☕️ KJ: 30,000 daily Covid-19 cases expected if omicron left unchecked

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

The Nasdaq Composite Index has lost nearly USD1 trillion this week after the pace of a spike in US bond yields. US 10-year Treasury yields were hovering near to 1.75%, the highest in about 10 months. So is it the end of the world? We’ll see — tech stocks took a similar beating in March but bounced back right after.

90 million pairs of AirPods were sold during the holiday quarter of 2021, according to top Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TFI Asset Management Limited.

600,000 copies of Adele’s 30 were sold in 2021, making it the best-selling album of the year in the UK (thanks emc!) even though it was only on sale for six weeks. Her previous album, 25, sold 800,000 copies in its first week of release back in 2015, highlighting how the music industry has become dominated by singles, thanks to streaming.

USD120 bil paper gains of Berkshire Hathaway’s stake in Apple Inc. when it topped USD3 trillion market valuation on Monday. The iPhone maker was the first company to do so! It might have been one of Warren Buffett’s best calls when Berkshire Hathaway began accumulating Apple Stock back in 2016. The conglomerate accumulated 5% ownership of Apple, a stake that cost USD36 bil.

3. COVID-19 SUMMARY

• 14% of 122 Omicron cases in Malaysia had come from unvaccinated individuals returning from overseas, according to Health Ministry. The sticky situation involves 10 Malaysians and seven non-citizens — how did they manage to flout the SOP? Only the vaccinated are allowed to travel.

• The Health Ministry warns that daily Covid-19 infections could reach 30,000 cases if no measures are taken to curb the Omicron wave. Hence, umrah travel is temporarily suspended. In addition, four PPVs with bigger capacity will begin operating on Jan 15, 2022, for the administration of booster shots. Please stay safe!

• The Covid-19 situation in Australia is putting a huge strain on the businesses and supply chains, on top of overwhelming hospitals. The country recorded 72,392 new infections yesterday (sans Western Australia), easily exceeding the high of 64,774 set a day earlier.

4. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

1. Malaysians aren’t going to allow the MACC to take them as fools. More parties have expressed their dissatisfaction over MACC’s investigation into its chief commission, Azam Baki’s shareholdings in public listed companies.The Securities Commission (SC) said it will be in touch with Azam Baki after admitting in broad daylight that it was his brother that used his account to purchased these shares as his action has contravened the law that any share trading account must be in the name of the beneficial owner.Claiming that false and malicious allegations were made against him personally, his family and MACC, Azam Baki has initiated legal proceedings against an investigative journalist and anti-corruption activist, Lalitha Kunaratnam, for defamation. Next move if the situation worsens for him - take a leaf out of Najib’s book and ‘sumpah laknat’. 

   1. The G25 group of eminent Malays said this issue should be referred to a parliamentary select committee for enquiry. 

   2. The Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEA) has urged the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board to elaborate upon the process through which the conclusion was reached to clear Azam Baki of any wrongdoing.

   3. Parti Amanah’s Youth wing and national mobilisation bureau will submit a memorandum to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong regarding questions on the integrity of Azam Baki.

2. An innovation (albeit in a wrong manner) by Macau scam syndicates - they are calling victims to inform them that they are eligible to receive incentives or assistance from the government and would ask the victims to submit their online banking username and password on the pretext of facilitating these payments. Their previous MO is acting as law enforcement agents (ie. police, court, BNM) to scare the victim that they were under investigation.

3. Serba Dinamik Holdings Bhd is now classified a Practice Note 17 (PN17) company after its external auditor expressed a disclaimer of opinion on its 19-month audited financial statements for the period ended 30 Jun 2021. The auditor said it did not express an opinion on the accompanying financial statements of Serba Dinamik, as it had not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion on the statements.The company has 12 months to regularise its financial condition, failing which it will be delisted from Bursa Malaysia.

4. Clothes retailer Padini Holdings Bhd’s share price rose 3% to its highest level of RM3.03 in about two months yesterday after the EPF raised its stakes in the retailer to 5.76% after acquiring 37,500 shares in the company. The rise in share price lifted its market cap to RM1.97 bil.For its Q1 ended 30 Sep 2021, the company reported a loss of RM16.86 mil versus a net profit of RM20.72 mil a year earlier as the majority of its outlets were closed during the FMCO. Corresponding revenue collapsed to RM81.03 mil from RM310.72 mil.

5. TIL - you can get fined for transporting pigs without permission and even jailed. A lorry driver was fined RM2,000 in default four months’ jail for transporting four pigs without the Veterinary Department’s permission.

5. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

1. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev had appealed for the intervention of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) — a military alliance of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan — to quell the deadly unrest in Kazakhstan. Russia has sent “peacekeepers” into Kazakhstan as an answer to the president’s appeal. Almaty police have warned residents not to leave their homes as an “anti-terrorism operation” is underway. The internet in the country is down.

2. While Malaysia is struggling to implement its 5G network, a high-tech laboratory in Nanjing, China, has announced a major achievement related to 6G-oriented terahertz 100/200Gbps (gigabits per second) real-time wireless communication. The transmission speed is said to be at least 10x higher than 5G networks. Terahertz waves that possess higher frequencies are considered to be the core technology of 6G networks.

3. WeChat, China’s largest messaging app and one of the country’s biggest payment services, will begin supporting the country’s sovereign digital currency — digital yuan. It’s another big boost to the digital currency after the official launch of the e-CNY app. WeChat Pay has over 800 million monthly active users.

4. SOCAR, a south Korean car-sharing startup, has filed for an initial public offering. While the details of the IPO have not been determined, SOCAR’s estimated is have a value of USD2.5 bil after the listing in the first half of this year. That would be triple its last available valuation of USD834 mil after it raised USD50.7 mil back in October 2020. With the proceeds from the IPO, the company will make additional acquisitions and advance its technology. The company also plans to launch a transportation super app (surprise, surprise) this year.

5. Nine-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic has been denied entry to Australia to compete for the Australian Open 2022 because his visa was cancelled. Djokovic has kept mum on his vaccination status. Entry to Australia with a visa requires double vaccination or a medical exemption. However, Djokovic is not giving up yet after his lawyer Nick Wood pushed for an interim injunction order to prevent him from being deported before the appeal hearing. He will remain in the country until Monday.

6. Qatar Airways is claiming USD618 mil in compensation from planemaker Airbus over erosion to the surface of A350 jetliners. The lawsuit started back in December with Qatar Airways saying Airbus had failed to provide a full root-cause analysis needed to satisfy its questions over the airworthiness of some 40% of its A350 fleet. The Gulf airline is also seeking USD4 mil for every day that 21 of its A350 aeroplanes remained grounded by Qatar’s regulator over skin damage.

7. Alphabet and Meta Platforms have been fined €150 mil and €60 mil, respectively, by France’s data privacy watchdog CNIL. The watchdog said the two companies made it difficult for internet users to refuse online trackers known as cookies. The authority has given the companies three months to comply with its order or face an extra penalty payment of €100,000 per day of delay.

8. Samsung Electronics America is opening the virtual doors to Samsung 837X — an immersive metaverse experience that will teleport you into the flagship store in the heart of New York City. Samsung 837X will be open in Decentraland for a limited time. You can now virtually experience the physical Samsung 837 building and the Connectivity Theater and Sustainability Forest to complete quests that lead to 837X NFT badges and limited-supply wearables.

6. FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE 👁👁

1. Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Cartier, Pret-a-manger, Evian, Givenchy - are you pronouncing these French brands correctly?

2. Walmart’s vision for grocery shopping in the metaverse. Doesn’t feel at all efficient.

3. The below isn’t art - it’s the path 800 unsteered bicycles take