BWIB Finance Newsletter

Wednesday, Feb 10 to Tuesday, Feb 16, 2021

WHO approves the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine

Source: Reuters

● The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.

● The move impacts the developing world as there is greater access to the relatively inexpensive shot.

● Listing comes after a WHO panel provided vaccine recommendations of two doses within an interval of around eight to twelve weeks for all adults.

Citigroup loses $500MM following lawsuit due to an employee’s mistake

Source: Bloomberg

● An employee made a mistake in August, transferring $504MM to Revlon Inc. lenders while trying to make an interest payment.

● Citigroup Inc. unexpectedly lost the legal battle following U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman’s ruling.

● Asset managers including Brigade Capital Management, HPS Investment Partners, and Symphony Asset Management do not have to return the $504MM.

Shopify’s business model aligns with new small business owners

Source: WSJ

● E-commerce company Shopify Inc. has been profitable during the pandemic as small business formation is surging in the U.S.

● Shopify sells subscription services that allows website setups, online payments, and shipping and tracking of orders to customers.

● However, there is the question of potential deceleration in sales growth when the pandemic begins to ebb.

Stock Market

● Bumble started trading on NASDAQ and soared up to 63% on Thursday after the first day of being publicly traded (Source: CNBC)

● Cryptocurrency Dogecoin topped $10B in market value and Twitter has shown potential interest in utilizing Bitcoin as payment in the future (Source: WSJ)

● Goldman Sachs is starting to sell Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) bonds (Source: Bloomberg)

● Tilray stock increased by around 50% as Reddit users brought up the federal legalization of cannabis (Source: CNBC)

Economy

● President Biden met with business leaders on February 9th, including the CEOs of JPMorgan and Walmart, to discuss the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan and economic policy (Source: NY Times)

● Senate Republicans disapprove of NASDAQ’s plans for the diversification of corporate bonds as they claim it goes against the interest of shareholders (Source: WSJ)

● Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former two-time Nigerian finance minister, was appointed as the next director general of the World Trade Organization. She will be the first woman and African leader of the WTO with a dual citizenship (Source: NPR)

● Biden’s climate change strategy has aimed to pay farmers to curb carbon footprint (Source: CNBC)

Deal — IPO

● Dating App Bumble raised $2.15B in an IPO, valuing the company at $8.2B according to the Class A shares. Whitney Herd is the youngest woman CEO to take a large company public in the U.S. (Source: Bloomberg)

Written By:

Director: Jacquline Ruan

Managers: Vaibhavi Bamane, Melissa Chen, Stacy Kim