The United States is suspending $817 million in trade preferences for Thailand under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) programme due to a lack of sufficient progress in providing the US with “equitable and reasonable market access” for pork products.
The USTR said that despite 12 years of bilateral engagement, Thailand had yet to provide the US with equitable and reasonable market access for pork products, as outlined in a 2018 petition from the National Pork Producers Council requesting removal of GSP benefits.
GSP eligibility will be revoked for approximately one-sixth of Thailand’s GSP trade, representing $817 million in US imports under the GSP programme in 2019. The decision is effective from December 30, and will close the review option for Thailand.
The price of gold rose by Bt100 per baht weight in morning trade on Saturday, the Gold Traders Association reported.
As of 9.23am, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt27,650 per baht weight and selling price Bt27,750, while gold ornaments were priced at Bt27,151.56 and Bt28,250, respectively.
At close on Friday, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt27,550 per baht weight and selling price Bt27,650, while gold ornaments were Bt27,060.60 and Bt28,150, respectively.
The Comex (Commodity Exchange) gold price to be delivered in December rose by US$11.90, or 0.64 per cent, closing at $1,879.90 (Bt58,477) per ounce on Friday. However, the metal price dropped by 1.3 per cent this week and dropped by 0.8 per cent this month.
Gold price rose technically after falling in previous days. Meanwhile, it gained positive sentiment from mass buy-ups of the metal as a safe-haven asset in response to uncertainty over Covid-19’s impact on the economy.
Gold trims monthly loss with dollar slipping ahead of U.S. vote
EconOct 31. 2020One-hundred gram gold bars in an arranged photograph in London, on July 29, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Chris Ratcliffe.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Yvonne Yue Li · BUSINESS, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS
Gold advanced, trimming a monthly loss, as the dollar slipped in the final days before next week’s pivotal U.S. presidential election.
Uncertainty remains high before the Nov. 3 vote, lifting the dollar’s appeal as a safe asset over bullion while a resurgence in coronavirus cases rips through the U.S. and Europe. The spread of Covid-19 is intensifying in the U.S., where new cases topped 86,000 to set a fresh daily record. In Europe, countries have begun to impose new restrictions in an effort to stem the crisis.
Gold “is really so closely tied to the dollar right now that it has no life of its own,” said Janet Mirasola, managing director at Sucden Futures.
Spot gold gained 0.8% $1,882.85 an ounce at 11:06 a.m. New York time, on track for a slight decline this month. Silver increased 1.4%, while platinum and palladium advanced.
Since hitting a record in August, gold’s advance has faltered, with prices losing momentum amid gains for the dollar. Holdings in exchange-traded funds backed by bullion remain close to an all-time high. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was on track for a 1.1% rise this week.
“Increases in risk-off sentiment tend to buoy USD, which weakens gold and silver,” James Steel, chief precious metals analyst at HSBC Securities (USA) Inc., said in a note. “But we think this will only go so far.”
Over the longer term, gold will be supported by European Central Bank monetary policy that probably will include economic stimulus, according to Commerzbank AG analyst Daniel Briesemann.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Vildana Hajric · BUSINESS, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS
U.S. stocks dropped, capping their biggest weekly rout since March, after earnings from the largest tech companies disappointed investors concerned that a slowing economy will damp profit.
The Nasdaq 100 declined about 2.6% after Apple Inc.’s iPhone sales and Twitter Inc.’s user growth both missed estimates, though Google parent Alphabet Inc. jumped after reporting a rebound in advertising. The S&P 500 Index dropped 5.6% over the past five days, the worst-ever loss in the week leading to a presidential election. Ten-year Treasury yields jumped to the highest since June.
The tech slump, coming after an unprecedented run higher this year, is adding to volatility that’s likely to remain elevated heading into next week’s U.S. election. Global equities posted the worst weekly decline since March as lockdown measures in some countries and the lack of an agreement on U.S. stimulus dented sentiment. New U.S. coronavirus cases topped 89,000, setting a daily record.
“Today’s action is a reminder of just how fickle markets can be,” said Yousef Abbasi, global market strategist at StoneX. “The earnings themselves were not awful, but the market has priced tech to near perfection and thus one fly – maybe even a fruit fly – in the ointment could perpetuate a sell-off.”
In Europe, equities edged higher. Tech stocks also faltered as did Danish drug giant Novo Nordisk A/S, whose earnings disappointed analysts. Banks rose after Spain’s BBVA SA and the U.K.’s NatWest Group Plc reported improved pictures for soured loans.
Elsewhere, spot gold prices rose. Crude oil slumped in New York.
Here are the main market moves:
– – –
– The S&P 500 Index decreased 1.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time.
– The Nasdaq 100 Index dropped 2.6%.
– The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.2%.
– The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 1.7%.
– – –
– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose less than 0.1%.
– The British pound increased 0.2% to $1.2954.
– The Japanese yen fell 0.1% to 104.68 per dollar.
– – –
– The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose four basis points to 0.87%.
– Germany’s 10-year yield climbed one basis point to -0.63%.
– Britain’s 10-year yield increased four basis points to 0.26%.
– – –
– West Texas Intermediate crude fell 1.6% to $35.60 a barrel.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Christopher Palmeri · BUSINESS, ENTERTAINMENT, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS, FILM, TV
Netflix raised prices for its most-popular plan for the second time in two years, betting subscribers are willing to pay more for a huge library of shows and movies as the pandemic rages on.
The world’s largest streaming video service is raising the cost of its main U.S. subscription by $1, to $14 a month. That includes full high-definition viewing. The price of its 4K-resolution service increased by $2, to $18. An entry-level tier stays priced at $9.
Netflix shares rose as much as 5.7% on the news and finished Thursday’s session up 3.7% to $504.21. The stock is up 56% this year.
The increases take effect immediately for new customers. The existing base of more than 65 million U.S. subscribers will see the changes over the next two months.
“We’re updating our prices so that we can continue to offer more variety of TV shows and films,” the company said in a statement. “As always, we offer a range of plans so that people can pick a price that works best for their budget.”
In the past, Netflix price hikes have led to a slowdown in subscriber growth, particularly in the more-mature U.S. market. But on a conference call with investors last week, Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters said the company believed it could raise prices, given the large amount of original and popular shows it produces.
Netflix’s fall programming slate includes season four of the British-monarchy drama “The Crown,” focusing on the queen’s relationship with Princess Diana, and Ron Howard’s film version of the J.D. Vance memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close.
“We feel like there is that opportunity to occasionally go back and then ask members, where we’ve delivered that extra value in those countries, to pay a little bit more,” Peters said.
Raising prices in a difficult economic environment isn’t without risks, which Netflix nodded to by keeping its service for budget-conscious subscribers unchanged. Spotify Technology SA, the largest audio streaming service, slid Thursday after reporting subscription-service revenue that missed estimates. That company cited price increases in certain international markets.
The increase in Netflix’s most-popular tier brings its price closer to, but still below, that of AT&T’s HBO Max, whose $15 monthly fee is thought to have discouraged sign-ups by people who didn’t already have HBO.
Netflix last week reported a second-quarter global subscriber number that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Chairman Reed Hastings said he wasn’t concerned about the shortfall, since the global pandemic had prompted more subscribers to sign up early in the year and viewing trends remained strong. The company has over 195 million subscribers worldwide.
Netflix most recently announced higher U.S. prices in January of last year, an increase at the time of $2 a month for the most-popular plan.
McDonald’s faces second bias suit by Black franchisees
CorporateOct 30. 2020Signage is displayed at a McDonald’s restaurant in Lynwood, Calif., on April 27, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Kyle Grillot.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Jeff Green, Peter Blumberg · NATIONAL, BUSINESS, COURTSLAW, RACE, RETAIL McDonald’s was accused of discrimination by the Black franchise operators of four of its restaurants in Tennessee, escalating a legal fight after a group of Black former franchisees claimed in a lawsuit that the company set them up to fail in crime-ridden areas.
The complaint was filed Thursday in Chicago federal court as a class action by the same law firm that brought the previous case two months ago. It follows other cases alleging that the fast-food chain gives preferential treatment to Whites among the ranks of its executives and workers.
McDonald’s said it’s reviewing the complaint filed Thursday and that it has an “obvious interest in franchisees maintaining successful and profitable restaurants.” The company has denied the allegations in the earlier suit that the franchisees were unable to succeed and is asking a judge to dismiss it.
Addressing the two brothers who filed Thursday’s complaint, McDonald’s USA said in a statement that the company has “invested significantly in each of their respective businesses after they ran into business difficulties caused by mismanagement of their organizations.”
One thrust of the complaints is that Black owners are steered toward owning restaurants in Black neighborhoods, which brings higher overhead costs for security, insurance and employee turnover. James Ferraro, a lawyer for the franchisees, said McDonald’s is trying to improve its image with owners and has offered rent reductions and other perks to current Black owners since the Sept. 1 lawsuit filed by 52 former franchisees.
Like the plaintiffs in that case, brothers James Byrd and Darrell Byrd in Thursday’s case are seeking as much as $5 million per store they operate to compensate for their losses. Ferraro said there are currently 186 Black franchisees across the U.S. and that they will be able to join the case or opt out of it according to ground rules set by the court. Ferraro had no immediate comment on the company’s allegation that the Byrd brothers mismanaged their businesses.
McDonald’s said in July that it would step up efforts to fight systemic racism by addressing any hiring biases, increasing the diversity of its leadership and doing more to attract diverse franchisees.
The case is Byrd v. McDonald’s USA LLC, 20-06447, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
PTT Exploration and Production Pcl (PTTEP) has reported improved operating results for the third quarter of 2020 compared to the previous quarter with net profit of US$230 million (Bt7.2 billion), primarily due to higher sales volume and higher average selling price.
Phongsthorn Thavisin, chief executive officer of PTTEP
Phongsthorn Thavisin, chief executive officer of PTTEP, said that the company generated a total revenue of $1.305 billion (Bt40.887 billion) in the third quarter of 2020, up 19 per cent over the $1.095 billion in the second quarter.
The key factor was improvement in sales volume to 344,317 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOED), a 5 per cent growth from 327,004 BOED in the previous quarter. This was supported by higher gas nomination from projects located in the Gulf of Thailand, especially the Bongkot project and the Contract 4 project. Meanwhile, the average selling price in the third quarter adjusted upward by 11 per cent to $38.77 per barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) in comparison with $34.97 per BOE of the second quarter as the global crude oil price rose.
PTTEP reported net profit of $230 million in the third quarter, an increment of 72 per cent from $134 million in the previous quarter. The company managed to maintain the unit cost at $30 per BOE with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margin at 71 per cent, aligned with the company’s target.
For the first nine months of 2020, PTTEP earned a total revenue of $4.082 billion, down 11 per cent from $4.572 billion year on year.
Net profit was booked at $639 million, a decrease of 46 per cent from $1.185 billion, caused by low average selling price in line with global crude oil price.
Phongsthorn said: “The performance of the third quarter was better than the previous one. This was a result of rising demand for energy after several countries started to relax the enforcement of city lockdown measures to curb Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Plus still adhere to its policy on petroleum production cut. Spot LNG price in late September climbed above $5 per MMBTU, encouraging lower LNG import while we witnessed higher gas nomination from projects in the Gulf of Thailand. This is expected to potentially increase the sales volume in the last quarter of this year. However, PTTEP shall stay abreast of the situation in order to get prepared in terms of both proactive and reactive plans in correspondence to situations.”
Phongsthorn added that during the third quarter, PTTEP started drilling an appraisal well to assess the petroleum potential of Block Sarawak SK410B in Malaysia. Exploration activities last year found PTTEP’s largest commercial discovery of natural gas, which was also recorded as the world’s seventh largest petroleum discovery in 2019. The result of the appraisal campaign will be obtained this year prior to making a final investment decision in 2022. In addition, PTTEP said it had acquired additional participating interests of 24.5 per cent in the Algeria Hassi Bir Rekaiz project from CNOOC Limited, one of the joint venture partners. The investment value will be evaluated from CNOOC’s total spending during the development phase until the approval from the Algerian government, which is now in process. Once the transaction is completed, the company will have a total share of 49 per cent. First oil production is expected to come on stream in 2021 with the start-up volume of 10,000-13,000 barrels per day (BPD), and will be ramped up to 50,000-60,000 BPD in 2025 as targeted.
Regarding progress of Block G1/61 (Erawan) and Block G2/61 (Bongkot) operational transitions, PTTEP said it planned drilling activities, construction of wellhead platforms, interfield pipelines, and relevant preparations to ensure gas production in pursuance of the Production Sharing Contract. Regarding Block G1/61, PTTEP said it remains in negotiations with the existing operator for site access so as to install production platforms and submarine pipelines as planned.
PTTEP estimates average sales volume this year at 350,000 BOED, slightly lower from what has been targeted in the middle of the year.
Fed has ‘arsonist and fireman’ reputation traders can’t ignore
EconOct 30. 2020The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 18, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Erin Scott.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Liz Capo McCormick · BUSINESS, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS
Many of the best-performing investment ideas in 2020 hinged on what the Federal Reserve was doing to fight the economic fallout from the coronavirus.
As 2021 approaches, a new theme is emerging: Finding ways to profit from — or at least survive — the eventual unintended consequences of the central bank’s unprecedented monetary accommodation and heavy hand in debt markets.
Near zero rates for potentially a decade raise the specter of financial stability risks. Fund managers are once again predicting asset bubbles and stock “melt-ups,” a debased U.S. dollar and a destabilizing acceleration in inflation, reigniting a debate about the dark side of easy monetary policy that raged after the 2008 crisis. There is already evidence that some of the risks are materializing with investors now questioning the classic 60/40 asset allocation strategy amid concerns that holders of long-term Treasurys could be in store for major pain.
“The Fed is both the arsonist and fireman,” said James Athey, fund manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments, which oversees more than $500 billion. “It’s fixing the prices of the assets that would normally be used to express concern in the informed-investor community about what the Fed is doing.”
Athey has become a bit of a gold bug, buying the precious metal for his personal account to hedge the inflation he sees coming from bubbles in housing and other asset prices. It’s a popular insurance strategy but, less conventionally at Aberdeen, he’s avoiding or outright shorting long-term Treasurys. He’s not alone. Hedge fund Penso Advisors says it’s lost faith in bonds to buffer a stock “melt up” that it and peers like LongTail Alpha see coming.
The Fed is “creating massive financial instability problems for the future,” Athey said.
Sure, debt investors have a proclivity to focus on the downside; after all, if a company or nation defaults, it’s their IOU that’s not getting repaid. But as ultra-low rates and a breakdown in the relationship between stocks and bonds imperil 60/40 portfolios — a strategy that’s returned 7% this year — asset managers are scoping out alternative, riskier hedges and looking for yield.
Like many roads to trouble, the Fed’s actions were paved with good intentions since America’s economy and markets needed a major policy jolt this year to overcome the shock of the pandemic.
The Fed slashed rates, launched nine emergency loan programs and has bought about $2 trillion in Treasurys since March. Together, these actions largely succeeded in stabilizing volatile markets and sustaining industries hammered by the pandemic. But the central bank also switched to a new average inflation targeting framework, likely pushing back the timing of an eventual increase in its benchmark rate and signaling the economy would be allowed to run hot.
As is the case with many actions the Fed takes, some backlash was inevitable and could ultimately prove unwarranted; rampant inflation failed to materialize after the 2008 crisis despite dire warnings. Still, BlackRock Inc.’s investment institute warned this month that global central banks’ massive stimulus actions have a “lack of proper guardrails” and the Fed’s footprint in markets this year has been undeniably huge.
Take a look at 30-year Treasurys. Yields are hovering at about 1.6%, roughly half the 2019 high, while the breakeven rate for the same maturity — a gauge of expected consumer price increases measured by the gap between inflation-linked and nominal yields — is near its highest since May 2019, and leveraged investors are plowing into the biggest bet ever on losses in Treasury bond futures. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index is up more than 50% from its trough in March, with tech stocks the key driver to gains. Greenlight Capital’s David Einhorn said in a letter to investors this week that technology stocks are in an “enormous” bubble.
A surge in virus cases and Washington policy makers’ inability to enact new stimulus until after the Nov. 3 presidential election has recently taken some froth out of risky assets and pushed yields lower. But many investors expect more fiscal spending to come, especially if Joe Biden is elected president and Democrats control both chambers of Congress.
Vineer Bhansali, founder of Newport Beach, California-based LongTail Alpha, expects a stock “melt up” will be part of the fallout since he believes the Fed will do more to buttress risk assets. The specialist in quantitative strategies, who delivered a return of more than 900% in March thanks to a savvy options play, is betting on a downward spiral in the dollar using long-term options, which are cheap and have more profit potential.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 5.6% in the past two quarters and is off about 10% since its high for the year on March 23.
“There’s been a regime shift in the Fed’s thinking, and they are saying financial stability concerns can come later,” said Bhansali. “The big move is going to come in the currency market, with the dollar weakening. That’s a way to devalue our debt that we owe everybody,” he said, citing what he views as an unwritten “pact” between the Fed and U.S. Treasury to tamp down the costs of financing massive deficits.
Ari Bergmann, founder of the $1.1 billion hedge fund Penso Advisors, also sees a stock “melt up,” and says bonds can’t be used to buffer losses anymore. The fund is hedging by tapping “convexity” — what he describes as trades that don’t cost much but have a lot of upside — in currencies and commodities and within equities themselves.
“This thing is musical chairs,” Bergmann said. “It’s a bubble that will be burst because there is no free lunch. If you look at the size of the Fed and other central banks’ balance sheets, somebody has to pay. And just look at the U.S. deficit, the world deficit.”
It’s simple math to see how big losses will be in the event yields turn significantly higher. The Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Treasury Index’s modified duration, which measures the percentage decline in bond prices with each percentage point yield rise, is about 7.2. That would translate into losses of about $655 billion for each one point yield jump, given the value of debt in the index is $9.1 trillion.
Of course, Jerome Powell and his colleagues at the Fed have made it clear they are watching out for unintended consequences. Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said this month that the emergence of financial-stability risks or overshoots in the Fed’s 2% inflation target would both be reasons for the central bank to raise rates. And inflation prognosticators have a mixed track record at best.
However, the toll of ultra-low rates has played out before. While lax lending standards and questionable financial practices had key roles in the housing bubble that sparked the 2008 crisis, the Fed’s reversal of persistently low rates also served as kindling for the painful downturn. Boston Fed’s Eric Rosengren said in a speech just this month that the build up of leverage and risk that followed the rate cuts from that crisis has made the current slump worse.
“The success of the Fed will be it’s own demise,” said Bergmann who’s been working in financial markets since the mid 1980s. “In the end, the story will be sad – with the only way to win being to make enough money on the way to getting there and having a clever hedging strategy.”
Hong Kong economy shows first signs of revival since protests began
EconOct 30. 2020Shipping containers sit at the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal in Hong Kong on Sept. 16, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Billy H.C. Kwok.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Eric Lam · BUSINESS, WORLD, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS, ASIA-PACIFIC
Hong Kong’s economy showed the first signs of emerging from a crippling recession sparked by political unrest last year and deepened by the global pandemic.
Gross domestic product declined 3.4% in the third quarter from a year earlier, the government said in a statement Friday, better than the median estimate of a 5.6% contraction in a Bloomberg survey of economists. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, GDP rose 3%.
This marks the first time the quarter-on-quarter measure has risen since before the start of anti-government protests last year, as a third wave of virus infections subsided last month. The economy has been in its longest recession since the tumultuous period from 1997 to 1998 that included the handover to China and the Asia financial crisis.
The moderation in the decline in year-on-year GDP stems in part from a low base of comparison as well as factors including a reviving mainland China economy, stabilization of the virus in Hong Kong and stronger financial market activity, the government said.
“Looking ahead, the continued solid recovery of the mainland economy should render support to Hong Kong’s exports in the coming few months,” the report said. “Also, global demand and trade flows will further improve if the recovery of the major advanced economies sustains.”
Still, the recovery is nascent and Hong Kong will need more robust commerce and tourism to sustain a return to economic growth, economists say. Revised figures on GDP and more detailed statistics will be released Nov. 13.
“Hong Kong needs to see its border reopening with mainland China before the city can benefit from the rapid recovery there,” Tommy Wu, senior economist with Oxford Economics in Hong Kong, said before the data was released.
Hong Kong is among other economies in Asia including Singapore and South Korea that are starting to recover from months of anti-virus measures. Taiwan also reported growth figures Friday, which showed the economy strongly rebounding in the third quarter after bringing the Covid-19 pandemic under control and benefiting from a technology boom.
Hong Kong and Singapore have announced plans to create a travel bubble between the two cities that is targeted to launch next month, Chief Executive Carrie Lam said at a press briefing. People in both cities would be exempted from compulsory quarantine, replaced by coronavirus testing. The pact joins efforts in several markets in the region to loosen travel restrictions.
In an Oct. 25 blog post Financial Secretary Paul Chan said if the flow of people and commerce between Hong Kong and mainland China is safely restored, the city can be “revitalized substantially” even if the global economy remains constrained.
“The sustained rapid economic recovery in the mainland can be said to be the main force supporting the Hong Kong economy,” Chan said. “Only by effectively controlling the epidemic and thoroughly cleaning up local infection cases can we truly create an environment conducive to economic recovery.”
The government is pursuing a law that would make Covid-19 tests mandatory for some groups even as it slowly eases virus-related restrictions, Lam said at the briefing. Hong Kong is ready to re-open the border with China from a technical perspective, but it requires mutual consent, she said.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s efforts to stimulate the economy remain under scrutiny. The city has announced more than HK$310 billion ($40 billion) in relief this year, yet the prolonged recession has led to shuttered storefronts and unemployment at an almost 16-year high of 6.4% as of September. Joblessness is likely to rise further after Cathay Pacific Airways last week said it will slash more than 5,000 jobs and close a regional carrier.
The Bank of Thailand reports that the country’s third-quarter recovery continued in September as economic activity rose again.
Public spending continued to be the main driver of the economy, said the central bank’s report on “Economic and Monetary Conditions for September and the third quarter of 2020”.
Private consumption indicators rose to match the same period last year after recording negative growth for six consecutive months. This was down to improvement in household income and consumer confidence, as well as Songkran substitute holidays in September, said the bank.
The value of exported goods (excluding gold) in September fell by 3.7 per cent, a significant improvement on August’s contraction of 13.6 per cent.
Exports improved in almost all categories consistent with a recovery of demand in trading partner countries.
The value of imports excluding gold dropped fell by 6.7 per cent year on year but contracted less than last month.
However, Thailand received no foreign tourist arrivals for the sixth consecutive month after the travel ban was imposed at the end of March, the bank noted.
On overall economic stability, headline inflation was less negative mainly due to falling energy prices. Core inflation fell slightly.
The labour market slightly improved as workers registering for furlough payments fell but jobless social security claims remained high.
The current account registered a surplus mainly from gold exports.
One-hundred gram gold bars in an arranged photograph in London, on July 29, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Chris Ratcliffe. 
Signage is displayed at a McDonald’s restaurant in Lynwood, Calif., on April 27, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Kyle Grillot. 
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 18, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Erin Scott. 
Shipping containers sit at the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal in Hong Kong on Sept. 16, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Billy H.C. Kwok. 
