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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: sense who wrote (170381)4/11/2021 5:10:55 AM
From: TobagoJack  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 218851
 
We have a quite different take on BTC, and that is what makes a market.
Useful to have different takes.
Unclear that the differences in takes impact the expressions in PF management, but good to keep track of both the differences and expressions.

:0)



To: sense who wrote (170381)4/11/2021 5:55:02 AM
From: TobagoJack  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 218851
 
This might matter to the blah blah blah

Should the news be reporting truth on truth, that the study says what it purportedly says, and that the S African variant can break through the Pfizer vaccine shield, go pervasive, and should it turn out that the Pfizer shield is in any case only good for <12 months, the world changes trajectory, I can imagine.

reuters.com

South African variant can 'break through' Pfizer vaccine, Israeli study says

Maayan Lubell
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can “break through” Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is low and the research has not been peer reviewed.

The study, released on Saturday, compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for COVID-19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease. It matched age and gender, among other characteristics.

The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up about 1% of all the COVID-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel’s largest healthcare provider, Clalit.

But among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the variant’s prevalence rate was eight times higher than those unvaccinated - 5.4% versus 0.7%.

This suggests the vaccine is less effective against the South African variant, compared with the original coronavirus and a variant first identified in Britain that has come to comprise nearly all COVID-19 cases in Israel, the researchers said.

“We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared to the unvaccinated group. This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine’s protection,” said Tel Aviv University’s Adi Stern.

The researchers cautioned, though, that the study only had a small sample size of people infected with the South African variant because of its rarity in Israel.

They also said the research was not intended to deduce overall vaccine effectiveness against any variant, since it only looked at people who had already tested positive for COVID-19, not at overall infection rates.

Pfizer and BioNTech could not be immediately reached for comment outside business hours.

The companies said on April 1 that their vaccine was around 91% effective at preventing COVID-19, citing updated trial data that included participants inoculated for up to six months.

In respect to the South African variant, they said that among a group of 800 study volunteers in South Africa, where B.1.351 is widespread, there were nine cases of COVID-19, all of which occurred among participants who got the placebo. Of those nine cases, six were among individuals infected with the South African variant.

Some previous studies have indicated that the Pfizer/BioNTech shot was less potent against the B.1.351 variant than against other variants of the coronavirus, but still offered a robust defence.

While the results of the study may cause concern, the low prevalence of the South African strain was encouraging, according to Stern.

“Even if the South African variant does break through the vaccine’s protection, it has not spread widely through the population,” said Stern, adding that the British variant may be “blocking” the spread of the South African strain.

Almost 53% of Israel’s 9.3 million population has received both Pfizer doses. Israel has largely reopened its economy in recent weeks while the pandemic appears to be receding, with infection rates, severe illness and hospitalizations dropping sharply. About a third of Israelis are below the age of 16, which means they are still not eligible for the shot.

Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Pravin Char



To: sense who wrote (170381)4/12/2021 1:27:37 AM
From: TobagoJack  Respond to of 218851
 
Bullish indicator re stuff

finance.yahoo.com

Singapore Dealer Prepares Vault for 15,000 Tons of Silver
Mon, April 12, 2021, 10:22 AM
(Bloomberg) -- Inside a six-story high warehouse near Singapore’s Changi airport, a vast hangar-like space is waiting to be filled with a precious metal that usually plays second fiddle to its more lustrous sibling.

The vault that’s being built by Silver Bullion Pte will -- when completed in the first half of next year --- be able to store 15,000 tons of silver. It’s only holding around 400 tons of the metal at the moment, but the vacant space is an indication that silver appears to be on the cusp of a promising few years.

Demand for coins and bars is booming, fueled in part by a Reddit-induced buying frenzy in February that drove prices to an eight-year high. While the fervor has abated, retail interest is still elevated, valuations are relatively cheap and measures are being taken to meet the surge in demand. The amount of silver stored in vaults in London rose 11% in March to a record, according to the London Bullion Market Association.

As well as the Singapore vault, JM Bullion, one of the biggest precious metals retailers in the U.S., plans to open a 25,000-square-foot-warehouse in Dallas in June that will be used for storing silver and other precious metals.

The metal’s crucial role in the energy transition -- it’s a key component in solar panels -- also looks set to buoy consumption over the longer-term. All this has analysts excited about silver’s potential, with some seeing it outperforming gold this year.

“The outlook for demand growth for silver over the next few years looks very positive, especially across a wide range of industrial applications, including solar, 5G and automotive,” said Philip Klapwijk, managing director of Hong Kong-based consultant Precious Metals Insights Ltd. “That, coupled with ongoing high levels of investment is likely to create the need for more dedicated storage space for silver in bullion and also intermediate forms.”

Gregor Gregersen, founder of Silver Bullion, said he started searching for a bigger warehouse two or three years ago and that decision was vindicated last year when demand for the metal surged during the coronavirus pandemic. “The idea is to make this into a really iconic building,” he said during a tour of the vault that will be known as The Reserve. “There isn’t really a facility built specifically to store large quantities of silver securely.”

Singapore has a reputation as a stable financial center and has taken steps to position itself as a bullion hub, exempting investment-grade gold, silver and platinum from a goods and services tax.

Physical investment in silver, which covers bullion coin and bar purchases, is expected to reach a six-year high of 257 million ounces in 2021, according to the Silver Institute.

Spot silver, currently trading around $25 an ounce, is forecast by Citigroup Inc. to peak at $28 to $30 in the second half, aided by “still solid” investment demand and an end to physical de-stocking in China and India. Morgan Stanley sees the metal averaging $25 an ounce in 2021, up 22% from last year.

Gold, meanwhile, is stabilizing after its first quarterly loss since 2018 amid high bond yields and optimism over the global economic recovery from the pandemic that’s damping demand for the metal. Citi sees gold, currently fetching around $1,700 an ounce, falling to $1,575 in six to 12 months.

Sill, there’s no shortage of silver. The Silver Institute expects the global market to remain in a surplus this year, although it sees the lowest excess since 2015. And even against a backdrop of strong electronics and automotive demand as well as growing solar power investment, silver’s failure to break higher suggests the gold price, real yields and the U.S. dollar remain powerful drags, Morgan Stanley said in a note.

“Considering the high correlation of silver to gold, and our bearish outlook for the yellow metal over the next 12 months, we expect silver together with gold to continue to struggle amid higher real interest-rate expectations in the U.S.,” said Giovanni Staunovo, a strategist at UBS Group AG.

JM Bullion Chief Executive Officer Michael Wittmeyer is more optimistic. The Reddit-fueled buying frenzy caused a spike in demand from existing silver bugs as well as bringing in a lot of first-time investors in the metal, he said. “We’re just trying to expand our capacity so that next time this happens, we’ll be able to get all these orders shipped more quickly.”

The accelerating move away from fossil fuels should also provide an enduring tailwind for silver demand as investment in solar power ramps up. China, Japan and South Korea all set carbon zero targets last year, while the U.S. is considering emissions cuts of 50% or more from 2005 levels by 2030.

The energy transition demand should give prices an extra boost, said CPM Group analyst Rohit Savant. Silver will average $27 this year and beat gold due to its relatively cheaper valuation and strong investment demand, he said.

In Singapore, Silver Bullion’s Gregersen is confident all that currently vacant space in his vault won’t go to waste. “Silver is usually a forgotten metal that people don’t really care much about,” he said. “But it’s starting to shine a bit more and that trend will continue.”

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