dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Anonymous ID: 9abf9c Aug. 25, 2021, 1:23 p.m. No.86240 🗄️.is 🔗kun

tyb

United Health Group, Inc. sold by Exec. Chair of BoD and former CEO: $29.84m-Aug 23

UnitedHealth Group is one of the leading American suppliers of healthcare products and services. Income breaks down by activity as follows:

health insurance (59.3%);
prescription insurance plan management services (37.5%; OptumHealth and OptumRx): administrative management (reimbursement management, patient claim processing, etc.), drug distribution, decision-making information, sales of medical information management services, etc.;
provision of computer services (3.2%; OptumInsight): consulting, development, and integration of solutions for transaction management, healthcare plan management, data processing, etc. Number of employees : 330 000 people.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/UNITEDHEALTH-GROUP-14750/company/

Stephen J. Hemsley is on the board of Cargill, Inc. and the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) and Chairman at UnitedHealth Group, Inc. He received an undergraduate degree from Fordham University.

https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/Stephen-J-Hemsley-3015/biography/

https://finviz.com/insidertrading.ashx?oc=1180162&tc=7&b=2

Blinken says around 1,500 Americans remain in Afghanistan

There are around 1,500 Americans who are still in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday. Briefing reporters, Blinken said the U.S. has evacuated at least 4,500 U.S. citizens and probably more since Aug. 14. President Joe Biden on Tuesday declared he was sticking to his Aug. 31 deadline for completing an airlift of Americans, endangered Afghans and others seeking to escape Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/blinken-says-around-1500-americans-remain-in-afghanistan-2021-08-25

Two Hedge Fund Billionaires Hedge their Bets on Regeneron as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Opens Regeneron Treatment Centers for COVID-19 Across Florida

Billionaire hedge fund titan Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors has had a stake in the biotech company, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, since at least December 31, 2011 – a decade ago. The same is true for billionaire Jeffrey Yass’ giant hedge fund, Susquehanna International Group. Both stakes have grown in size in recent years.

As of the most recent 13F SEC filing for Citadel Advisors for the quarter ending June 30, 2021, it and its related entities held a stake in Regeneron of long call options and common stock with a value of $189.7 million versus a short position of puts with a value of $188.5 million. As of its filing with the SEC for the quarter ending June 30, 2021, Susquehanna International Group reported a long position of common shares and calls of 1,116,127 shares valued at $623.4 million versus a short position of puts representing 1,102,800 shares valued at $615.95 million. It will be very interesting to see what both hedge funds report on their next 13F filings with the SEC for the quarter ending September 30, because something rather dramatic has happened since their last filing.

The Republican Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, is attempting to save his political career as Florida registers an average daily COVID-19 new case count of 21,263 and average daily hospitalizations of 17,225 – the worst in the United States. DeSantis is also battling school districts throughout his state who are defying his orders not to impose mask mandates in schools and to leave the decision up to parents.

In an effort to get out in front of growing COVID-19 cases and overtaxed hospitals, on August 12 DeSantis embarked on a plan to open treatment centers in counties throughout the state to provide a monoclonal antibody treatment made by Regeneron. The company’s stock has climbed 10 percent since that announcement on August 12. Since December 31, 2011, Regeneron is up 1000 percent versus 200 percent for the S&P 500 Index. Much of that move is explained by this reporting from Matt Herper and Ellie Kincaid in a July 26, 2018 article as Forbes. Herper and Kincaid write: “Regeneron, like other biotech firms, spends giant sums to find new cures, and it charges accordingly. Its big seller, the eye drug Eylea, costs $11,000 a year per eye. A newer Regeneron product, Dupixent, treats skin rashes; that one can run $37,000 a year. A cholesterol treatment costs $14,000 a year. Even more insane: These eye-catching prices really are cheap by pharma standards.”

So far, DeSantis has opened 18 Regeneron treatment centers around the state, including at libraries, parks and fairgrounds. DeSantis is quick to point out that the treatments are free to patients. That’s because the federal government has already paid for the treatments, shelling out $2.625 billion for 1.25 million doses on January 12 of this year. That works out to a cost to the taxpayer of $2100 per dose. That $2.625 billion transaction occurred just 8 days before President Trump left office. The $2100 cost per dose of Regeneron’s treatment compares to an estimated average cost of $50 per patient for two doses of the mRNA vaccines in the United States. The federal government also paid for those vaccine shots, making them free to patients. Republicans have been huge beneficiaries of political campaign contributions from both Ken Griffin and Jeff Yass. According to data at the Federal Election Commission (FEC), during the 2019-2020 election cycle, Griffin sent 21 checks of $1 million or more each to PACs and Super PACs working on behalf of, exclusively, Republicans. That included $37 million to the Senate Leadership Fund for Republicans.

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>>86247

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Griffin made so many contributions to individual Republican candidates that we filtered the FEC data by looking at just the checks he wrote out for $1 million or more. That turned up a total of $61 million in just the 2019-2020 cycle for PACs and Super PACs working to elect Republicans. His total outlay on behalf of Republicans was millions of dollars more. Griffin is also a big donor to Republicans in Florida, including Ron DeSantis. State records show Griffin made the following contributions since 2018: $500,000 to Friends of Ron DeSantis on May 14, 2018; $250,000 to the same group on June 21, 2018; $5 million to the same group on October 3, 2018. On April 30 of this year, Griffin made another $5 million donation to Friends of Ron DeSantis. In addition, Griffin donated $500,000 to the Republican Party of Florida on October 14 of last year. On the same date, he donated another $500,000 to the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign. Griffin’s hedge fund is located in Chicago. Why he is so interested in DeSantis and the Republican party of Florida is more than a little curious.

We found no similar contributions in Florida for Jeff Yass. However, the Center for Responsive Politics reports that Yass donated $28.8 million to SuperPacs supporting right-wing Republicans in the 2019-2020 election cycle. That included some members of Congress who refused to certify the election for Joe Biden after their states had already done so.

https://wallstreetonparade.com/2021/08/two-hedge-fund-billionaires-hedge-their-bets-on-regeneron-as-florida-governor-ron-desantis-opens-regeneron-treatment-centers-for-covid-19-across-florida/

>>84870 pb Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc sold by President/CEO: $142.84m-Aug 16,18,19

Outs

Royal Australian AF BONDI72 C-17 Globey

MAMBO61 USAF C-130 Super Hercules

RAF NAG82XT C-17 Globey

62-3554 USAF KC-135 tanker

French AF FAF409 Airbus A330 departed Al Dhafra AB back to Paris

In

58-0085 USAF KC-135 tanker

TORQUE12 USAF C-130 Hercules up from Al Udeid AB

French AF CTM1573 Airbus A400M departed Al Dhafra AB east

Royal Canadian AF RACER27 C-17 Globey departed Kuwait Int'l Airport and se

Well here is sumthang you don't see every day

00000000 USAF B-52 Stratofortress off SoCal from Barksdale AFB, LA and heading east nao

For The First Time Ever China Is Seeking Foreign Buyers For Its Municipal Bonds

While Beijing has been "encouraging" private companies to aggressively cut debt in the past year - and nowhere more so than at China's largest real-estate developer, Evergrande, whose bonds have cratered in recent weeks amid fears the forced deleveraging will push the company and its $300 billion in debt into a death spiral - China's local governments have more than doubled bond sales to roll over maturing debt this year, helping to ease their repayment risk.

As Bloomberg reported back in July, cities and provinces sold about 1.9 trillion yuan ($293 billion) of so-called refinancing bonds in the first six months of the year. That’s a sharp increase from about 700 billion yuan sold in the same period of 2020, and 660 billion yuan in 2019. These "refinancing" bonds are sold to replace maturing securities, reducing pressure on local authorities to pay back the debt. China's refinancing scramble is just beginning: “The amount of debt due will keep growing, so the scale of refinancing isn’t likely to fall,” said Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered Plc in Hong Kong. “That’s the case unless policy makers seriously look to reduce the absolute value of the debt, which is unlikely.”

He's right you know-this is just warming up

Meanwhile, local governments have slowed the pace of special bond sales used to finance spending on infrastructure like highways and houses, in part due to a lack of quality projects and Beijing’s stronger focus on debt control. Infrastructure investment contracted in May from a year earlier, and probably continued to decline in June and July due to a higher base from a year ago, according to economists at China International Capital Corp. They see investment growth rebounding after that to reach about 3.5% for the full year. But with China's economic growth slowing drastically, it is inevitable that China would have to boost its fiscal stimulus, meaning many more bonds will be issued, it's just a matter of time. Indeed, at the start of July, government-linked economists cited by the state-run China Securities Journal said fiscal spending may increase in the second half of the year. "Along with the economic recovery becoming more and more solid, fiscal revenue will gradually return to the normal level, and fiscal spending will maintain its due growth rate," the newspaper quoted He Daixin as saying. He is director of the Public Finance Research Department at the National Academy of Economic Strategy, a unit of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

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>>86263

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Cap#2 is China's Debt Service Ratio from March 2021

#3 is overall Debt-to-GDP from June

There was just one problem with this approach: as a result of the recent turmoil in the domestic bond market, demand for more government debt - at least among domestic buyers - appears to be fading, so China is doing the obvious thing: it is looking for foreign buyers. Fast forward to today when as Bloomberg updates, China's so-called Dim Sum bond market - in which a renminbi-denominated bond is sold to foreign buyers - is about to get a new kind of issuer: local Chinese governments. In a first for the $77 billion offshore yuan bond market, Shenzhen city government is seeking underwriters for an offering of up to 5 billion yuan ($771 million), according to a statement Tuesday. Guangdong province is also planning such a sale in Macau, without giving the size. While relatively small, and serving as a trial balloon to test foreign investor demand, such tenders will help pave the way for more regular, and far larger issuance, giving international investors more yuan-denominated assets to add to their portfolios, said Frances Cheung, rates strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp in Singapore. Assuming they want such exposure, of course.

Meanwhile, overall offshore yuan debt sales are on track for the highest since 2015. Appetite was helped by tighter monetary policy in China earlier this year coupled with relatively easy money in the U.S., causing the cost to swap the Chinese currency into dollars to drop. Coming at a time when there is widespread revulsion to Chinese equities (which not long ago were viewed by most hedge funds as alpha panacea), the nation’s finance ministry has sought to expand its bond issuance channels from the interbank market to retail investors and now offshore, because apparently even local retail demand is sliding. Luckily for Beijing, there are plenty greater fools offshore, and overseas investors’ holdings of onshore local debt has increased significantly by nearly 80% this year as of July.

There is another reason why China is targeting dumb foreign investors to fund its fiscal stimulus (similar to what the Treasury does, only there the Fed funds the bulk of it): the proposed offshore sales come amid concerns of a surge in local government bond sales onshore, as Chinese authorities pledge more support for the economy. Worries about surging supply continue to haunt the nation’s sovereign bond market. The proposed offshore sales won’t be large enough to alleviate those pressures, added Cheung. Though foreign buyers already have access to onshore local government bonds, an offshore offering could attract more global funds, said Ming Ming, analyst at Citic Securities.

Bottom line: the US - with its massive current account deficit - used to rely on China to fund its growth (back before the Fed stepped in and is monetizing 100% of all US bond issuance), and now it's China's turn to return the favor.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/first-time-ever-china-seeking-foreign-buyers-its-municipal-bonds

>>89545, >>86177 pb

United Airlines UAL2588 777 on descent for Ramstein AFB from Dulles Int'l departure today

RH635 USAF C-17 Globemaster also inbound at Ramstein

RAF RRR2853 heading to RAF Brize Norton from Al Dhafra AB depart

RCH614 USAF C-17 Globey departed Ramstein with RCH687 USAF DC-10 extender in front that departed RAF Mildenhall earlier

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In

MOOSE11 USAF C-17

Hoser RACER27 C-17

RAF NAG84XT C-17

Spanish AF AME3167 A400M

TORQUE12 USAF C-130 Hercules

Out

Royal Australian AF BONDI73 c-17

MOOSE79 USAF C-17

Caldor Fire update

Smoke fills the sky over Lake Tahoe as crews fight to keep Caldor Fire from closing in

Thousands of California firefighters battled Wednesday to halt the advance of a fierce blaze creeping perilously closer to iconic Lake Tahoe.

The edge of the Caldor Fire was less than 15 miles southwest of the lake, according to data from NOAA’s GOES satellite published by Google. The wildfire, which has gutted hundreds of homes, was tearing through timberland and was "knocking on the door" of the Tahoe Lake basin, California’s state fire chief Thom Porter said.

The freshwater lake, with its stretch of picturesque beaches, crystal-clear water, rocky shorelines and stunning landscapes in the Sierra Nevada, is a popular destination. But on Tuesday, visitors were pelted by ash and a haze of suffocating air clogged the sky.

The fire, which was 11% contained, has scorched 126,182 acres as of Wednesday, Cal Fire said. At least 461 homes have been destroyed and another 17,000 structures were at risk since the blaze started Aug. 14.

On the western side of the fire, a dozen small communities and wineries were threatened, fire officials said. On the eastern side, crews bulldozed fire lines, opened up narrow logging roads and cleared ridgetops.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/08/25/caldor-fire-nears-lake-tahoe-california-fires-burn/5584798001/

A505 Cal-Fire OV-10 Bronco Command Post heading east nao-cap #3

MAFFS02 USAF C-130 Hercules heading to Sacto for a reload

MAFFS9 C-130 just delivered a freshy drop and back to Sacto

N722HT CH-54B Sky Crane doing drops Cap#4

N3173U Sea King Sikorsky S-61A Siller Helo also dropping over Caldor

GUARD866 CH-47 Chinook on ground at PlacervilleAirport

1.6m Moderna doses withdrawn in Japan over contamination

Company confirms reports of particulate matter in vials, but finds 'no safety issues'

About 1.6 million doses of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine have been taken out of use in Japan because of contamination reported in some vials, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said early Thursday. Several vaccination centers have reported that vaccine vials contained foreign matter, according to an announcement from the ministry, which added it will seek to minimize the impact of the withdrawal on the country's inoculation program. Takeda Pharmaceutical handles distribution of the U.S.-developed Moderna vaccine in Japan.

Nasdaq-listed Moderna confirmed receiving "several complaints of particulate matter" in vaccine vials distributed in Japan but said it had found "no safety or efficacy issues" related to these reports. "The company is investigating the reports and remains committed to working transparently and expeditiously with its partner, Takeda, and regulators to address any potential concerns," a Moderna spokesperson told Nikkei, saying the drugmaker believed a "manufacturing issue" at a plant in Spain was the cause. The vaccine lot in question and two adjacent lots have been put on hold "out of an abundance of caution," the spokesperson said. The ministry has not halted the use of Moderna vaccines in other batches, deeming them safe.

The Moderna vaccine was granted emergency-use authorization in Japan in May.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/COVID-vaccines/1.6m-Moderna-doses-withdrawn-in-Japan-over-contamination

from May 9 2016

Takeda Receives $38 Million Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Support Polio Eradication in Developing Countries

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited [TSE: 4502], (“Takeda”) today announced a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support global polio eradication in developing countries. With this funding, Takeda will develop, license and supply at least 50 million doses per year of Sabin-strain inactivated poliovirus vaccine (sIPV) to more than 70 developing countries. The vaccine will be manufactured at Takeda’s facility in Hikari, Japan. This effort is aligned with Takeda’s strategy to utilize innovation and partnerships to address critical unmet needs in global public health, and the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in September 2015. Christophe Weber, President and CEO of Takeda said: “Takeda is honored to partner with the Gates Foundation to support the polio endgame. This represents a major commitment by a Japanese company to the health of children in developing countries around the world.” Under the terms of the agreement, the Gates Foundation will provide a $38 million grant to Takeda to leverage its innovative vaccine manufacturing platform to develop and license a safe and effective Sabin-strain inactivated polio vaccine, and make at least 50 million doses per year available at an affordable price for developing countries receiving Gavi support. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, brings together public and private sectors with the shared goal of creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries. Takeda’s sIPV was originally licensed from the Japan Polio Research Institute, which is now a part of BIKEN.

https://www.takeda.com/newsroom/newsreleases/2016/takeda-receives-$38-million-grant-from-the-bill--melinda-gates-foundation-to-support-polio-eradication-in-developing-countries/

Tensions Flare Over $7 Trillion Currency Market’s Trade Dropouts

An end to the global currency market’s four-year quest to crack down on a controversial trading practice that allows dealers to back out of transactions if prices move against them looks further away than ever.

The committee overseeing a voluntary code of conduct in a market worth nearly $7 trillion a day released new guidelines on so-called last look earlier this month, but these principles have only stoked a new wave of pushback from traders frustrated at their framing. Liquidity provider XTX Markets, a member of the Global Foreign Exchange Committee’s working group on last look, critiqued the consultative process and labeled the paper a missed opportunity to settle the issue.Last look is akin to trying to pay for food at a grocery store, but being told the store won’t sell it to you at the price listed on the shelf. In foreign exchange, the bedrock of global finance and commerce, dealers sometimes say they’ll buy or sell a currency at a certain price, but after a trader accepts that bid or offer, the dealer backs out.

Some are going as far as to imagine the almost unthinkable: foreign exchange, a notoriously lightly-regulated business that’s seen so much scandal over the years, may need more formal external oversight. In the 2017 FX Global Code, a voluntary list of best practices for currency trading, last look got some standards but was not banned. Vanguard Group Inc. didn’t sign the code for years because it wanted stronger restrictions, though the $7.2 trillion asset manager finally relented in 2020. This month, currency traders filed a class-action lawsuit against Goldman Sachs & Co. and State Street Bank & Trust Co. that included allegations the liquidity providers were given last-look rights, allowing them to unilaterally cancel matched trades. Buy-side firms have repeatedly expressed concerns dealers could be ripping them off.

The Global Foreign Exchange Committee issued additional guidelines in a paper last week after last look received the most feedback in the group’s market surveys on how to improve industry rules. It’s intended to complement Principle 17 of the FX Global Code, which addresses the practice. Last look should be applied in a “fair and predictable manner,” according to the new GFXC document. The practice should be used only to ensure there is sufficient available credit to close the transaction, and that the price at which the request was made remains consistent with the current level. Liquidity providers should apply these checks without delay and “promptly” decide whether to accept or reject trades. The committee is also “strongly encouraging” liquidity providers to fill out disclosure sheets on their last-look practices. Some industry players say the latest guidelines fall short because even though they recommend dealers disclose the time window they need to confirm the trade, there’s no precise guidance on how long that window should be. Dealers can also pull out of trades if market prices move against them, but not when prices move by a similar amount in their favor. “Obviously the liquidity providers should not be going out of their way to rip off customers, but at the same time we’re trying to give customers the information and the tools in a comparable way to assess how they’re being treated,” Guy Debelle, chair of the GFXC, said in a phone interview. He added the working group doesn’t get a final say over Global FX Code regulations. “We’re going to keep an eye on this, and if this message isn’t getting through well enough, then we may need to revisit the actual wording of the principle itself,” he said.

The debate lasted years, likely a byproduct of GFXC’s consensus-based approach. That’s prompting some, including LMAX’s Mercer, to contemplate a more formal regulatory structure. “Going back decades there has been an honor in the market and that’s what the code is trying to be: an honor-driven code,” Mercer said. “But the alternative is regulation. I think it would be tough to regulate, but not impossible.”

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/tensions-flare-over-7-trillion-currency-market-s-trade-dropouts-1.1644244

>>86128 pb

SAM171 USAF C-40B north from El Paso after a ground stop and heading back to Peterson AFB

Inbound to El Paso from Ft. McCoy, WI ground stop earlier and depart from Peterson this morning

SPAR65 USAF G6 departed New Delhi-Gandhi Int'l Airport after arriving from Manila on 0824

This is US Indo-Pacific Command head Admiral John Aquilino leaving after a conference in Delhi

US Indo-Pacific Command's Chief Concerned Over China's Intent Behind Military Expansion

Speaking at Observer Research Foundation event, Admiral John C Aquilino, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, showed concern over China's military expansion. Head of the US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral John C Aquilino on Wednesday expressed concern over China's military expansion which is being termed as the largest military build-up in history since the second world war.

Aquilino expressed apprehensions over Beijing's larger aircraft carrier programmes while speaking at an Observer Research Foundation event on "The India-US Partnership: Securing the 21st Century" in New Delhi"

"Entire Chinese way forward with regard to military expansion, the largest military build-up in history since WWII, both conventional and nuclear in all domains. I don't think I will try to explain what their intent is but trying to understand their intent is a little concern," said Admiral Aquilino. He said that the Chinese aircraft carrier programme has seen the largest growth and what they intend to do with much larger carriers is definitely a matter of concern.". Aquilino also went on to say that the articulation of defensive capabilities is what the world continue to hear and it has also been seen that words from the People's Liberation Army do not meet their deeds, which makes things more worrisome. However, Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat also expressed India's concerns over the increasing nuclear arsenal of northern as well as western neighbours.

moar

https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/us-news/us-indo-pacific-commands-chief-concerned-over-chinas-intent-behind-military-expansion.html