Geopolitics
US Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden has unveiled California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate for the November 3rd 2020 presidential election. Kamala Harris becomes the first black woman and South Asian American in the role. This will be extremely important for Joe Biden 2020 presidential election run and his next 4 years in terms fo policy and governing.
Precious Metals Fall on Vaccine News
The price of precious metals fell following Russia’s announcement that it had registered the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine. The price of gold fell below the $1900 mark on Wednesday while Silver fell to as low as $23.44 after hitting $28 last week for the first time since 2013.
| Period | Gold Performance | Silver Performance |
| 1 Week | -6.00% | -6.34% |
| 1 Month | +6.48% | +34.88% |
| 3 Months | +12.52% | +63.54% |
| YTD | +26.15% | +41.30% |
| 1 Year | +26.75% | +48.01% |
| 3 Years | +48.62% | +47.57% |
| 5 Years | +70.38% | +62.38% |
Across Wallstreet, shares of tech firm fell on Tuesday’s close with investors keenly watching the US negotiations on the next virus stimulus bill.
Meanwhile, shares of Moderna Inc rose by more than 10% after US President Donald Trump on Tuesday made an announcement that his government had entered into a deal worth $1.5 Billion with the company for the COVID vaccine. According to media reports, the US Govt will get about 100 Million doses once final stage testing is done with an additional 500 Million doses to follow later.
Airbnb IPO
Rental online market place is planning to file for an initial public offering with the listing expected to happen before the end of the year according to the Wallstreet Journal. Paperwork for the IPO will be completed by the end of this month with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs being the lead transaction advisors.
Tesla Stock Split
Electric car manufacturer Tesla, Inc. has announced that its Board of Directors has approved and declared a five-for-one split of the company’s common stock in the form of a stock dividend to make stock ownership more accessible to employees and investors. Each stockholder of record on August 21, 2020 will receive a dividend of four additional shares of common stock for each then-held share, to be distributed after close of trading on August 28, 2020. Trading will begin on a stock split-adjusted basis on August 31, 2020.
Data from China’s Auto Industry Association CPCA on Tuesday showed that Tesla Inc. 11,000 units of its Model 3 vehicles were sold in the month of July. The demand for model 3 spiked in May as Tesla tripled its Model 3 sales in China during the month.
Softbank Earnings, Plans to sell ARM
SoftBank Group has reported a profit of $11.8 billion for the April-June quarter helped by gains from disposing of its stake in Sprint Corp. According to Wallstreet Journal, SoftBank is also exploring a sale of U.K. chip designer Arm Holdings, one of its biggest and strategically most important assets.
UK Enters Recession
UK’s GDP for the second quarter of 2020 shrank by 20.4%, pushing the country into a recession for the first time since the global financial crisis in 2008. According to data from the Country’s Office for National Statistics, production fell 16.9%, the services sector fell 19.9%, while the construction sector output fell by 35.0% during the period.
