February 13, 2021
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Bitcoin then rose to a record high Tesla announced that it had bought the $ 1.5 billion cryptocurrency and would accept it as payment for its cars. Elon Musk’s recent reflections on digital money have bolstered claims by Bitcoin supporters that it will one day be legal tender. However, Tesla’s investment in such a volatile market is a risky bet and hurts its green credentials. The amount of computer power needed to mine bitcoin accounts for 0.56% of total global electricity consumption, according to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance.
Oil prices were at their highest level in over a year. Brent crude rose above $ 60 a barrel; In April last year, the first days of the coronavirus crisis, it had fallen below $ 20. Prices have risen steadily since October, partly due to further declines in production in Saudi Arabia and a pickup in demand from China. Oil imports there are likely to have risen by a third in January compared to December. See article.
Kuaishou The share price continued to rise days after the Hong Kong IPO grossed $ 5.4 billion, the tech industry’s largest IPO since Uber. Rivaling TikTok (known as Douyin in China), Kuaishou stock rose 160% on its first day of trading.
Meanwhile, court records in America suggested the Justice Department under the new Biden administration is looking into whether Tick tock is a threat to national security, a claim by the Trump administration citing privacy issues. There were reports that the sale of TikTok’s American operations to Oracle and Walmart would not take place.
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HuaweiThe Chinese network equipment maker filed a new legal challenge to the US government’s classification as a national security threat, this time against the Federal Communications Commission. Ren Zhengfei, the head of Huawei, said he would welcome a call from Joe Biden to discuss the situation.
Higher rates for sea freight transport between Asia and Europe helped Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping line, to almost double its quarterly profit. Freight prices rose last year amid increasing global demand for imports and the shortage of empty containers for shipping.
SoftBank’s The Vision Fund posted record earnings each quarter as the value of its investments in technology companies like Uber rose as stock markets rose. Despite posting losses from the colossal derivatives trade that eventually led to it being dubbed the “Nasdaq whale”, the Japanese conglomerate posted quarterly net income of 1.17 trillion yen (US $ 11.1 billion).
A big jump in sales from Ubers The grocery delivery business was insufficient to offset a sharp drop in revenue from the hail service last year, which resulted in an annual loss of $ 6.8 billion. However, this was an improvement over the $ 8.5 billion lost in 2019.
Ocado is Annual income shed a little better light on consumer behavior during the pandemic. Based in the UK, Ocado provides a logistics platform for online supermarket sales. Sales increased 35% for the fiscal year ended November 29. Ocado’s number of customers actually fell due to capacity constraints. However, this was offset by an increase in the average order size from £ 106 to £ 137 ($ 147 to $ 190). The company believes the pandemic has “forever” pushed consumers to more online shopping.
Heineken decided to cut 8,000 jobs, or nearly 10% of the workforce, as lockdowns limited sales and drove the Dutch brewer to an annual loss. In Britain beer According to the industry association, sales fell by 56% last year. She called on the government to lift restrictions on what and when pubs and bars can serve customers once the current lockdown wears off, otherwise thousands of pubs will have to close.
valley agreed to pay the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais $ 7 billion in compensation for the collapse of the Brumadinho Dam two years ago, which killed at least 270 people. The dam had stored iron ore scraps from one of the Brazilian company’s mines. The reparations regime has been described as the largest in Latin America.
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JD Sports, a UK retailer, is planning to open a new distribution center in the European Union as the chairman said it would be worse than expected Brexi Bureaucracy leading to delays in European deliveries. British Brexit negotiator David Frost said the new relationship was “bumpier” than he had hoped, but accused the EU of “resolving border issues”. Meanwhile, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey criticized the EU’s inflexible stance on post-Brexit arrangements for UK financial services, saying it was “unrealistic, dangerous and inconsistent with practice”. Negotiations with Brussels are ongoing.
This article appeared in the “The World This Week” section of the print version under the heading “Business This Week”.
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