Kaohoon Morning Brief – 14 December 2021

1) U.K. confirmed first omicron loss, 2 doses of AstraZeneca or Pfizer less effective

U.K. suffered its first loss from Covid-19 omicron variant on Monday after raising the threat level from 3 to 4 over the weekend. Meanwhile, the results from the University of Oxford published on Monday showed that two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines are less effective against omicron compared to the previous variants.

 

2) Oil prices dropped slightly amid rising concerns of omicron

Oil prices dropped slightly amid rising concerns of Covid-19 omicron variant. In the morning session of Asian trading hours, Brent crude slipped 0.35% to $74.13 per barrel while West Texas Intermediate dipped 0.36% to $71.03 a barrel.

Concerns over omicron escalated after the U.K. reported first death and studies showed that two doses of AstraZeneca or Pfizer were less effective.

 

3) Apple fell short to become $3 trillion company

Apple Inc. is a few steps away from becoming a $3 trillion company. The share price of the world’s most popular smartphone producer opened higher but reversed all gain to close the session at $175.74, down 2% on Monday. Apple needs its share price to reach $182.86 in order to become a $3 trillion company.

 

4) Elon Musk acquired 2.13 million shares of Tesla via stock options

Elon Musk, Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer exercised stock options to buy 2.13 million shares of Tesla after selling another 934,091 shares of the electric vehicle maker worth $906.5 million, according to the filings.