$ 461 Million Growth in Medical Walkers Market During 2021-2025 | Featuring Key Vendors Including Besco Medical Ltd., Better Medical Technology Co. Ltd., and Carex Health Brands

Yahoo Finance
How to trade the Suez Canal cargo ship blockage: Morning Brief
Top news and what to watch in the markets on Friday, March 26, 2021.
44m ago
Reuters
BOJ forms panel to help guide central bank digital currency experiment
Set to begin experimenting in how to operate a central bank digital currency, the Bank of Japan said on Friday that it has formed a committee bringing together policymakers and lobbyists from the banking and finance sector to help with the project. "While there is no change in the BOJ's stance it currently has no plan to issue a central bank digital currency, we believe that initiating experiments at this stage is a necessary step," BOJ Executive Director Shinichi Uchida said in opening remarks at the first meeting of the committee held on Friday. The first phase of experimenting with a central bank digital currency (CBDC) will begin in April, and the BOJ aims to draw on the private sector for support and expertise.
8h ago
Reuters
Insight: Canada calling? Hong Kong residents shift billions abroad after clampdown
As China imposed a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong last year after massive protests, residents of the city moved tens of billions of dollars across the globe to Canada, where thousands are hoping to forge a new future. Capital flows out of Hong Kong banks reaching Canada rose to their highest levels on record last year, with about C$43.6 billion ($34.8 billion) in electronic funds transfers (EFT) recorded by FINTRAC, Canada's anti-money laundering agency, which receives reports on transfers above C$10,000. One Canadian lender, Equitable Bank, also told Reuters it had seen a surge in deposits from Hong Kong just after the new law was introduced in June 2020.
8h ago
Bloomberg
Dislodging the Suez Canal Ship Said to Need at Least a Week
(Bloomberg) -- Supply Lines is a daily newsletter that tracks trade and supply chains disrupted by the pandemic. Sign up here, and subscribe to our Covid-19 podcast for the latest news and analysis.Efforts to dislodge the massive Ever Given container vessel blocking the Suez Canal will take until at least next Wednesday, longer than initially feared, raising the prospect that the incident will trigger disruptions across global supply chains from oil to grains to cars.The task of re-floating the 200,000-ton ship, still firmly wedged across the vital maritime trading route, will require about a week of work and potentially longer, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified. Rescue efforts had initially been expected to last only a couple of days.The extended disruption is going to stretch a container shipping industry that’s already operating at full capacity, threatening more delays for European companies that rely on a steady flow of Asian imports and for consumers who’ve grown fond of fast online purchases during the pandemic.The world’s busiest lane for merchandise trade -- between the U.S and China –- has faced nearly five months of bottlenecks at the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that have importers waiting several weeks for arriving cargo or exporters unable to secure empty steel boxes needed for shipments abroad. The fear now is that Suez incident will exacerbate Europe’s logistical challenges -- canceled sailings, container shortages and higher freight rates.“The delays are likely to increase costs, adding to already widespread inflationary pressure on supply chains,” said Chris Rogers, lead trade analyst for S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Panjiva. “The short-term ripple effects will be an increased potential for stock-outs in consumer goods and the risk that just-in-time manufacturing supply chains that had already been roiled by Brexit and commodity shortages may face further interruptions.”Work since Tuesday by tugs and diggers -- equipment that’s tiny in comparison with the 400-meter long vessel -- has so far been unsuccessful, and the queue of waiting oceangoing carriers loaded with billions of dollars worth of oil and consumer goods has risen to more than 300 from 186 on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg data.Should cargo need to be unloaded from the stranded vessel, or extensive repairs made to the canal itself, “then the downtime could certainly last at least two weeks,” according to Randy Giveans, senior vice president of Equity Research for Energy Maritime at Jefferies LLC.Vessels that had been scheduled to traverse the Suez Canal are beginning costly and time-consuming detours around Africa as the shipping sector scrambles to keep deliveries moving. Shipping costs are also surging -- the price to ship a 40-foot container from China to Europe has almost quadrupled from a year ago -- adding a new burden to global supply chains already reeling from a pandemic that has sowed havoc with shortages and delays.South Korea’s HMM Co. instructed a container ship that departed the U.K. on Monday to divert around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the gridlock. At least seven liquefied natual gas vessels have had routes adjusted away from the canal, according to Kpler analyst Rebecca Chia, and major shippers including A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S and Hapag-Lloyd AG are also studying detours.The canal blockage is currently holding up about 2 million barrels a day of oil flows, according to Braemar estimates, and snarling bulk carriers that ship products from wheat to iron ore. Global manufacturers are already preparing for delays to both the shipment of finished goods, and materials that are crucial to their production lines.A list of cargo aboard a HMM Co. vessel waiting outside the canal to return to Asia gives an indication of the sweep of industries caught up in the disruption, with goods on board including wood, machinery, frozen beef, paper, powered milk, furniture, beer, frozen pork, auto components, chocolate, and cosmetics.Caterpillar Inc., the largest U.S. machinery producer, said it is facing shipment delays and even considering airlifting products if necessary, while Japan’s Envision AESC, a supplier of electric vehicle batteries, said it relies on the Suez Canal for some imports of electrodes.Mark Ma, owner of Seabay International Freight Forwarding Ltd., a company in Shenzhen that handles Chinese goods including toys, pillows and mattresses sold on platforms such as Amazon.com Inc., said his company has 20 to 30 containers on the ships waiting to cross the blocked canal.“If it can’t be resumed in a week, it will be horrible,” said Ma. “We will see freight fares spike again. The products are delayed, containers can’t return to China and we can’t deliver more goods.”Vessels currently outside of the Red Sea planning to use the Suez Canal will need to decide whether to reroute around Africa, adding 10 to 15 days to their voyages, according to Giveans. Ships queuing on either end of the Suez Canal area are likely to wait to determine how long the passage will be closed before taking a decision to divert, he said.For the container lines that haul about 80% of global merchandise trade, a prolonged bottleneck between Europe and Asia risks throwing off ship schedules set months in advance so importers can plan their purchases, manage inventories and keep store shelves stocked or production lines running.The problem compounds with every day container ships have to wait. Vessels that arrive several days late can’t be emptied and reloaded in time to make the scheduled return journey. That leads carriers to cancel trips -- further constraining capacity and pushing up freight rates.Rerouting around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope would add 6,000 miles to the journey and something like $300,000 in fuel costs for a supertanker delivering Middle East oil to Europe. Shipbrokers report that oil traders are increasingly hiring tankers with “just-in-case” options to sail around Africa should the blockage drag on. Vessels traveling empty to collect oil in northwest Europe could get delayed, forcing the region’s exporters to seek alternative carriers, according to people involved in that market.What a Long Suez Closure Means for the Oil Price: Julian LeRates to charter oil tankers in some regions have climbed higher since the blockage first appeared. Suezmax vessels, which typically haul 1 million barrels through the canal, are now fetching about $17,000 a day, the most since June 2020. If more ships are forced to sail around the southern tip of Africa, that will boost rates as journey times increase.(Updates throughout with details)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
3h ago
Yahoo Finance
Snapple is getting a huge makeover, owner Keurig Dr. Pepper CEO reveals
Keurig Dr. Pepper chairman and CEO Bob Gamgort tells Yahoo Finance Live the iconic Snapple brand will get a new look soon.
16h ago
FX Empire
S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Testing 50 Day EMA
The S&P 500 has fallen a bit on Thursday after initially trying to rally. By doing so, the market has pulled back to reach towards the 50 day EMA.
19h ago
Bloomberg
Biggest Bitcoin Fund’s Woes Worsen as Discount Hits Record
(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin’s worst selloff since December is dealing a particularly harsh blow to the biggest fund tracking the cryptocurrency.The $29.4 billion Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (ticker GBTC) has dropped about 20% so far this week, nearly double the decline in the world’s largest cryptocurrency. GBTC closed over 14% below the value of its underlying holdings on Wednesday as a result -- a record discount, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The dislocation has deepened despite Grayscale Investment LLC parent Digital Currency Group Inc.’s plans to purchase up to $250 million worth of GBTC shares.The GBTC free-fall highlights the extent to which the latest leg of the retail-driven crypto craze is cooling. The trust has persistently traded at a premium to its net asset value since launching, with investors willing to pay up for a piece of Bitcoin as it rockets higher. However, given that GBTC doesn’t allow redemptions -- meaning that trust shares can only be created, not destroyed like in conventional funds -- the number of shares outstanding has ballooned to a record 692 million. With Bitcoin’s price now stalling, that’s created a supply and demand imbalance as accredited investors in the trust seek to offload their shares in the secondary market“GBTC has a fixed supply and acts like a leveraged play on Bitcoin,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said. “As price goes down, sentiment goes down, GBTC is going to fall further than Bitcoin. Same thing happens on the way up.”Bitcoin fell for a fifth day on Thursday to a two-week low, its longest losing streak since December. Demand for crypto has sank amid emerging signs that retail traders are retreating from markets, with everything from call options volume to GameStop Inc. shares to the mega-popular Ark Innovation exchange-traded (ticker ARKK) fund faltering.In addition to individual investors stepping back, demand from institutions may be cooling with the debut of several Bitcoin ETFs in Canada. While U.S. regulators have yet to approve the structure, high-profile issuers such as Fidelity Investments have filed plans.“The addition of ETFs in Canada likely pulled away some capital from GBTC,” Seyffart said. “Mainly institutional money, because most retail can’t easily buy a Canadian ETF.”(Updates with Digital Currency Goup’s plans to buy GBTC shares in the second paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
20h ago
Reuters
Burberry becomes first luxury brand to suffer Chinese backlash over Xinjiang
Burberry has lost a Chinese brand ambassador and its hallmark tartan design was scrubbed from a popular video game, becoming the first luxury brand assailed by the Chinese backlash to Western accusations of abuses in Xinjiang. China on Friday sanctioned organisations and individuals in the United Kingdom over what it called "lies and disinformation" about Xinjiang, days after Britain imposed sanctions for alleged human rights abuses in the western Chinese region. Burberry is a member of the Better Cotton Initiative, a group that promotes sustainable cotton production which said in October it was suspending its approval of cotton sourced from Xinjiang, citing human rights concerns.
7h ago
Reuters
Exclusive: Goldman sends Indian employees back home as local COVID-19 cases rise
Goldman Sachs told all but critical staff at its operation in Indian IT capital Bengaluru to return to working from home on Wednesday, reversing moves to get staff back to one of its biggest global offices as coronavirus infections in the city grew. India earlier reported a new variant of the coronavirus as new infections and deaths nationwide hit the highest this year, prompting the imposition of new restrictions in some states. Bengaluru reported 1,280 new infections on Tuesday, according to city data, and several sources at Goldman told Reuters that teams had been told to return to working from home ahead of an all-office townhall call at 2 p.m. local time on Thursday.
2d ago
CoinDesk
Bitcoin Traders Brace for Record $6B in Options to Expire Friday
The record bitcoin options expiry could be bearish overhang on the market.
2d ago
Reuters
Chinese tech stocks slump as U.S. SEC begins rollout of law aimed at delisting
Shares in dual-listed Chinese companies fell sharply on Thursday in Asia after the U.S. securities regulator adopted measures that would kick foreign companies off American stock exchanges if they do not comply with U.S. auditing standards. The move by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adds to the unprecedented regulatory crackdown in China on domestic technology companies, citing concerns that they have built market power that stifles competition. The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in December, is aimed at removing Chinese companies from U.S. exchanges if they fail to comply with American auditing standards for three years in a row.
2d ago
FX Empire
Why Shares Of GameStop Are Down By 20% Today?
The stock continues to move lower after the rally in early March.
2d ago
Reuters
Mastercard resists compound interest on $19 billion UK class action
Mastercard Inc on Thursday pushed back against attempts to add compound interest to a 14 billion-pound ($19.2 billion) British consumer class action during a specialist court hearing to certify and agree the scope of the historic case. On the first day of a two-day hearing at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), a Mastercard lawyer said that common law did not assume that interest would accrue on a compound basis on such claims. "The law is not the same as economic theory," he said.
1d ago
Reuters
Oil prices rise 2% on fears Suez blockage may last weeks
TOKYO (Reuters) -Oil prices reversed a sharp sell-off a day earlier to rise about 2% on Friday on mounting fears that it could take weeks to dislodge a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal, which would squeeze supplies of crude and refined products. Prices, however, were still headed for a third consecutive weekly loss, with the outlook for demand dented by fresh coronavirus lockdowns in Europe. Brent crude was higher by $1.09, or 1.8%, at $63.04 a barrel by 0750 GMT, after dropping 3.8% on Thursday.
9h ago
Coin Rivet
Latest Ripple price and analysis (XRP to USD)
Ripple’s XRP token has been rocked this week by a market-wide sell-off that has seen it lose 17% of its value in three days.
19h ago
Bloomberg
H&M, Nike Face Boycotts in China as Xinjiang Dilemma Deepens
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. and European retail brands in China are suddenly facing a dilemma: Embrace cotton from the contentious Xinjiang region and come under attack in the West, or reject it and risk a boycott in the world’s second-biggest economy. Investors are getting spooked by that prospect, sending shares lower on Thursday.Hennes & Mauritz AB was blasted by the Communist Youth League and the People’s Liberation Army Wednesday after social-media users dug out an undated company statement about accusations of forced labor in Xinjiang. Calls to boycott the Swedish retailer, which gets 5.2% of its global revenue in China, quickly spread to include Nike Inc., which has previously said it won’t source products from the region due to labor concerns. Brand ambassadors in China for both firms cut ties with the companies in recent days.“Want to make money in China while spreading false rumors and boycotting Xinjiang cotton? Wishful thinking!” the Communist Youth League said in a post on Weibo, referring to H&M. One of the PLA’s Weibo accounts called H&M’s statement “ignorant and arrogant.”The Communist Party’s move to target companies over Xinjiang shows President Xi Jinping’s government is seeking to impose real costs for governments and businesses that criticize China’s human-rights record as the Biden administration aims to unite allies over the issue. Beijing slapped reciprocal sanctions on European Union officials on Monday, following coordinated sanctions and statements by the EU, U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.H&M shares fell as much as 4.4% in Stockholm. Nike shares fell as much as 5.4% in New York before the start of regular trading Thursday.At a testy meeting between top diplomats of the U.S. and China last week, Politburo member Yang Jiechi made extended remarks attacking the U.S.’s human-rights record and calling on the world to stop interfering in China’s “internal affairs.” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, who this week hit the U.S. and Europe over everything from the slave trade and Nazism to the killing of George Floyd and alleged hoarding of coronavirus vaccines, on Thursday called the Xinjiang forced labor allegations “malicious lies fabricated by anti-China forces.”China Lashes Out at U.S. Allies in Bid to Thwart Biden Strategy“We can’t tolerate any forces bringing shame on and tarnishing the pure and flawless Xinjiang cotton,” Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Commerce Ministry, said at a separate briefing Thursday. “Chinese consumers have acted in response to the so-called business decisions made by some companies based on false information. We hope the relevant companies will respect market laws, correct wrong practices, and avoid the politicization of commercial issues.”Chinese firms are now rallying around Xinjiang, which produces more than 80% of the country’s cotton. Anta Sports Products Ltd., the Chinese sneaker giant that owns the Fila brand, and Hongxing Erke Sports Products Co. were among companies that issued statements saying they will continue to source the material from the region. Shareholders rewarded firms that displayed patriotism, while punishing those with links to Western brands.Anta shares surged as much as 11% in Hong Kong, the top performer on the benchmark Hang Seng Index. Xinjiang LaChapelle Fashion Co. was at one stage up almost 40%. Nike supplier Topsports International Holdings Ltd. closed 12% lower for its worst-ever drop.H&M China said on Wednesday that its global supply chain complies with sustainability commitments, and doesn’t reflect any political position. The company also said it doesn’t purchase cotton directly from suppliers, but uses third parties.But those remarks did little to stem the growing anger in China. H&M no longer appears on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s e-commerce platform Tmall, where the retailer had previously had a presence. Alibaba didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.“Companies caught in the crossfire can be heavily penalized, as they end up in China on the wrong side of consumer preferences, social media commentary, and e-commerce platforms,” said Luca Solca, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “European mass fashion retailers are torn between this and having to stand on the right side of western consumers’ concerns.”“It’s concerning,” said Mark Tanner, managing director of Shanghai-based marketing and branding firm China Skinny. “If the bipolar trajectory continues, brands will need to make more conscious decisions weighing up how consumers in China will react versus those in the West.”Xinjiang has steadily become a heated issue between China and the West as reports emerged that more than one million mostly Muslim ethnic Uyghurs were put in reeducation camps, prompting the U.S. and others to accuse Beijing of genocide. China has denied the accusations, with officials regularly calling it “the biggest lie of the century.” Beijing says its policies are lifting the region out of poverty, boosting the economy and countering extremism.In January, the Trump administration ordered a halt to all imports of cotton and tomato paste from Xinjiang. That came a month after the U.S.-based Center for Global Policy published a report alleging new evidence from Chinese government documents and media reports of hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs being forced to pick cotton by hand through coercive state-mandated labor.Biggest Cotton ConsumerChina, the world’s largest cotton consumer and also the biggest exporter of textile products, imports between 2-3 million tons a year to meet demand, largely from U.S. and Brazil. Xinjiang cotton is considered the highest quality, and Chinese government buys it from farmers to fill state reserves.“Given the potential risks of punishment, all textile exporters to U.S. and Europe markets require suppliers free of Xinjiang cotton,” said Wang Qianjin, a senior analyst with Shanghai International Cotton Exchange.Companies like H&M are now finding themselves caught in the middle over the issue. In the undated statement, H&M said it’s “deeply concerned by reports from civil society organizations and media that include accusations of forced labor and discrimination of ethnoreligious minorities.”The Beijing Youth Daily’s Weibo page listed a number of brands that have made remarks about boycotting Xinjiang cotton, including Inditex SA’s Zara and Adidas AG. The Global Times, a party newspaper, also mentioned Burberry Group Plc.China’s Online Army Shows Foreign Brands Who’s in ChargeInditex previously said in a statement that it was aware of allegations of social and labor malpractice in supply chains in Xinjiang, and that it has zero tolerance for forced labor. While an excerpt of the statement was still available on the Google search engine Thursday, the link to the full statement was cut.Inditex, Nike, Burberry and Adidas weren’t immediately available to comment.Marks & Spencer Group Plc became one of the first U.K. retailers to sign a pledge in January to exit the region by a coalition of civil society organizations and labor unions. M&S said in a statement at the time that 100% of the cotton for M&S clothing is “sustainably sourced and M&S is already one of the few retailers that does not work with any supplier in or source from Xinjiang.” The company hasn’t operated stores in China since 2016, and franchises in that market shut down in 2018.U.K. online fashion retailer Boohoo Group Plc has forbid suppliers from using cotton from the Xinjiang region, and the company is considering asking them to provide certificates that they aren’t doing so, Andrew Reaney, the company’s head of ethical compliance, said in an interview.Reaney told a parliamentary inquiry in November that Boohoo was shocked by what has been happening in Xinjiang, and all its suppliers confirmed they don’t have links to the region. The retailer doesn’t operate in China.Chinese celebrities who previously represented H&M issued statements saying they no longer have any ties with it, adding they oppose “attempts to smear China.” Wang Yibo, a popular actor, announced he would cease all cooperation with Nike as he strongly opposes any comments and behavior that brings shame on China.And Chinese companies like Xtep International Holdings Ltd., China’s third-largest sportwear maker, are making it clear where they stand.“As a national brand, we’ve been using Xinjiang cotton with an annual consumption of thousands of tons,” Xtep said in an official statement Thursday. “The quality of Xinjiang cotton is world class and we’ll keep using it in the future.”(Updates with shares in first paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
23h ago
Bloomberg
China Tech Giants Dive as Delisting Threat Joins Crackdown Fears
(Bloomberg) -- Tech giants from Tencent Holdings Ltd. to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. dived after U.S. regulators revived threats to toss China’s largest corporations off U.S. bourses, compounding concerns of a widening domestic antitrust crackdown.Alibaba slid almost 4% in Hong Kong Thursday, joining a U.S. selloff that wiped at least 20% off Chinese tech names including Tencent Music Entertainment and iQiyi Inc., Baidu Inc.’s Netflix-like streaming subsidiary. The Hang Seng Technology Index slid to its lowest since November before ending down just 1.2%.Tencent, which on Wednesday sought to allay investor concerns about the fallout to its fintech division from growing regulatory pressure, slid 2.8% and has now shed more than $200 billion of market value since a January peak. Following Tencent’s fourth-quarter results, brokerages including Goldman Sachs, Macquarie and HSBC cut their price targets on Asia’s largest company for the first time in at least a year.Read more: Tencent Dives Despite Assurances on China Antitrust FalloutBaidu, the search giant that debuted in the city only on Monday, finished 9.7% lower while Alibaba-rival JD.com Inc. lost 3.6%. Food delivery giant Meituan, which reports 2020 results Friday, shed 1.6%. The losses followed a warning from the Securities and Exchange Commission that it’s taking steps to force accounting firms to let U.S. regulators review the financial audits of overseas companies -- the penalty for non-compliance being ejection from exchanges.That threat worsened sentiment in China’s giant tech sector just as Beijing is widening a crackdown on the country’s largest corporations, fearful of their growing clout after years of relatively unfettered expansion.“Sentiment got hurt after Chinese technology stocks slumped overnight on Nasdaq,” while local reasons accelerated the selloffs, including a lack of upside surprises in Tencent earnings and worries about government regulation on the sector, said Daniel So, a CMB International analyst.On Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported China’s government has proposed establishing a joint venture with local technology giants that would oversee the lucrative data they collect from hundreds of millions of consumers. The preliminary plan, which is being led by the People’s Bank of China, would mark a significant escalation in regulators’ attempts to tighten their grip over the country’s internet sector. Tencent executives sought to tamp down the impact of Beijing’s heightened scrutiny after reporting revenue growth that barely met expectations.“The major reason is still valuation,” said Linus Yip, First Shanghai Securities analyst. “Even after such a big drop, the sector is still not cheap. I don’t think the tech stocks will resume upward trend any time soon. Any bad news will trigger further selloffs, be it Nasdaq plunge or news about China’s regulation.”Read more: Tencent Dives Despite Assurances About China Antitrust FalloutFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
1d ago
FX Empire
E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Trader Reaction to 32365 Sets the Tone
The direction of the June E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday is likely to be determined by trader reaction to 32365.
1d ago
Investor's Business Daily Video
Option Trade: Adding Bullish Exposure To Your Portfolio With Microsoft Stock
For this option trade, we're going to take a look at a bull call spread in Microsoft. With the stock showing an implied volatility reading that's the lowest it's been in twelve months, a bullish trade in Microsoft makes for a good way to add long exposure to your portfolio.
2d ago
Bloomberg
Massive Cargo Ships Are Outrun by Nimble Fleet in New Speed Race
(Bloomberg) -- For years, container shipping was a rough business. Margins were minuscule, the risks were high and growth prospects bobbed with the unpredictable tides of global trade. That it's now generating record profits is one of the great economic surprises of the pandemic.The transformation over the past year also debunks a premise expressed loudly by pundits and politicians in recent years that U.S.-China trade, the most vital route of international commerce, was heading inexorably down a path of steady decline. The world wants more from China Inc. today than ever, and — as illustrated by the containers piled high on a ship stuck in the Suez Canal this week — companies in the U.S. and Europe need it faster than before.Accelerated by more online shopping, the demand is so strong that customers of ocean freight are increasingly willing to pay up for it, too. At Matson Inc., a Honolulu-based company with a fleet of smaller, nimbler vessels that charge a premium over the rates to transport on much larger ships, the need for a quick Shanghai-to-Los Angeles service became so great that executives decided to add a second weekly run last year and make it a permanent offering.“I was getting calls at 2 in the morning from customers saying ‘Look, you’ve got to do something, you’ve got to help me,”’ Matthew Cox, Matson's CEO, said in an interview.Matson’s main business is shuttling staple goods to Hawaii and Guam and it ranks outside the top 20 largest container lines. But its stock jumped almost 40% last year and the industry as a whole is healthier than ever, topping more than $200 billion in estimated revenue in 2020. It’s conceivable that the largest players including Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S and China’s Cosco Shipping Holdings Co. ended a tumultuous year with their most profitable quarter to date.Another $1.9 trillion in U.S. fiscal stimulus may keep the good times going in 2021. Maersk CEO Soren Skou said on Tuesday that “we have to expect that some of that money will be used to buy goods that need to be transported.”Still, running full steam has revealed how temperamental the backbone of the global trading system is when stretched: Crews are overworked, thousands of containers have tumbled overboard in high seas and the vessel blocking Suez threatens wider economic problems if it snarls traffic for more then a few days.Read More: Suez Canal Snarled With Giant Ship Stuck in Top Trade ArteryBeyond the setbacks, ocean freight companies have been propelled by a confluence of factors. First, governments from Australia to Belgium kept consumers flush with cash and their financial systems liquid. Then China’s factories and American consumers recovered quickly from last year’s initial shocks and emerged from three years of supply-and-demand turmoil — a U.S.-China trade war followed by the pandemic — still intertwined.“China remains the manufacturing floor of the world,” Cox said in early March. “There are problems that are real and need to be dealt with, but it doesn’t change the fact that China has built a very capable network that in the short run people will find very difficult to replace.”For six decades before Covid-19, U.S. household spending on goods declined proportionately as Americans spent more on services. That trend flipped in 2020, to the tune of a $523 billion increase in merchandise purchases, McKinsey & Co. calculates. “All the freighters and transport assets were more or less sucked up by the strong transpacific trade lane,” said Ludwig Hausmann, a partner in McKinsey’s Munich office. “China right now is unbeatable.”In Washington and in European capitals, politicians vilified supply chains that extended to state-managed economies like China or Vietnam.But talk to retailers and manufacturers dependent on Asia and it becomes clear the crisis reinforced those links, serving as a reminder to diversify suppliers and proving eulogies to globalization were premature. Shipping and inventory carrying costs have surged, but not enough to avoid new supply risks ranging from weather and tariffs to disease.Trade’s Resilience“Firms have basically decided that they can manage that and still pursue these efficiency gains,” said Robert Koopman, chief economist at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization. “That helps explain why trade has been resilient.”Ask Heath Pittman about the crisis and he’ll tell you about three months he spent in Chicago ensuring freight kept moving so shelves stayed stocked at Rural King, an Illinois-based chain of about 125 general-merchandise stores in small-town America.Rural King’s international logistics manager used 10 times as many 40-foot-long containers to import lawnmowers from Vietnam in 2020 than the year before. Pittman wasn’t going to be caught short in 2021 either, importing nearly triple last year’s number of containers of mowers. A consolidation facility in Vietnam will open in June, complementing five already in China, aiming to ensure enough products are always available.“That’s a lot of costs for us and that’s a lot of risk,” Pittman said. “But the overwhelming positives that we get for our customers, we’ve determined that is worth more than being overbought.”Demand and supply both were challenges last year for Polaris Inc., the maker of snowmobiles, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles that had, in two strokes of pre-pandemic serendipity, already started reinforcing its supplier base a few years earlier before rebranding in 2019 to “Think Outside.”Behind nearly 3,600 Polaris dealers is a production network feeding factories in Asia, North America and Europe. Making a single Polaris recreational vehicle involves as many as 2,000 parts, an achievement when about 10% of suppliers at any given time were under some sort of Covid-related duress, said Ken Pucel, executive vice president for global operations and engineering.The Medina, Minnesota-based company adjusted assembly lines to make products based on what parts were available. It used more artificial intelligence and digital technology. It dispatched an employee to Los Angeles to run an operation usually left to logistics providers — the flow of container imports. “Port congestion is one of our largest supply chain issues today,” Pucel said.Transpacific snarls have also reached Europe, where Düsseldorf-based XSTAFF GmbH, a purchasing network for retailers and wholesalers, chartered its own cargo ship in February to help ensure members could import goods from Asia. Rates for a 40-foot container from China to Europe are hovering around $8,000, nearly quadruple the cost a year ago, and probably will stay above $5,000 at least through June, XSTAFF Chairman Bodo Knop said. “The demand side is much bigger than the supply side,” he said.Such imbalances will eventually level out. While goods trade won’t likely to return to its height in globalization’s heyday a few decades ago — expanding twice as fast as the world economy — the WTO’s Koopman expects a return to the long-term average of 1.4 times global growth.E-commerce will keep fueling that. “A lot of people for the first time ever experienced the convenience of clicking a button and having a product show up at their door,” said Ryan Petersen, founder and CEO of Flexport, a San Francisco-based freight forwarder. “That’s an addictive thing.”Petersen reckons better technology will help the shift to more speed and complexity, but doesn’t anticipate “big dramatic shifts” in supply chains or production locations.John McCown, the founder of Blue Alpha Capital, has seen plenty of shipping booms and busts. His mentor was Malcom McLean, the North Carolina trucking executive who pioneered containerization in the 1950s. If a worldwide shock like a pandemic could pick its prey, an industry with high fixed costs like massive ships seemed to be among the slow buffalo. “A real bloodbath is what I was thinking,” McCown said.Instead, container lines stuck together and didn’t repeat price wars that wrecked them in the past. McCown now estimates the carriers he tracks, both publicly held and private ones, will show record net income of $8.4 billion in the fourth quarter. Container services are cheap even at today’s elevated rates, he says, recounting how McLean was friends with Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart Inc. Both enjoyed quail hunting and one time McLean asked the key to the retailer’s success. According to McCown, Walton responded, “We’re just better at moving things around.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
2d ago

S&P Futures

Dow Futures

Nasdaq Futures

Russell 2000 Futures

Crude Oil

Gold

Silver

EUR/USD

10-Yr Bond

Vix

GBP/USD

USD/JPY

BTC-USD

CMC Crypto 200

FTSE 100

Nikkei 225

$ 461 Million Growth in Medical Walkers Market During 2021-2025 | Featuring Key Vendors Including Besco Medical Ltd., Better Medical Technology Co. Ltd., and Carex Health Brands | Technavio

Recommended Stories

How to trade the Suez Canal cargo ship blockage: Morning Brief

BOJ forms panel to help guide central bank digital currency experiment

Insight: Canada calling? Hong Kong residents shift billions abroad after clampdown

Dislodging the Suez Canal Ship Said to Need at Least a Week

Snapple is getting a huge makeover, owner Keurig Dr. Pepper CEO reveals

S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Testing 50 Day EMA

Biggest Bitcoin Fund’s Woes Worsen as Discount Hits Record

Burberry becomes first luxury brand to suffer Chinese backlash over Xinjiang

Exclusive: Goldman sends Indian employees back home as local COVID-19 cases rise

Bitcoin Traders Brace for Record $6B in Options to Expire Friday

Chinese tech stocks slump as U.S. SEC begins rollout of law aimed at delisting

Why Shares Of GameStop Are Down By 20% Today?

Mastercard resists compound interest on $19 billion UK class action

Oil prices rise 2% on fears Suez blockage may last weeks

Latest Ripple price and analysis (XRP to USD)

H&M, Nike Face Boycotts in China as Xinjiang Dilemma Deepens

China Tech Giants Dive as Delisting Threat Joins Crackdown Fears

E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Trader Reaction to 32365 Sets the Tone

Option Trade: Adding Bullish Exposure To Your Portfolio With Microsoft Stock

Massive Cargo Ships Are Outrun by Nimble Fleet in New Speed Race