maintains its sector perform recommendation
https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/GILEAD-SCIENCES-INC-4876/
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
Battered Utilities May Morph From Bond Proxy To Inflation Hedge
by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,
The US utilities sector has taken a hammering as bond prices fall, with the sector seeing its tenth largest weekly underperformance versus the S&P on Monday, going back over 30 years.
But utilities (and other low-duration sectors such as energy) may soon see their traditional “bond-proxy” role reversed, and begin to outperform when the market perceives that inflation risks have not gone way.
Sectors such as utilities that have strong and steady cash flows and high ROICs have bond-like qualities that have earned them the moniker of bond proxies. Unfortunately that cuts both ways as when bonds fall, utilities tend to underperform, as has happened recently.
That being said, the correlation between utilities and bonds has been secularly falling over the past three decades, and today sits at an unremarkable ~20% (based on correlation of daily changes). Recent moves may be more of a knee-jerk reaction than a balanced assessment of whether holding low-duration sectors such as utilities and energy is actually a good idea when inflation is elevated.
Utilities, along with energy and health, were the best performing sectors in 2021 to 2022.
Low-duration sectors prospered at a time when inflation was reaching multi-decade peaks and the Federal Reserve had not yet started raising rates.
But utilities et al began to lag as the Fed tightened, and higher-duration sectors such as tech and semis began to lead the rally, later fuelled by OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT 3.5.
The market was essentially giving the Fed a vote of confidence that it would durably bring inflation down, and owning stocks with a high duration was a safe long-term bet. We can see this clearly in the chart below, showing that the sectors with the highest duration saw the greatest outperformance this year, and vice versa.
Inflation is likely to re-accelerate, and at that point utilities and similar sectors may be sought after once more for their low-duration characteristics.
But for now, they are likely to struggle as long as bond prices are falling, and they continue to erroneously be perceived as simply bond proxies.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/battered-utilities-may-morph-bond-proxy-inflation-hedge
New Book Delves Into Hunter's China-Linked Partnership With University Of Delaware
While the general public is well aware of allegations against the Biden family involving international influence-peddling schemes, bribes from Ukrainian oligarchs, and attempts to write off prostitutes on tax returns, major facets of the first family's sphere of wealth and influence have gone largely unreported.
According to a wide-ranging new book by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, who collaborated with researchers from investigative journalist Peter Schweizer's multiple books (perhaps most notably, "Clinton Cash"), the Biden family has a second, virtually unknown institute. And much like the widely-reported Penn-Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania, the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware - established on the same day as UPenn's, resulted in a flood of Chinese money into said institutions.
"The key players at the University of Delaware’s Biden Institute were either Biden family members, people with deep ties to China, or both," writes Marlow.
Modeled after the Clinton Global Initiative, the University of Delaware Biden Institute was referred to as Hunter's "baby" by his aunt and former Joe Biden campaign manager, Valerie Owens (who now chairs the Biden Institute).
On December 11, 2018, the University of Delaware announced that it was naming its public policy school after Vice President Biden. Emails show that this move was orchestrated by members of UD’s Biden Institute. It was on the day of the announcement that Hunter Biden received a text message from his aunt and former Joe Biden campaign manager, Valerie Owens (who chairs the Biden Institute), crediting him for the deepening partnership with between the Biden family and the university: “Bravo Hunter—UD was your baby and you made sure I was part of it.”
The University of Delaware Biden Institute was Hunter’s “baby.” And this was the type of baby the family most certainly was not going to ignore. -Breitbart
What's more, the UD Biden Institute became home to at least 12 future Biden administration appointees, including soon-to-be senior Biden advisor Mike Donilon and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, while UD President Dennis Assanis would be named to Biden's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
But perhaps most intriguing is that soon after forging its partnership with the Bidens, the University of Delaware (UD) disclosed receiving funds from China.
Assanis notably "has deep and long-standing ties to China," according to Marlow, who reports that in addition to serving as the founding director of the US-China Clean Energy Research Center and Clean Vehicle Consortium (CERC-CVC) since 2003, Assanis has served as both a guest professor and an advisory professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) - which has a partnership with the Chinese military, and which has been identified as the source of cyberattacks on American companies.
And then the Chinese funds start flowing...
As Marlow reports;
The University of Delaware had never disclosed receiving funds from China until April 2018, when it accepted over $3.2 million for a contract with an unnamed Chinese entity. This came two months after the Penn Biden Center opened its DC office. Then, in December 2018, UD received $1.9 million from an unnamed Chinese entity. In 2019, UD received another $625,000 from China. In 2020, UD initiated three contracts with the Chinese entities and received over $1 million in funds. In sum, UD has received over $6.7 million from unnamed Chinese sources, including a substantial amount from the Chinese government.
All these funds started flowing to UD after the Biden Institute was announced and increased immediately after the launch of the Penn Biden Center.
In addition to the obvious pay-for-play implications, the influx of Chinese money is even more alarming in light of UD's thirty-seven international partnerships with Chinese universities - including several which are involved in the development of Chinese military technology.
Concern over UD's relationship with Chinese entities is such a concern that on Feb. 8, 2022, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote Assanis to ask him to terminate the institution's academic and research partnership with Xiamen University, an active component of the CCP military-industrial complex, and which allegedly conspired with Huawei to perform corporate espionage against a US semiconductor start-up. According to the report, UD has worked with at least four other universities linked to CCP defense laboratories.
The Clinton model...
For those who don't know, the Bidens are prolific plagiarists. Their institutes at the University of Delaware / UPenn appear to be no exception.
In April 2016, Hunter emailed (and met with) talent agent Craig Gering of the Creative Artists Agency about then-VP Joe Biden's future after he leaves office. According to "confidential notes" taken by Gering, the two discussed the possibility of Hunter serving in the Penn Biden Center's DC office - which Gering described as having a "Focus on foreign policy. In addition to the institute at U of Penn, the school has an existing office in DC that will be expanded to house a DC office for VP Biden (and Mike, Hunter and Steve?). Operates like The Clinton Global Initiative without the money raise."
"Yes," Hunter replied. "in theory that's the way I would like to see it shake out--- BUT please keep this very confidential between us because nothing has been set in stone and there's still a lot of sensitivity around all of this both internally and externally. He hasn't made any decisions and this could all be changed overnight."
And while there may not have been a 'money raise' like CGI, it's now been established that both universities saw an influx of Chinese money following the establishment of the Biden entities.
As Marlow notes;
CGI claims it convenes “established and emerging global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges,” according to its website, but functionally, it was an easy way for the Clintons to reap donor funds to leverage relationships with celebrities and major corporations to boost their profiles all the while promoting their own cultural and political agenda items. Donations to CGI dried up when it came under media scrutiny from Schweizer and others for soliciting millions of dollars from foreign governments and businesses—the same governments and businesses that received favorable treatment from the Obama administration during Hillary’s tenure as secretary of state. -Breitbart
Most recently, CGI rebooted in 2022 (after shutting down in 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost the election and donor funds dried up), and has now set its sights on Ukraine.
The big question then becomes - what did Gering mean by "Wealth Creation" in his email to Hunter, listed after his summaries of the various Biden family matters the two discussed? Was it in relation to the UD/UPenn centers? Was it Hunter's 'art' career that's been the focus of speculation over pay-for-play?
Whatever it was, the Biden family launched several entities as the Clinton charities began to fold up shop, one of which Hunter's CAA pal described as operating "like the Clinton Global Initiative."
* * *
Check out Marlow's new book, Breaking Biden: Exposing the Hidden Forces and Secret Money Machine Behind Joe Biden, His Family, and His Administration.
Accuray Radiation Treatment Delivery System OKd by China
Accuray Incorporated (NASDAQ: ARAY) announced today that the registration dossier for the CNNC-Accuray joint venture Tomo® C radiation therapy system for the Type B market has been approved by the Chinese National Medical Products Administration (NMPA). The new, made in China system, is the first joint venture product and represents an important achievement on behalf of cancer patients, many of whom will need treatment with radiotherapy at least once to cure their cancer, increase the chance of cure or relieve symptoms caused by cancer1.
US plans shift of Merck COVID treatment to commercial market
The U.S. government will stop distributing free doses of Merck & Co's COVID-19 antiviral treatment molnupiravir by the middle of next month and expects it to be sold on the commercial market instead.
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement posted on its website late last week they anticipate transition of the drug, sold under the brand name Lagevrio, from government-managed to traditional commercial distribution in November.
Merck, which developed the drug with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, said in an emailed statement on Wednesday that it needs an updated letter of authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to allow it to start selling the drug commercially.
Molnupiravir was initially hailed as a potential breakthrough when few treatment options were available but was soon eclipsed by Pfizer's rival treatment Paxlovid, which had more impressive data.
It has taken a backseat to Paxlovid in the United States and the EU regulator recommended against the Merck drug's use in the region.
Trial data showed a roughly 30% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths from the illness in people with risk of progression for severe disease with the Merck drug, compared with a roughly 90% reduction in hospitalization for Paxlovid.
It has also been linked to potentially transmissable mutations in the COVID-19 virus, according to a study published in the journal Nature last month. Merck said the study was limited and that it is confident in the clinical profile of the drug.
Molnupiravir's global sales have dropped sharply since last year, when the company booked nearly $5.7 billion in revenue. This year, the company expects sales of the drug to be around $1 billion, and analysts forecast a further drop going forward.
Since authorization, the U.S. government has delivered more than 3.2 million courses of molnupiravir of which more than 1.4 million have been administered, according to ASPR data. That compares with 15.4 million courses of Paxlovid delivered and nearly 10 million used.
Vivos To Provide Spark™ Clear Aligners to National Network of Providers
New Relationships Expected to Add Potentially Significant New Revenue Opportunities for Vivos as well as Airway-Focused Expertise and Potential Cost Savings for Vivos-trained Providers
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