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Moderna cemented vaccine hopes at the start of the week with its phase III trials showing 94.5% efficacy. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, is back in self-isolation and the UK government comes under the spotlight for handing out pandemic-related contracts without competitive tender. In the US, Donald Trump continues to deny his loss in the presidential election. At a press conference Trump’s legal team, spearheaded by Rudy Giuliani, makes unsubstantiated claims that the US election was rigged as part of a global conspiracy involving Venezuela, Cuba and China.
See below for a summary of the key events and click through the slides above to find out what investment managers think this means for portfolios.
16 November
-Phase III trials of the Moderna vaccine indicate it has 94.5% efficacy and less logistical challenges than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which has to be stored at extremely low temperatures
-Boris Johnson goes into self-isolation, as do six Conservative MPs and two aides, after one of the MPs tested positive for Covid-19
-Hungary and Poland threaten to veto the EU’s €750bn recovery package due to a requirement that countries abide by democratic norms to receive funding
-Japan’s economy grows 5% in Q3 following an 8.2% fall in Q2
-The UK government announces it will open two ‘megalabs’ in Leamington Spa and Scotland in 2021 to increase testing volumes
-Sweden tightens restrictions on public gatherings limiting them to eight individuals. Previously, crowds of 50 to 300 were allowed to gather depending on the event
-Airbnb returns to profit in Q3 delivering $219m ahead of its IPO
-President-elect Joe Biden has warned “more may die” of Covid-19 if Donald Trump continues to thwart the transition of power
-Johnson & Johnson begins clinical trials of a potential coronavirus vaccine in the UK, recruiting up 6,000 people to participate
17 November
-A US court case reveals the UK government handed a Miami jewellery business £200m to secure PPE for the NHS without a competitive tender. The jeweller subsequently paid out £20m in consulting fees to an individual based in Spain
-US retail sales rise less than expected in October at just 0.3% with households cutting back on cars, sporting goods and hobbies, clothing, furniture, drinking and dining out
18 November
-The National Audit Office finds over half of the £18bn spent by the UK government on pandemic-related contracts did not go to competitive tender
-Final results from the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trials show a 95% success rate with the drugmakers expecting US and European regulatory approval during December
-Food and clothing prices see UK inflation tick up to 0.7% in October compared to 0.5% a month earlier
-UK house prices rise 4.7% in the year to the end of the September with detached homes particularly in demand as people adjust to working from home
-British Airways announces it will introduce testing on some transatlantic flights in an effort to highlight alternatives to the current 14-days of quarantine required for some inbound travellers
-The luxury goods sector contracted 23% in 2020 setting its growth back six years, according to a Bain & Company report
-Norwegian Air files for bankruptcy protection through the Irish courts
-Denmark’s minister of agriculture resigns due to his illegal efforts to cull the country’s entire farmed mink population, in which a mutated form of coronavirus has been spreading
19 November
-In a press conference, Donald Trump’s lawyers make unsubstantiated claims about a global conspiracy among communist nations, such as Venezuela and China, to steal the election. They implicate the late Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013, in the plot
-A member of Michel Barnier’s negotiating team tests positive for coronavirus putting a halt to Brexit talks just as hopes were rising that a deal could be imminent
-US jobless claims rise for the first time in five weeks to 742,000 in tandem with rising Covid-19 cases
-An Oxford/Astrazeneca phase II vaccine trial shows a strong immune response, although the efficacy of the jab will not be known until phase III trials are completed later this year
-An OECD report examining how countries handled the Covid-19 pandemic finds within Europe the UK spent the most on tackling the virus, suffered the largest reduction in Q2 GDP and had the largest number of deaths
-The World Health Organization says lockdowns should be a last resort and could be avoided if mask usage reached 95%
-Turkey’s central bank lifts rates to 15% from 10.25% previously prompting the lira to jump 3% against the dollar
-The WHO declares a five-months outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo over
-The UK government announces £300m in funding for 11 sports hit hard by the pandemic, including rugby, horse racing and women’s football
-Royal Mail’s interim results show parcel deliveries accounting for 60% of revenues compared to 47% in the same period last year as online shopping picks up during lockdown
-New York City public schools close as positivity rates hit 3%
20 November
-UK government debt hits more than 100% of GDP for the first time since the 1960s, according to the ONS
-Early Christmas shoppers help UK retail sales jump 1.2% in October
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