Breakfast Club
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Monday, 5 Oct 2020 Breakfast Club Good morning, Monday. Over the weekend, Donald Trump’s physician admitted to giving a misleading statement about the president receiving oxygen, the latest in a series of contradictory and confusing accounts about Trump’s coronavirus infection. White House physician Sean Conley told reporters Sunday that Trump had received supplemental oxygen on Friday, after saying the previous day that the president hadn’t been treated with oxygen on Friday. He gave the misleading information initially to “reflect the upbeat attitude” of Trump and his doctors. Broadly, White House officials have repeatedly described Trump’s health as improving even while doctors were administering a rising number of drugs. He received Regeneron’s therapeutic on Friday, and later that night began a treatment course of Gilead’s remdesivir intravenously. Trump had been given dexamethasone, his third therapeutic treatment in as many days. Dexamethasone is used to calm an overly active inflammatory response to the infection, one that typically doesn’t start until the virus has been present for some time. Trump receiving it at this stage is a sign that doctors may think the illness is progressing quicker than expected, or that he’d actually contracted it earlier. Later Sunday evening, Trump unexpectedly left the hospital to greet supporters, waving to them from his motorcade in a bid to demonstrate strength. Biden and Harris both tested negative for the virus. On the right, the VIX, or fear gauge, jumped as much as 12% -- the most since Sept. 3 -- on Friday following Trump’s announcement he has the virus. Investors are mulling a series of contradictory and confusing account about Trump’s coronavirus infection and may flee to safe haven assets such as gold and treasuries. Hence, emerging markets must get ready. Moving on to Europe, Bloomberg reported Armenian-backed forces in the breakaway enclave of Nagorno- Karabakh struck a military airport in Azerbaijan’s second-largest city on Sunday in a major escalation of fighting between the former Soviet republics. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev’s office said the missiles that hit Ganca came from neighboring Armenia, an allegation the Armenian Defense Ministry denied. The missile strike killed one civilian and injured 32 others in a densely populated area of the city and did not hit an air base, the Azeri government in Baku said. Nagorno-Karabakh said it attacked the military airport in Ganca in retaliation for Azerbaijan’s bombing of Stepanakert, the enclave’s biggest city. Arayik Harutyunyan, the disputed territory’s president, warned that its forces are now targeting military sites in large cities of Azerbaijan. Another bad news is flowing without relent in the film industry, where a major theater chain is poised to close movie houses in the U.S. and U.K. and the next James Bond adventure has been pushed into April because of the pandemic. 01 Monday, 5 Oct 2020 Breakfast Club Market update: the U.S. equity indices closed lower on Friday with the DOW losing -0.48%, S&P -0.96% and Nasdaq -2.22%. We know the reason. In Europe, things were little bit mixed with FTSE +0.39%, DAX – 0.33% and CAC40+0.02%. At home, the JCI lost -0.87% and foreign outflow persisted. News highlight at home (Bloomberg). The government extends the tax incentives period until Dec. to support the availability of goods and services during the Covid-19 pandemic. It continues to exempt or bear VAT, income tax and import duties on imported goods, raw materials and services by state agencies/institutions, hospitals or other parties, as well as on imported raw materials for the production of Covid-19 vaccines or drugs by the pharmaceutical industry. Civil society coalition starts petition demanding dismissal of Health Minister Terawan (Jakarta Post). The petition which was started on Wednesday, has had 5,772 signatures on Sunday. It says from the beginning, the minister has taken the pandemic lightly and is also unable to overcome issues such as protecting health workers and containing the spread of COVID-19. The Health Ministry announced 3,992 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 303,498. 96 more people have died of the disease, bringing the death toll to 11,151. Lockdowns are unnecessary and can unduly harm the economy – Jokowi (Jakarta Post). Prioritizing health doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing the economy. Jokowi administration was constantly looking to find a “balanced” way to address the outbreak. “So, there is no need to act high and mighty about implementing lockdowns in provinces, regencies or cities because it will sacrifice the people's livelihoods. But we are still serious about preventing the outbreak from spreading further,” Jokowi said. KLBF slashes Covifor (Antivirus) prices by 50% to Rp 1.5mn (Bisnis Indonesia). The price of Covifor products produced by Hetero India, imported by Amarox and marketed and distributed by Kalbe, was previously announced at Rp 3 mn per vial (small bottle). Public works ministry (PUPR) offers private firms Rp21.7t worth of road, bridge projects (Bloomberg). The The proposed infrastructure projects include the Gilimanuk-Mengwi toll road project in the tourism hub of Bali, worth Rp 19.35 tn, and bridge replacement and or duplication across Java Island with a total investment of Rp 2.35 tn. Most of the bridges are of the Callender-Hamilton truss type. Indonesia aims to attract 2.5 mn visitors to its pavilion in Dubai’s World Expo next year (Jakarta Post). The country aims to boost cooperation in trade and investment with Middle Eastern and African countries. Indonesia is set to have a 3,000-square-meter pavilion, joining 192 participating countries that will promote their tourism, culture, economy and technological achievements. v “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso 02 Monday, 5 Oct 2020 Breakfast Club 03 .