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    $Grab Holdings (GRAB.US)$ Grab and GoTo should be very concerned with how easily SE was haul in $6.5B offering without much discount. $Altimeter Growth Corp (AGC.US)$
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    $PayPal (PYPL.US)$ stock gains 1.6% in premarket trading after CEO Dan Schulman said the company's "Buy Now, Pay Later" option surged almost 400% Y/Y on Black Friday in an interview on CNBC's "Mad Money" program.
    "That's been one of the stars of the holiday season for us," Schulman said after the close on Tuesday.
    Keep in mind that the company has only been in BNPL for about a year or year and a half, which means the base from a year ago was very small.
    "We did some 750,000 transactions alone in one day on Black Friday," he told Jim Cramer referring to the Friday after Thanksgiving. And the company had more than $1B of process volume through its BNPL option in November. "We did over 1M first-time users for the first time ever in a month," he added.
    When asked if PayPal is a "second fiddle" in BNPL, Schulman said the company has grown to one of the top three or four BNPL players in the world.
    He also said the company is on track for 55M net new actives.
    BNPL rival $Affirm Holdings (AFRM.US)$ rises 1.6% in premarket. $Block (SQ.US)$, which is buying BNPL firm $Afterpay Ltd. (AFTPF.US)$, rises 0.6%. $MasterCard (MA.US)$ gains 1.8% and $Visa (V.US)$ is up 1.4%; both are involved in BNPL.
    In the past year, PayPal's stock decline of 14% contrasts with Square's 1.3% decline, Affirm's 159% surge, and the S&P 500's 28% increase as seen in the graph below.
    Previously (Nov. 28), Affirm Holdings and $Adyen N.V. Unsponsored ADR (ADYEY.US)$ stocks extend gains as PayPal, Visa, other peers slip.
    PayPal stock rises after use of its BNPL service jumps on Black Friday
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    $General Motors (GM.US)$ I happen to be long GM; I think Barra is the goods. However, much of Barra's success to date has involved restructuring "old" GM; she's got GM 'out' of Europe, for example. The plan to transition to BEVs, to leverage autonomy, and to otherwise become more of a 'platform' company is loaded with execution risk, though. Note, GM originally wanted to launch its robo taxi biz in 2019.
    All in, I am happy to stick around for the ride. There is nothing wrong with a CEO aiming high. In fact, I think the auto industry is so subject to disruption, that CEOs have little choice but to innovate or die. I acknowledge the risks in owning GM, but I think it stands a reasonable chance of paying off.
    Best of luck to all.
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    $Lucid Group (LCID.US)$ Lucid apparently lies about its efficiency. It achieves its range by having a heavy battery 20kwh higher capacity than claimed. In optimal case it will survive as a niche car maker. It has no chance to compete against $Tesla (TSLA.US)$
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    $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ So, honest question: Has it just been determined by the market that everyone will be forced to buy a Tesla car, forever? Should we just expect that Tesla will overtake the entire US GDP?
    Asking for a friend.
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    Vaccine makers have thus far been hesitant to tweak existing coronavirus jabs due to fears it could become a game of whack-a-mole, but a super strain may change that sentiment. Testing involving Omicron is already underway among the big manufacturers, with several saying it would take about two weeks to establish whether the new variant renders their shots less effective. On Friday, South Africa's health minister said he expects current jabs to still offer protection against severe illness and death from Omicron, though they might be less effective at preventing infections and milder disease.
    In case it doesn't: $Pfizer (PFE.US)$ and partner $BioNTech (BNTX.US)$ said they would be able to adapt their vaccines within six weeks, and ship initial batches within 100 days in the event of an escape variant. Moderna can meanwhile get a new construct into human trials in less than 60 days, though manufacturing would take a few months. Any new candidates would also need to clear the regulatory process, getting a green light from the Food and Drug Administration.
    In terms of therapeutics, Pfizer's Paxlovid and $Merck & Co (MRK.US)$ molnupiravir are expected to target parts of the virus that are not changed in Omicron, and could be all the more important if vaccine-induced and natural immunity are threatened. Both drugmakers have licensed their antiviral pills to other manufacturers, so they should be widely available if needed. The Biden administration has even ordered 13M courses of the two drugs after seeing significant success in trials at preventing severe illness in high-risk groups.
    Outlook: Regarding manufactured antibodies, Omicron's mutations are likely to render some treatments ineffective, according to Dr. David Ho, professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University. Investors are particularly worried about antibody drugs from $Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN.US)$ and $Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.US)$, but some think $Vir Biotechnology (VIR.US)$ and $AstraZeneca (AZN.US)$ could hold up better against this variant due to the way the antibodies are constructed to target the spike proteins. The new variant might also dull the impact of monoclonal antibody treatment because of those same mutations, said Dr. Wendy Barclay, head of the G2P-UK National Virology Consortium.
    TRIGGER WARNING: What will Omicron mean for antibody treatments?
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    The EU's drug regulator approved the use of $Pfizer (PFE.US)$ - $BioNTech (BNTX.US)$ COVID-19 vaccine for children between the ages of 5 and 11 on Thursday, Reuters reports.
    The European Commission is expected to issue a final decision on Friday.
    "Today's recommendation (...) is clear the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective for young children, and can offer them additional protection," EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said on Twitter.
    The EMA authorized use of Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine for children as young as 12 in May this year.
    Europe is currently at the epicenter of the pandemic and the World Health Organization has warned the continent could see deaths top 2M by the spring unless urgent measures are taken.
    Many EU states are planning nationwide inoculation programs for younger children, although the first of the low-dose paediatric shots will not be delivered until Dec. 20.
    Germany will get 2.4M doses with the first shipment, enough to inoculate about half the country's children aged 5-11, a BioNTech spokeswoman said.
    Polish Health Ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz told Reuters the country is expecting a first batch of 1.1 million doses for the younger age group in December.
    The Czech Republic said it expects to get 300,000 doses, which would cover about a fifth of its younger population.
    The U.S. signed off on Pfizer’s shots in kids earlier this month, followed by other countries including Canada.
    Earlier this month, the EMA said it began evaluating the use of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 to 11.
    EMA gives green light to Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID vaccine for kids aged 5-11
    $General Motors (GM.US)$ E1, a new electric boat racing circuit, is partnering with Brunswick Marine's Mercury Racing to develop the electric outboard and powertrain for the RaceBird boat. The circuit will be launched in 2023 by the founders of Formula E (Formula 1 counterpart) and Extreme E (off-road).
    https://www.e1series.com/3d/racebird
    2
    $Netflix (NFLX.US)$Generally enjoy most of the Netflix shows with multiple episodes. It seems to allow development of the story.
    The movies aren’t quite as good generally. Red Notice was overhyped grade B movie. The Rock wasn’t very good in this role. I remember him doing better in that movie with the kids from another planet and getting them back to their way home. I thought he would be better. Now he wants to do James Bond. Yeah, well, me too.
    Ryan Reynolds has had better movies as well. Hopefully this is not a pattern for Netflix of making consistently mediocre movies.
    I’m enjoying the series titled ‘You’. Good if you like suspenseful tongue in cheek psychopaths.
    cr. kaafi_sanskarii
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    $Benessere Capital Acquisition Corp (BENE.US)$, the SPAC that is run by Patrick Orlando, who is also behind the Trump's media deal with SPAC $Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC.US)$, has been halted for news pending.
    Another SPAC run by Orlando, $Yunhong International Com Usd0.001 (S/R 31/01/2027) (ZGYHR.US)$, on Friday disclosed in an 8-K filing that it plans to dissolve and liquidate after it was unable to consummate a deal within the required timeframe.
    $BENESSERE CAP ACQUISITION CORP C/WTS (TO PUR COM) (BENEW.US)$ warrants initially jumped on the Digital World deal with Trump back in October.
    Benessere Capital also disclosed in an 8-K filing dated Nov. 19 that that the SPAC's audit committee said that the company's financial statements should be no longer be relied upon due to the classification of the company's Class A common stock as temporary equity.
    Orlando's dealings with Trump have come under scrutiny in the wake of a New York Times article last month that claimed there might be potential violations of securities laws in regard to the DWAC SPAC. Last week Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler requesting that the agency investigate the transaction.
    DWAC sister SPAC Benessere Capital halted for news pending
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