Bloomberg

2021-02-17 14:26:11 Bitcoin's incredible rally shows little sign of abating. The cryptocurrency rose almost 6% on Wednesday, jumping past $51,000 for the first time. It's surged fivefold this year. https://bloom.bg/3rYQEWI

President Biden plans to "recalibrate" the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia. It's another sign that the U.S. is reassessing the close ties to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman that were forged under Trump. https://bloom.bg/2NgUifV

Document shredding. Risky trades. A family divided. At 93 years old, Beverley Schottenstein decided her JPMorgan financial advisors needed to pay—even though they were her own grandsons. https://bloom.bg/3bcXNvF Open / Comment

2021-02-17 06:40:29 Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway trimmed its Apple holdings and revealed three stakes it snapped up in secret, according to new filings. http://bloom.bg/2ZnaIWr

Kim Jong Un's wife made her first public appearance in a year, ending an unusual absence that stoked speculation about her condition during the pandemic. http://bloom.bg/2NzuqLS

In a matter of days, a cold blast in the U.S. froze natural gas pipelines, sent electricity prices skyrocketing and forced Texas's grid operator to plunge millions of homes into darkness. Here's how extreme cold turned into an energy crisis: http://bloom.bg/3be7hqt Open / Comment

2021-02-16 14:48:40 From real estate and Bitcoin to cows and beehives, every investment gets tallied. Switzerland offers a rare real-world example of how wealth taxes can rake in cash for governments. https://bloom.bg/2Zi9eg8

For Masayoshi Son, these days are even better than the dot-com bubble. Shares in the Japanese billionaire's SoftBank Group surged on Tuesday to the highest close since the company went public in 1994. https://bloom.bg/3dem33j

Some retail power companies in Texas are making an unusual plea to their customers as a deep freeze sends electricity prices skyrocketing: Please, leave us. https://bloom.bg/3dgr1N1 Open / Comment

2021-02-16 05:37:18 Hello Here's what we're reading today:

The biggest oil refineries in America are shutting down because of the arctic conditions that have cut electricity, water and fuel supplies across Texas. The Gulf Coast supplies more than three-fifths of the fuel for the entire U.S. East Coast. https://bloom.bg/2OwtDMf

The WTO chose its first female and first African leader: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The former Nigerian finance minister will be tasked with restoring trust in a global trading system shaken by protectionism and the pandemic. https://bloom.bg/3apIL6w

One thing that makes lockdown easier? A $70,000-a-month beach resort. Wealthy remote workers are fleeing to tropical getaways while waiting for the Covid vaccine to be available back home. https://bloom.bg/3qoqfRT Open / Comment

2021-02-15 14:50:47 The arctic freeze gripping the central U.S. has triggered rolling blackouts in Texas and is ratcheting up pressure on energy prices already trading at unprecedented levels.
https://bloom.bg/2ZjfdRW

A push by Iceland to get Pfizer to conduct a study on vaccines and herd immunity has run into an unexpected snag: The tiny island nation has done too good a job keeping Covid-19 in check. https://bloom.bg/3ajzsoH

And while Bitcoin's rally has seen some extreme moves, it’s not as chaotic as 2017. What's different now? A wider belief that the cryptocurrency will develop into a mainstream asset class and the backing of big investors. https://bloom.bg/2NtEENM Open / Comment

2021-02-15 06:05:17 Japan is assessing damage and restoring power after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck off Fukushima late Saturday. The government said there were no deaths and no incidents reported from reactors. http://bloom.bg/3rSHqez

Bill Gates promised to dump his oil and gas assets. But disentangling the world’s third-largest fortune from fossil fuel hasn’t kept him from investing in other carbon-heavy businesses. http://bloom.bg/3jMUNu5

Home to the world’s second-largest Covid outbreak, life in India seems back to normal. Scientists are puzzled by a steady drop in infections, with daily cases down nearly 90% from the peak, as other countries battle fresh waves. http://bloom.bg/3deD0dK Open / Comment

2021-02-12 14:19:11 EXCLUSIVE: A Pentagon hack in 2010. A breach at Intel in 2014. An FBI warning about malicious chips in 2015.
 
Each of these incidents had two things in common: China and Super Micro Computer Inc., a major U.S. computer hardware company.
 
They shared one other trait. U.S. spymasters discovered the manipulations but kept them largely secret as they tried to counter each one and learn more about China’s capabilities. Read more http://bloom.bg/3qenHWp Open / Comment

2021-02-12 05:38:24 Can you imagine life without Google? That’s the reality facing Australia as the tech giant stands off with the government over a planned law requiring it to pay for news. http://bloom.bg/2MX8ydA

It’s not just you. The creator of Dogecoin, a crypto developed in 2013 as a joke, is baffled by the token’s meteoric rise to $9 billion in market value. http://bloom.bg/3rXUPSP

Since her divorce from Jeff Bezos, MacKenzie Scott has become one of the most consequential philanthropists of her generation. Just last year, she gave away almost $6 billion to charities. http://bloom.bg/3dba0Ux Open / Comment

2021-02-11 14:48:13 Kimbal Musk, the younger brother of Elon Musk, sold $25.6 million of shares in Tesla this week, according to a filing with the SEC. His holding in the electric-car maker, whose board he sits on, is now worth $483 million.
https://bloom.bg/3tLaJ4t

With agricultural prices soaring, metal prices hitting the highest in years and oil well above $50 a barrel, JPMorgan is calling it: Commodities appear to have begun a new supercycle of years-long gains. https://bloom.bg/3dafcYq

German drugmaker BioNTech is retrofitting a former Novartis facility to supply 750 million doses a year of mRNA, the key ingredient in its Covid inoculations. If successful, the facility's output would help bring the pandemic under control. https://bloom.bg/3p866xP Open / Comment

2021-02-11 06:05:57 In his first call with Xi Jinping, Joe Biden voiced concerns about China’s "unfair economic practices," human rights abuses in Xinjiang and restrictions in Hong Kong. http://bloom.bg/3qgtj2s

Where in the world is Jack Ma? The billionaire has been working on his golf game at a secluded island resort as speculation swirls over his fate. http://bloom.bg/3qgtpqQ

Dramatic new footage from the U.S. Capitol storming showed just how close rioters got to Mike Pence and lawmakers. http://bloom.bg/3qc2CM2 Open / Comment