have expanded access to COVID vaccinations for every adult earlier than planned. Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Nevada, Idaho, Iowa, Illinois, and Utah have all announced strategies to open up vaccination eligibility to all adult residents ahead of Biden’s May 1 deadline for eligibility. “We’re way ahead of schedule, but we’ve got a long way to go,” Biden said. Even as vaccinations speed up, experts warn that Americans should continue to wear face masks to protect against another wave of coronavirus cases. “We need to be careful this month,” said former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb. “I don’t think that this is the time to start lifting… the simpler mitigations like wearing masks, things like that. … “In April and May, things may look much more clear and it may be obvious that we can take our masks off. Right now, it’s not quite as obvious. I think we need to recognize that as the population gets vaccinated and the overall vulnerability of the population decreases, we’re going to be able to take more risk and that includes going out without masks and doing things in congregate settings.”
Tesla’s electric vehicles have been banned from Chinese military complexes and housing compounds due to national security concerns about the cameras in the vehicles. The order reportedly issued by the Chinese military advises Tesla owners to part their cars outside of military property, and comes amid a security review that found that Tesla vehicles’ sensors could record images of their surrounding locations, and that Tesla could obtain key data, including when and where the cars are being used. CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet in April 2019 that vehicles’ cameras are “for when we start competing with Uber/Lyft and people allow their car to earn money for them as part of the Tesla shared autonomy fleet. In case someone messes up your car, you can check the video.”
Peloton is back in the headlines this morning after the company said in a letter posted to the company’s website that a child was killed in an accident involving one of its namesake treadmills. CEO John Foley said he “recently learned about a tragic accident involving a child and the Tread+, resulting in, unthinkably, a death. While we are aware of only a small handful of incidents involving he Tread+ where children have been hurt, each one is devastating to all of us at Peloton, and our hearts go out to the families involved.” Foley added in the letter that while Peloton builds all of its products with safety in mind, the company advises users of the Tread+ that they should keep children and pets away from the equipment at all times and store the treadmill’s safety key away from children when it is not in use. “We are currently assessing ways to reinforce our warnings about these critical safety precautions to hopefully prevent future accidents,” Foley said.
And the NFL has finalized its new 11-year media rights agreement with a pact that will run through 2033 and is estimated to be worth over $100 billion. The league announced that it is renewing TV rights with all of its existing broadcast partners, and has added Amazon Prime Video as an exclusive partner for its Thursday Night Football games. The Amazon announcement marks the first time a streaming service will carry a full package of games exclusively, and Amazon will reportedly be paying around $1 billion per year for the rights beginning in 2023. “NFL games are the most watched live programming in the United States, and this unprecedented Thursday Night Footballpackage gives tens of millions of new and existing Prime members exclusive access to must-watch live football on Prime Video,” said Mike Hopkins, Senior VP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, in a statement.
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Evolving Systems Inc (NASDAQ: EVOL): Evolving Systems shares jumped as much as 75% yesterday after the company announced fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2020 results. “In our years of servicing our global clients, we have developed a culture of successfully managing our business through telework. We have leveraged our ability to implement and provide support remotely and have noted a relatively limited effect on our operations during this time of a global pandemic. This has allowed us to overcome many challenges and we are proud to announce the Company has increased revenues and generated a profit for the year and for the fourth quarter,” CEO and Executive Chairman Matthew Stecker said in the earnings release. “The Company also generated positive cash flows from operations and paid off the bank term loan. We continue working with existing and new clients, helping them to explore new ways of using our products and services to enhance their businesses during these historic times. Although there has been continued impact on our ability to interact with our clients in the traditional modes of sales and business development, and the pandemic has slowed our expected growth, we are excited to have made the gains that we have.”