All posts by James Cannon

About James Cannon

James Cannon is an experienced hedge fund analyst. He has served on the advisory boards for various different Fortune 500 companies as well as serving as an adjunct professor of finance. James Cannon has written for a variety of Financial Magazines both on and off line. Contact James at james[at]businessdistrict.com

China Joins International Effort to Bring COVID Vaccine to World’s Neediest

Health Care, Politics, , , ,

China is the latest country to add its signature to a global effort to make sure that when a coronavirus vaccine is finally developed and ready for distribution, it will be given to the neediest people around the world.

Know as the COVAX initiative, it is sponsored by the World Health Organization and has signed up 157 countries. The WHO hopes the program will ensure that 2 billion doses of this life-saving vaccine will be made available to those most in need, no matter where they live, by the end of 2021.

“We have solemnly pledged to make vaccines developed and deployed by China a global public good, which will be provided to developing countries as a priority,” Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, wrote on Twitter.

This is an about-face for China, which originally bowed out from joining COVAX. China is currently developing four vaccines that are in clinical trials. One of them, according to Wu Guizhen, chief biosafety expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, should be ready to be used on the general population sometime in November. President of China, Xi Jinping promised back in May that he would make any Chinese vaccine available for “the global good.” At that time Xi also pledged $2 billion to WHO, making China the organization’s largest donor.

In early September, the United States announced its decision to stay away from the COVAX initiative, stating that:

“We will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said at the time.

ArcelorMittal Sells US Business to Cleveland-Cliffs for $1.4 Billion

Companies, , ,
Steel being rolled at an ArcelorMittal facility in Brazil.

Cleveland-Cliffs, the Cleveland-based iron ore mining company, signed a deal to acquire six steelmaking factories, eight finishing facilities, two iron ore mining and pelletizing operations, and three coal and coke making factories in exchange for an upfront cash payment of close to $505 million and Cleveland-Cliffs stock worth about $873 million.

The payments and stock will go to Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal in exchange for their facilities as outlined above. The deal is expected to close at the end of this year. When the deal is finalized Cleveland-Cliffs will be the largest producer of flat-rolled steel and iron ore pellets in all North America, according to the company.

“The acquisition of ArcelorMittal USA amplifies our position in the discerning automotive steel marketplace, and further improves our position in important U.S. markets such as construction, appliances, infrastructure, machinery and equipment,” said CEO Lourenco Goncalves.

In 2018 and 2019 ArcelorMittal USA had revenue of over $10 billion on average. Cleveland-Cliffs has an average of $2 billion in revenue per year. The companies said that the merger will save about $150 million per year.

This acquisition was the second for Cleveland-Cliffs worth over $1 billion this year. At the end of 2019, the company paid $1.1 billion for AK Steel Corp.

Biden Reaches Out to Small Businesses

Economy, Politics, , , , , ,
Joe Biden courtesy of Gage Skidmore

The campaign for the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, Joe Biden, will create an initiative to deploy an advisory council on small businesses and entrepreneurship. The initiative includes John Hickenlooper, who is running for the Senate in Colorado; Andrew Yang, who, along with Hickenlooper, participated in the Democratic primaries; and the owner of a Miami-based empanada company.

Biden’s campaign will also place a group of four advertisements throughout Arizona, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania that will focus on business owners who have been hurt and are struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The initiative and the ads are designed to contrast Biden’s concern with the actions of the Trump administration which the campaign believes did not do enough to help small business and handled the Covid-19 pandemic poorly.

Biden has often pointed to Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic and brought attention to the difficulties small businesses are facing with an emphasis on the challenges procuring Paycheck Protection Program loans.

“The fact is that we’re in a situation where right now an awful lot of small businesses, 50 or fewer employees, are going out of business because the $2 trillion in the acts that are passed by the Congress aren’t getting to them at all,” Biden explained at a fundraiser.

The Federal Reserve Announces Continued Near-Zero Interest Rates

News, ,

Interest rates will be staying low is the conclusion the Federal Reserve reached in its first meeting since its August decision to keep the benchmark federal funds rate near zero and its last meeting before the November presidential elections.

The Feds renewed its promise to keep interest rates close to zero until a time when they see inflation on a consistent climb.

The decision to keep the benchmark federal funds rate between 0 and 0.25 percent was not a surprise. The low rate has been maintained since March, when the pandemic began to take its toll on the US economy and health. Fed officials expect that the low rates will be maintained at least until 2023. Fed officials also altered their predictions about GDP, saying it would not be as steep a decline as they originally envisioned. They also expect the unemployment rate to reach about 7.6% by the end of this year.

“With inflation running persistently below this longer run goal, the Committee will aim to achieve inflation moderately above 2 percent for some time so that inflation averages 2 percent over time and longer-term inflation expectations remain well-anchored at 2 percent. The Committee expects to maintain an accommodative stance of monetary policy until these outcomes are achieved,” the post-meeting statement declared.

Treasure Hunt Master Dies at 90

Lifestyle,
Treasure Chest. Courtesy of leigh49137

Forrest Fenn, the mastermind behind the famous hunt for hidden treasure somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of the American West, died on September 7 at the age of 90.

Fenn was an antiquities dealer and writer who lived and worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2010 he published an autobiography that contained a poem with clues to the location of a chest filled with gold, jewels, and other valuable items that he had hidden. He told me he hid the treasure in order to inspire people to explore the wilderness and the beauty of the West and to experience some personal adventures.

At the height of the search, people quit their jobs, used their life savings, and even risked- or in some cases, lost their lives to find the hidden chest. They were tempted by the knowledge that within that chest were hidden hundreds of rare gold coins, gold nuggets, pre-Columbian animal figures, prehistoric “mirrors” of hammered gold, ancient Chinese faces in jade, antique jewelry adorned with emeralds and rubies. Law enforcement agents tried to persuade Fenn to call off the hunt, saying it was endangering people’s lives. Fenn always said it would not be fair to halt the hunt to the people that already spent so much time trying to locate the treasure.

As the hunt dragged on Fenn narrowed the scope, saying that the 18-kilo chest was not in a dangerous place or in one where an old man couldn’t drag it safely by himself.

In the past few months before he died Fenn announced that the treasure had been found, somewhere in Wyoming, but did not mention the name of the lucky winner.

Fenn grew up in Temple, Texas, and spent his summers in Yellowstone National Park. He was in the Air Force for over twenty years. After his service, he moved to Santa Fe, where he became one of that city’s most successful art gallery owners.