Category: Breaking News

“It was very clear that there could be no better choice for the Axel Springer Award 2021 than the two founders of BioNTech,” said Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer SE, at the start of the awards ceremony in the new Axel Springer building. Within just eleven months, Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin developed the world’s first vaccine against COVID-19 – giving millions of people back the hope of a free life. On Thursday evening, they were honored with the Axel Springer Award for their groundbreaking research, innovative strength and social responsibility. In her acceptance speech, Özlem Türeci said: “This award is a true honor for us, and it is a recognition of our work. However, it is also a recognition for all those who followed this call to action and made the impossible possible – to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in less than a year. (…) However, this award is not only about people. It also illustrates that science and the scientific community can truly make a difference. It also illustrates that joining forces is a tool, in particular if executed on every possible level with a sense of joint commitment and with a sense of urgency.”

In an interview with Mathias Döpfner on stage, the two award winners, who see themselves as “innovators and problem solvers”, spoke about what drives them – and how they read about the cases in Wuhan at their breakfast table in January 2020 and decided to help. When asked how they stay so grounded despite of all their success, Uğur Şahin replied: “We focus on our work. We really love science. We really love working with scientists and trying to find out the truth and coming up with solutions.” In his laudatory speech the Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz described what makes BioNTech so special: “A committed team with world-leading know-how, and two founders who have put their whole heart in this effort and stayed humble in spite of all the success. In a world full of noise and speculation such an attitude is refreshing. And combined with the world-changing results it is extremely impressive.” Surprise guest Hans Hengartner, Professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich and in the Department of Biology at ETH Zurich, who has been a long-time companion of the two laureates, said: “Having an impact on patient’s lives and public health is at the end the greatest gain and holy grail of science. Your dedication and your curiosity combined with the highest ethical standards, your modesty and gratitude make you outstanding scientific leaders.” There were congratulatory messages to the award winners from many parts of the world:

Ugur Sahin, whose firm developed one of the world’s first coronavirus vaccines, believes Europe and US will have the pandemic under control by the end of this summer. It comes amid criticism of the EU’s vaccination drive. Europe will be out of lockdown with the coronavirus pandemic under control by this autumn, the founder of Germany’s BioNTech said on Sunday. Ugur Sahin, whose company developed one of the first vaccines in the fight against COVID-19, told the Welt Am Sonntag newspaper that he believed the latest shutdowns would be the last. “In many European countries and the US, we will probably not need lockdowns by summer’s end,” he said. “There’ll be outbreaks, but they’ll be background noise. There’ll be mutations, but they won’t frighten us.” Sahin, who founded his firm with his wife Özlem Türeci, made his comments at a time when EU leaders are under fire for the bloc’s relatively slow vaccination drive, compared to countries such as the US, the UK and Israel. But he added the problems would prove temporary, insisting 70% of Germans should be vaccinated by the end of September. The husband-and-wife team have been awarded Germany’s Knight Commander’s Cross for their contribution to fighting the virus. Almost 9% of the German population had received at least one vaccine shot as of Saturday. Meanwhile, Britain passed the half-way point with 50% of adults having received at least one dose. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to find ways to speed up the country’s inoculation drive, refusing to rule out buying up Russia’s Sputnik V jab outside of the EU’s joint purchasing scheme. Merkel will hold talks with regional leaders on Monday to decide on whether to scrap plans to gradually reopen the economy as infection rates continue to rise. German authorities say the incidence level is above 100 cases per 100,000 population over a week. That is the threshold above which they say they must impose stricter distancing rules to stop the healthcare system from being overburdened. Bavaria’s conservative premier, Markus Soeder, a likely candidate to succeed Merkel as chancellor after the national election, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper that shutdown measures might need to stay in place for now. “A false move now risks turning this third wave (of the virus) into a permanent wave,” he said. “We have a tool: the emergency brake. It must be applied strictly.”

March 20 (UPI) — The city of Miami Beach declared a state of emergency Saturday over concern about spring break crowds spreading COVID-19 Saturday and the Idaho legislature moved to a recess due to an outbreak among lawmakers. Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber announced an 8 p.m. curfew for the South Beach entertainment district during a Saturday-afternoon news conference and said shore-bound traffic on the city’s causeways would be shuttered. Both measures will be in effect for at least 72 hours, but officials may extend the state of emergency. “As we hit the peak of the peak of spring break, we are quite simply overwhelmed,” City Manager Raul Aguila said, who also said that on Friday night “you couldn’t see pavement and you couldn’t see grass” due to crowding in the area.

March 19 (Reuters) – Investment flows into U.S. equity funds jumped to a five-week high in the week ended March 17, buoyed by optimism over a massive stimulus package and on expectations that the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy stance would remain dovish.

U.S. equity mutual funds pocketed a net inflow of $20.1 billion in the week, which marked a sixth straight week of net buying, data from Refinitiv Lipper showed.

The inflows were led by U.S. small cap funds and mid-cap funds, seeing net purchases of $3.6 billion and $2.1 billion respectively. On the other hand, large-cap funds had an inflow of just $251 million. Among sector funds, investors turned net buyers of tech funds this week, purchasing $832 million, as tech stocks appeared attractive at lower valuations after witnessing sharp selling in the prior weeks. Investors were sanguine ahead of a two-day Fed policy meeting at which the central bank signalled its intent to keep rates near zero until at least 2024, also predicting a fast economic recovery from the pandemic. However, U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday, with banks leading the way after the Fed let expire a temporary capital buffer relief put in place to ease a pandemic-driven stress in the funding mark. Meanwhile, investors bought $9.72 billion in U.S. bond funds in the week, compared with $1.32 billion in the preceding week. U.S. Taxable bond funds had an inflow of $7.9 billion, while U.S. municipal funds saw an inflow of $9.3 billion. Investors turned net buyers of U.S. High yield funds, buying $260 million, after dumping $5.5. billion in the last week.

Washington — The coronavirus pandemic inflicted a “cruel and uneven toll on lives and livelihoods” across the United States, head of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell (pictured) told the Wall Street Journal on Friday. The official stated that the central bank and the government acted together to limit the long-term effects of the “unprecedented” downturn, with more than half of the initial job losses being recovered. The arrival of COVID-19 vaccines has also helped “brighten” the economic outlook, he added.

“The economic recovery remains uneven and far from complete, and the path ahead is highly uncertain,” Powell said in written testimony to the Senate Banking Committee. Powell’s comments are in contrast to the increasing optimism among many analysts that the economy will grow rapidly later this year. That outlook has also raised concerns about a potential surge in inflation and fueled a sharp increase in longer-term interest rates this year. Many economists say they think the Fed’s continued low rates, further government financial aid and progress in combating the viral pandemic could create a mini-economic boom as soon as this summer. “Mr. Powell presumably wants to try to persuade markets that a strengthening economy does not necessarily mean that rates have to rise,” Ian Shepherdson, chief economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, told investors in a note. “Good luck with that when the post-Covid surge in activity become clear.” Financial markets fell modestly in morning trade, with the S&P 500 and Dow stock indexes both down less than 1% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 242 points, or 1.8%.Powell acknowledged the potential for a healthier economy. But he stressed the challenges caused by the pandemic, especially for unemployed Americans.

(Reuters) – Wall Street ended sharply lower on Thursday, with the Nasdaq tumbling 3%, hit by rising Treasury yields and fresh worries about the coronavirus pandemic in Europe. Losses in U.S. stocks accelerated after France’s prime minister imposed a month-long lockdown on Paris and several other regions due to the health crisis. It was the Nasdaq’s steepest one-day drop since Feb. 25. The S&P 500 energy sector index tumbled 4.7% as oil prices fell, in part due to worries about rising COVID-19 cases in Europe. “That last hit was from news of the Paris lockdown. It wasn’t received that well,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. “Here in the United States, we anticipate this big reopening and the virus is looking good, but we are not looking outside of the U.S., and it’s not all good.” The Russell 1000 value index, which is heavily comprised of cyclical stocks such as financials and energy, lost 0.6%, while the Russell 1000 growth index, which includes technology stocks, dropped more than 2%. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasuries crossed 1.75% to hit a 14-month high a day after the Fed projected the strongest growth in nearly 40 years as the COVID-19 crisis winds down. The Fed also repeated its pledge to keep its target interest rate near zero for years to come.. “The Fed just saying they are not going to raise rates until 2023 really means nothing,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York. “The Fed is on the sidelines, but if bond yields keep going up, that is what really hurts the economy.” Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc both dropped more than 3%. Tech and other growth stocks are particularly sensitive to rising yields because their value rests heavily on earnings far into the future, which are discounted more deeply when bond yields rise. A recent $1.9 trillion spending stimulus sparked fears of rising inflation and contributed to the jump in longer-end Treasury yields. Underscoring the staggered recovery in the labor market, data showed the number of Americans filing for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week. A separate report indicated the Philly Fed business index jumped more than expected, to its highest level since 1973. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.46% to end at 32,862.3 points, while the S&P 500 lost 1.48% to 3,915.47. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3.02% to 13,116.17. The S&P 500 and the Dow both closed at record highs on Wednesday. Accenture rose 1% after the IT consulting firm raised its full-year revenue forecast and reported second-quarter revenue above analysts’ estimates, as more businesses used its digital services to shift operations to the cloud. Dollar General Corp dropped 4.65% after the retailer forecast annual same-store sales and profit below estimates, indicating that a pandemic-fueled rush for lower-priced goods may be waning faster than expected. AMC Entertainment climbed more than 3% after the movie theater operator said it would have 98% of its U.S. locations open from Friday. Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 3.69-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.42-to-1 ratio favored decliners. The S&P 500 posted 85 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 213 new highs and 28 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 12.8 billion shares, compared with the 14.2 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.