Huawei Fumes at FedEx as Packages Allegedly Diverted
The trade war is bleeding into new areas in the global economy. Huawei is now mad at FedEx (NYSE:FDX) for allegedy rerouting packages addressed to Huawei from Japan, to the United States without authorization. Huawei says that the parcel delivery company also attempted to divert two more packages addressed to Huawei from Vietnam to the US as well. To prove this, Huawei took screenshots of FedEx tracking data, the veracity of which could not be confirmed by Reuters. FedEx, questioned by Reuters, declined to comment, saying it could not divulge information related to clients. “The recent experiences where important commercial documents sent via FedEx were not delivered to their destination, and instead were either diverted to, or were requested to be diverted to, FedEx in the United States, undermines our confidence,” Joe Kelly, a spokesman for Huawei, told Reuters.
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However, this all may be being blown way out of proportion, as one of the packages was received, Huawei admits, and the other is on its way. FedEx later commented that the packages were diverted in error. Take a Mulligan on that one.
Volkswagen Samsung Battery Deal At Risk
Volkswagen (OTCMKTS:VLKAY) says that it is making changes to a $56B battery purchase plan from Samsung because a deal made with them previously is starting to unravel. The two companies agreed on enough batteries to power 200,000 cars with 100kwh each but as discussion went into the nitty gritty in terms of production and delivery schedules, the two companies started disagreeing, and Samsung cut its pledge to about 20% of what it had previously offered, according to Bloomberg. “VW ultimately needs 300 gigawatt hours of annual battery cell supply and without robust global multi-sourcing contracts this will be impossible,” Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst said. “It’s one thing talking up electric vehicle volume numbers, building the necessary value chain remains a major challenge.” China’s implicit threat to ban exports of rare earth metals to the United States is not helping the situation either.
Back to Huawei, CEO Signals Conciliatory Tone Towards Apple
It’s not all bad though on the trade front. Huawei CEO Ren Zhengei has said that he would oppose any move by the Chinese government to ban competitor Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) from doing business in China, as the United States has already banned Huawei from doing business in America. “That will not happen, first of all,” he said, referring to a possible ban of Apple by Beijing, “and second of all, if that happens, I’ll be the first to protest,” Ren told Bloomberg. “Apple is my teacher, it’s in the lead. As a student, why go against my teacher? Never.” Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) has suspended chip shipments to the Chinese telecom, and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has banned it from using Android, and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has banned Huawei laptops from its online store, as all must fall in line with the US administration’s anti-trade stance or face sanctions, or other consequences.0
Novartis Gets Most Expensive Drug In The World Approved
If you have a genetic disease called spinal muscular atrophy and a whole lot of money, then you’re both too young to read this but you’re still in luck, because now there are two drugs that can treat this horrible, fatal genetic illness. Novartis (NYSE:NVS) just got its gene therapy Zolgensma approved by the FDA, and announced a price tag of $2.1 million for a single treatment. It’s not as expensive as it sounds though, amazingly, since it’s about half the price of chronic therapy for the same disease with a drug called Spinraza. Spinal muscular atrophy is characterized by motor neuron death due to a defective gene which Zolgensma fixes by delivering code for the protein via viral vector to the central nervous system. Still, the astronomical costs of both drugs have analysts wondering how high prices can go before the US healthcare system collapses, if that ever happens.
The US has what is considered to be one of the most wasteful and profligate healthcare systems in the world, with costs getting more and more out of control the more government gets involved. By contrast, Singapore for example has what is considered one of the most efficient healthcare systems in the world, and the fact that a big portion of it is private and governed by market forces rather than bureaucrats is one of the reasons why. Bloomberg ranked Singapore the #1 most efficient healthcare system in the world back in 2014.
As accessories to the robust private market in Singapore, numerous private healthcare businesses are thriving that help medical services market themselves to the public, including Healthmark Private Limited with its website UbiqiHealth, founded by 2 previous clinic owners Nate Wang and Alvin Tang. The boutique agency is regarded as Singapore’s top medical marketer. Apart from providing full-scope digital marketing services for clinics and medical companies, Healthmark also exclusively offers consultancy on adherence to all regulations affecting a medical institution’s publicity in Singapore.
Nigel Farage Theatens to Turn British Politics “Upside Down”
In a signal that the Brexit Party politician would make use of Stranger Things character Eleven to open a portal to another dimension full of Brexit monsters and such, Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party that won big in European Parliament elections, insisted on a space at the Brexit negotiations table lest he turn British politics “Upside Down”. What he wants to negotiate about is unclear, as he favors a no deal Brexit, and there is no need to negotiate over the lack of a deal. You just leave, and that’s it. He said that if the UK does not leave the EU by the new Halloween deadline, the Brexit party would become even more powerful, but this time in the UK parliament itself. “If we don’t leave on that day, then you can expect the Brexit Party to repeat this kind of surprise in the next general election,” he said. It was largely Farage’s pressure on then Prime Minister David Cameron that led to the Brexit referendum that Farage’s side ultimately won, but then did not get the Brexit they were promised. Now they’re angry.
Renault Nissan Fiat Chrysler Anyone Else Want In?
After the sort-of merger between Renault (OTCMKTS:RNLSY) and Nissan (OTCMKTS:NSANY) and the more covalent merger between Fiat and Chrysler (NYSE:FCAU), the two/three companies are looking to merge to make a quadruplet, Renault Nissan Fiat Chrysler Auto, or perhaps they will rename the company to something more compact, like Fiat cars are, if the merger merger actually happens. The combined company would be valued at around $37 billion. Shares of Nissan are up 3% in European trading, and shares of Renault are up 2%, and Fiat Chrysler are up 8.5% in the premarket. So it seems like the markets want the quadruplet.
