Authored by Liam Cosgrove via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to his newly acquired social media platform over the weekend to make a series of quips aimed at the global organization, the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The WEF’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland—which features a host of international leaders, central bankers, Wall Street executives, and celebrities—began on Monday and will continue throughout the week.

“I guess there’s value to having a mixed government & commercial forum of some kind. WEF does kinda give me the willies though, but I’m sure everything is fine…” Musk said via Twitter on Sunday evening, responding to a Substack article co-written by independent journalists Michael Shellenberger and Izabella Kaminska.

The WEF has been the subject of considerable scorn and criticism for its 2016 ad campaign, which stated, “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.”

Many took issue with the organization’s attempt to frame a lack of personal ownership and privacy as a positive.

Initially accompanied by a promotional video and several articles, much of the campaign’s content has since been removed from the web. A tweet by the WEF remains up, however.

Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better @IdaAuken https://t.co/6BKymvbKB5 pic.twitter.com/YJjAkw8skS

— World Economic Forum (@wef) December 12, 2016

In their article, Shellenberger and Kaminska called out WEF Managing Director Adrian Monck, who blamed the uproar surrounding the ad on the right-wing message board 4chan.

Monck penned an opinion piece in the Canadian outlet The Globe and Mail last August, calling the backlash a “misinformation campaign that targeted the World Economic Forum.”

“The story of ‘you’ll own nothing and be happy’ is anything but trivial and offers valuable insights into how misinformation is created and why it’s essential not to perpetuate its spread,” Monck wrote, adding that many criticisms were racist and anti-semitic.

Shellenberger and Kamiska, linking to the now-deleted WEF content, refuted Monck’s claims. “What Monck claimed was inaccurate. The phrase ‘Own nothing, be happy,’ hadn’t originated on 4chan; it originated on WEF’s website,” they wrote.

Musk continued to crack jokes about the organization. “There should be a game show: “4Chan or Davos, who said it?” he said via Twitter on Monday afternoon.

Allegiance to ESG

The authors also highlighted the organizations’ lack of transparency and declared commitment to the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda. The WEF is outspoken in its allegiance to the ESG movement.

“Recent events have only increased the business world’s focus on ESG,” reads a statement from the WEF website. “Worker wellness has become a major concern during the COVID-19 pandemic; social justice protests have drawn attention to gaps in diversity, equity, and inclusion; and the impacts of climate change and the importance of environmental sustainability are becoming harder, if not impossible, to ignore.”

Despite founding the world’s largest electric vehicle company, Musk is not a fan of ESG.

“The S in ESG stands for Satanic,” tweeted Musk in response. It is not the billionaire’s first comparison of this nature, he referred to the movement as “the devil” back in November.

Declined WEF Invite

In 2008, WEF listed Musk among its “Young Global Leaders” — which the organization classifies as a “membership” program — though it is unclear whether Musk participated in this arrangement. “I was invited to WEF, but declined,” he said via Twitter in December, responding to allegations that he had a relationship with the international group.

The Twitter CEO also responded to a video, featuring a speech by WEF founder Klaus Schwab, in which Schwab warns that a global cyberattack could disrupt supply chains and make the COVID-19 crisis look like “a small disturbance” in comparison.

The WEF founder warned that such an attack “would bring a complete halt to the power supply, transportation, hospital services, our society as a whole.”

Accompanied by daunting music and provocative imagery, the cinematic clip caught the attention of Musk. “This movie writes itself,” Musk responded with a popcorn emoji.

This movie writes itself🍿

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 16, 2023

 Read more here…

Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Former President Donald Trump spoke out after the White House said there are no visitor logs for President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, where multiple classified documents were discovered.

“The White House just announced that there are no LOGS or information of any kind on visitors to the Wilmington house and flimsy, unlocked, and unsecured, but now very famous, garage. Maybe they are smarter than we think!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Jan. 16.

“This is one of seemingly many places where HIGHLY CLASSIFIED documents are stored (in a big pile on the damp floor).”

A “small number” of classified materials were discovered on three separate occasions in Biden’s Wilmington house in December and January, in the garage and a room adjacent to it, White House lawyer Richard Sauber said last week.

Another stash of documents, which Sauber also described as a “small number,” was found in early November at the Penn Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which once served as Biden’s office. The documents date back to the Obama administration when Biden was the vice president. The total number of documents uncovered from both sites remains unclear.

Sauber has said the documents were “inadvertently placed” at the locations.

The White House spokesman Ian Sams on Monday said that it wasn’t standard practice to keep visitor logs of the president’s personal residence, after Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, demanded the information over the weekend, citing national security concerns.

“Like every president across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” said Ian Sams, spokesperson for the White House counsel, in a statement to the media. “But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.”

Trump on Monday sought to draw a distinction between Biden’s handling of the files with his case regarding classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago resort, which was subject to an unprecedented FBI raid last August. Agents at the time took about 100 documents marked as classified or top secret and 11,000 others marked as non-classified. Both cases are currently being investigated by separate special counsels. Trump has maintained that he declassified all the materials before he left office.

Unlike Biden’s garage, Trump claimed, “Mar-a-Lago is a highly secured facility, with Security Cameras all over the place, and watched over by staff & our great Secret Service.”

“I have INFO on everyone!” Trump said.

The White House has faced scrutiny for not disclosing the initial discovery of the documents on Nov. 2, with critics saying it was a deliberate attempt to cover up news that would have negatively affected the Democrats during the midterms that took place a few days later. The White House confirmed the initial discovery on Jan. 9, only after the development was first reported by media outlets.

Read more here…

China is using the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting and gathering of global elites at Davos to announce the country’s total reopening after three years of Covid lockdown and isolation, further vowing to gets its economy back on track to pre-pandemic growth levels.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He hailed the end of Beijing’s “zero-COVID” curbs and a new era of an “open door” for foreign investments. In his address at Davos he called on “entrepreneurs, including foreign investors” to “play a critical role as they are the key elements of social wealth creation” in line with President Xi’s so-called “common prosperity” vision.

The speech was peppered with some nearly dozen references to strengthening economic cooperation among the world’s major economies and maintaining “world peace”. He said in this way China and the world can “firmly safeguard world peace.”

“China will always promote all-round opening up, and improve the level and quality of opening up,” Liu said. “Foreign investments are welcome in China, and the door to China will only open up further.”

China’s economic tsar further assessed the Covid situation, which has lately grabbed world headlines due to widespread accusations that health authorities are lying and trying to conceal the true death count, telling WEF founder Klaus Schwab the situation is now “steady” and that people are recovering quickly, which is a “surprise”. He also pledged that the Chinese economy will get back on track this year despite the pandemic era slowed growth indicators.

As the WSJ notes of the timing of Liu’s Davos attendance, “The Chinese economy on Tuesday notched up a 3% year-over- year expansion in gross domestic product in 2022 as the country was ravaged by Beijing’s ‘zero-Covid’ pandemic restrictions and a sharp property-sector downturn.” And further of his words: “Mr. Liu said China’s current account surplus to its GDP stood at over 2% in 2022, compared with 1.8% in 2021.”

He continued in the speech: “We have to abandon the Cold War mentality, try to understand the essence of things from the perspective of material duality, endeavor to build a community with a shared future for mankind, and join hands to respond to global challenges,” according to a translation. He stressed: “We believe that an equitable international economic order must be preserved by all of us” – in what’s perhaps a subtle swipe at China’s main rival the United States.

The EU should focus on “de-risking rather than decoupling” when it comes to trade with China, says von der Leyen in Davos.

She threatens probes: “We will not hesitate to open investigations if we consider that our procurement or other markets are being distorted.” pic.twitter.com/DzX6nqO6Ir

— Rosie Birchard (@RosieBirchard) January 17, 2023

On Wednesday Liu is expected to meet with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Zurich in what will be a first ever in-person meeting, following several virtual meetings. A Chinese foreign ministry statement previewed that the two will seek to “strengthen macroeconomic and financial policy coordination.”

It should be noted that Russia – an ally which Beijing has refused to condemn – is conspicuously absent from Davos this year.

* * *

A note by Goldman Sachs summarized the Vice Premier’s main points in his Davos speech as follows:

• Liu He reaffirmed that policymakers would prioritize economic development, let market play a fundamental role in the economy (Liu emphasized that it’s not possible for China to shift back to the planned economy track) and promote higher-level of opening up.
• He further stated that policymakers would relax restrictions in the property sector imposed when the sector was overheated, and help expand effective demand. Property remains as one of the nation’s pillar industries, accounting for 40% of bank lending, 50% of local government revenues, and 60% of urban households’ assets.
• Liu He clarified that “dual circulation” focuses on expanding domestic demand, but policymakers would stick to opening up and enhancing international cooperation.
• On common prosperity, Liu He stated that this would be a long-term policy goal and aimed to reduce inequality. Policymakers would promote development and encourage wealth creation.
• In the Q and A on China’s Covid situation, Liu He mentioned dining-in, tourism and transportation services have largely normalized in China, and inbound tourists only needed to provide 48-hour negative Covid test results. Liu believed that the recovery of GDP growth to its normal pace is highly possible, and expect imports to improve significantly, firms to step up investment, and household consumption to normalize. The healthcare system functions normally now and Covid policy focuses on treatment of the elderly population, according to Liu He.

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

A state Supreme Court judge in Syracuse, New York, struck down a statewide mandate for medical staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19, ruling that Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state’s health department overstepped their authority.

In a landmark ruling issued on Jan. 13, state Supreme Court Judge Gerard Neri declared the statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate for medical staff “null, void, and of no effect.”

Hochul and the state Department of Health exceeded their authority by sidestepping the state legislature in imposing a permanent COVID-19 vaccine mandate for medical professionals, the judge wrote in the order (pdf).

Neri also found that the mandate was “arbitrary and capricious,” citing evidence that COVID-19 vaccines don’t prevent the spread of the virus, undercutting the basis for the mandate.

“In true Orwellian fashion, the Respondents acknowledge then-current COVID-19 shots do not prevent transmission,” Neri wrote, citing a Summary of Assessment of Public Comment that was entered as evidence in the case.

In support of the view that the mandate was capricious, Neri also pointed to the fact that the order, titled Prevention of COVID-19 Transmission by Covered Entities (pdf), used a loose definition for “fully vaccinated,” namely one that was “determined by the Department.”

Neri wrote, “A term which is defined at the whim of an entity, subject to change without a moment’s notice contains all the hallmarks of ‘absurdity’ and is no definition at all.”

The ruling came after a lawsuit was filed by Medical Professionals for Informed Consent, a group of medical professionals who were negatively affected by the vaccine mandate and either lost their jobs or faced the prospect of job loss.

“This is a huge win for New York healthcare workers, who have been deprived of their livelihoods for more than a year,” the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, Sujata Gibson, said in a statement.

“This is also a huge win for all New Yorkers, who are facing dangerous and unprecedented healthcare worker shortages throughout New York State.”

In siding with the group, Neri stated that the state is prohibited from mandating vaccinations outside of what’s detailed in public health law.

“The Mandate is beyond the scope of Respondents’ authority and is therefore null, void, and of no effect,” he wrote.

‘Critical Win’ Against Vaccine Mandates

Mary Holland, president of Children’s Health Defense, which financed the lawsuit on behalf of Medical Professionals for Informed Consent and several individual health care workers, hailed the decision.

“We are thrilled by this critical win against a COVID vaccine mandate, correctly finding that any such mandate at this stage, given current knowledge is arbitrary,” Holland said in a statement.

“We hope that this decision will continue the trend towards lifting these dangerous and unwarranted vaccine mandates throughout the country.”

Neither Hochul’s office nor the New York State Department of Health immediately responded to a request for comment and information on whether they plan to appeal.

Vaccinations helped reduce transmission of the early variants of the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, recent studies show that the vaccines are less effective in reducing transmission of later variants although they continue to reduce serious illness, hospitalizations, and death.

Some experts, meanwhile, have called for the messenger RNA shots made by Pfizer and Moderna to be withdrawn until new clinical trials can be run showing that they’re safe and effective.

Dr. Joseph Fraiman, based in Louisiana, became one of the latest to call for a pause in the administration of the vaccines pending new trials. He pointed to data including a reanalysis of the original trials that he and others conducted. They concluded that the vaccinated were at higher risk of severe adverse events.

The fact that the Omicron variant and its subvariants are also less virulent—leading to fewer hospitalizations and deaths—and the waning effectiveness of the vaccines also contributes to the building opposition to vaccinating all or portions of the population until better data is made available.

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu appeared to want to make an early name for himself this afternoon as The Wall Street Journal reports the top federal banking regulator warned that big banks may need to be broken into smaller pieces if they become too big to manage and are unable to fix significant regulatory lapses.

Banks can become so big and complex “that control failures, risk management breakdowns, and negative surprises occur too frequently,” Mr. Hsu said, speaking at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

“Not because of weak management, but because of the sheer size and complexity of the organization.”

“In short, effective management is not infinitely scalable,” he said.

Tuesday’s remarks are consistent with those from others made by the Biden administration and its top regulators, who are seeking to address concerns that the steady growth of the nation’s largest banks has introduced new risks to the financial system.

On Tuesday, WSJ reports that Mr. Hsu said the most effective and efficient way to successfully fix issues at a bank deemed too big to manage is to simplify it by divesting businesses, curtailing operations, and reducing complexity.

Bank stocks were hit…

But the broad market took a spill on the headlines…

While rogue actors do exist, Hsu said significant problems are typically “multi-causal and reflect deeper, unseen weaknesses, which if unaddressed can manifest as further incidents in the future.”

A weekly round-up of geopolitical flashpoint and energy news we’re keeping our eyes on, and trends impacting global markets, which will later be accessible for Premium members and above…

Finally the Ukrainian and Russian governments agree on something… but it doesn’t bode well for the prospect of WWIII. Days ago Ukraine’s defense minister called his country a de facto NATO member in a television interview. Well over a week has passed since the interview was published and even offered in English translation (which was done by Russian state media). And yet scant attention was paid in Western media – at least not on the level the remarks deserved. Here’s what DM Oleksii Reznikov said…

“At the NATO Summit in Madrid [in June 2022]…it was clearly delineated that over the coming decade, the main threat to the alliance would be the Russian Federation. Today Ukraine is eliminating this threat. We are carrying out NATO’s mission today. They aren’t shedding their blood. We’re shedding ours. That’s why they’re required to supply us with weapons.”

In follow-up to the rare, ultra-blunt assessment from a top Kiev official, independent geopolitical analyst Aaron Mate teased out the implications, particularly at a moment both sides have committed to a fight to the finish over Bakhmut. Matte writes: 

Predictably, Ukrainian soldiers that “bear the consequences of war” are facing heavy losses. Speaking to Newsweek, retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Andrew Milburn, who has trained and led Ukrainian forces for the private mercenary firm Mozart Group, reports that in the battle for Bakhmut, Ukraine has been “taking extraordinarily high casualties. The numbers you are reading in the media about 70 percent and above casualties being routine are not exaggerated.”

Ukraine is now “taking high casualties on the Bakhmut-Soledar front, quickly depleting the strength of several brigades sent there as reinforcements in the past month,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Western—and some Ukrainian—officials, soldiers and analysts increasingly worry that Kyiv has allowed itself to be sucked into the battle for Bakhmut on Russian terms, losing the forces it needs for a planned spring offensive as it stubbornly clings to a town of limited strategic relevance.” According to one battlefield Ukrainian commander, “the exchange rate of trading our lives for theirs favors the Russians. If this goes on like this, we could run out.”

Consider the above with another very stark assessment of where things are headed (or perhaps, something which is already fast unfolding before our eyes but which the world is slow to acknowledge): prominent French historian and anthropologist Emmanuel Todd told France’s popular daily Le Figaro that “The third world war has started.” Read more of his words in the following thread:

Emmanuel Todd, one of the greatest French intellectuals today, claims that the “Third World War has started.”

Small 🧵 translating the most important points in this fascinating interview.https://t.co/eYdKoBJx7B

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) January 13, 2023

Emmanuel Todd argues that “it’s obvious that the conflict, which started as a limited territorial war and is escalating to a global economic confrontation between the whole of the West on the one hand and Russia and China on the other hand, has become a world war.”

* * *

Below are global developments we are closely following this week…

Russia-Ukraine

• French historian and anthropologist Emmanuel Todd: “The third world war has began”: UnHerd

• Zelensky adviser resigns after blaming Ukraine for Dnipro apartment bombing: The Hill

• Dnipro death toll rising as Kremlin rejects charges that it’s forces are responsible: AP

• Bloody Bakhmut siege poses risks for Ukraine: WaPo

• EU calls grow for special tribunal for Russia’s ‘war crimes’ in Ukraine: Foreign Affairs

• Ukraine and Russia agree… Russia is fighting NATO: MoA

• CNN admits Ukraine has become a ‘Weapons Lab’ for Western arms: AW

• MSM Admits Russiagate Farce… years late: CN

• Walking Back the Russian Troll Scare: CN

• US begins expanded training of Ukrainian forces in Germany: AW

• Joint chiefs’ Gen. Milley visits to inspect troops: Stripes

• Russia confirms it will expand Army to 1.5 Million: BBG

• Kiev still warning that large-scale new offensive imminent: WSJ

• Russia posts record current account surplus of $227 billion in 2022: RTRS

• Russian, Chinese businessmen to skip 2023 World Economic Forum in Davos: TASS

• Worries in Davos that globalization is under siege: WaPo

• Ukraine tells WEF over 9,000 civilians killed: AJ

• Polish PM Decries WWIII, Says More Arms to Ukraine Will Prevent It: Ron Paul Inst.

• Britain Urges Germany to Permit Supply of Tanks to Ukraine: RTRS

China-Asia

• US, Taiwan talks raise hopes for free-trade pact: SCMP

• China’s Vice Premier at Davos: life has returned to normal, growth will return… open for investors: OP

• Yellen to meet Chinese official in bid to ease tensions: AFP

• China holds live-fire drills in South China Sea in wake of US warship entering: AW

• Pakistan PM seeks India talks on ‘burning issues such as Kashmir’: AJ

• Daughter of Thailand’s Exiled Former PM Thaksin to Seek Premiership: RTRS

• Firms in Europe, US helping Myanmar manufacture arms, report says: AJ

• China’s population falls for first time since 1961: BBC

• China reports 3% GDP growth for 2022: CNBC

Middle East/World

• Saudi Arabia Says Open to Settling Trade in Other Currencies: BBG

• Mexico seeks to tame tortilla prices by putting 50% tariff on white corn exports: BBG

• Here are the fastest growing weapons manufacturers in the world: 247 WallSt

• Chinese Foreign Minister calls on Israel to stop worsening Palestine issue with provocation: SCMP

• Hamas publishes unverified video of Israeli citizen held captive in Gaza: MEE

• Movement by Turkish far right to deport Syrian refugees: MEE

• Over 90 countries at UN slam Israel’s increasing crackdown on Palestinians: MEE

• Jailed Iranian-American starts hunger strike, appeals to Biden: AJ

Energy

• Europe’s gas emergency: A continent hostage to seller prices: The Cradle

• Poland, Lithuania want lower Russian oil cap, nuclear curbs in new EU sanctions: RTRS

• New York may be the first state to ban gas stoves: Ron Paul Inst.

• UK and others: hottest year on record as Putin tried to squeeze Europe: EN

• Oil Rises As OPEC Sees Chinese Demand Rebounding: OP

• India’s oil imports From Russia jump 33 times to record high: OP

• Germany will need to hold onto coal power for longer than planned: OP

Update (1430ET):

Here’s what people are saying about potential layoffs on an anonymous community app for the workplace called Blind:

“Microsoft does it in smaller phases and doesn’t cause a ripple in the news cycle,” someone said. 

Remember, Microsoft offered US employees unlimited time off last week. Here’s what another person on Blind said:

“Switching to unlimited PTO is not a good sign though, because MSFT won’t have to pay out any Unused PTO when they do layoffs.”

Someone else said:

“A massive number of managers in Bing got a critical confidential meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning. Other than that, everything else I know about the layoff came from unconfirmed sources on Blind. But the time of this mass meeting lines up with the speculated Jan 17 – 18 layoff date.” 

*  *  * 

Update (1404ET):

Bloomberg now reports Microsoft plans to reduce jobs in engineering divisions on Wednesday. 

The magnitude of the cuts couldn’t be learned, but the person, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters, said the reduction will be significantly larger than other rounds in the past year. Those cuts impacted less than 1% of the software giant’s workforce of more than 200,000.

*  *  * 

The US tech sector layoffs continue with news that Microsoft could reduce its headcount by thousands of jobs. 

Sky News learned that the US tech giant is “finalizing plans” to reduce its workforce amid mounting macroeconomic headwinds. The announcement could come in the next few days. There was no mention of which jobs were at risk. 

The latest filings show Microsoft’s total workforce is around 220,000 people. Sky News said the company is mulling over a reduction of 5% of its workforce, or about 11,000 jobs. 

“That figure could not be verified on Tuesday evening, and one analyst suggested that Wall Street would be surprised if the figure was not higher than that,” noted the British paper. 

Microsoft has gone on a hiring spree in the last several years. 

Shares of Microsoft were widely unchanged as the news hit just a little bit ago.  

According to Layoffs.fyi, more than 154,000 workers in US-based tech companies were laid off last year. So far, in 2023, 25,500 tech workers have been fired. 

And it was only last week when Microsoft gave its US employees unlimited time off. 

Authored by Daniel Teng via The Epoch Times,

Organisers of the Australian Tennis Open have banned the display of Russian and Belarusian flags at the Australian Open Grand Slam following a courtside incident on Jan. 16.

Attendees could be seen displaying a Russian flag during a match between Ukraine’s Kateryna Baindl and Russia’s Kamilla Rakhimova in the first round on Court 14 prompting a response from Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko.

“I strongly condemn the public display of the Russian flag during the game of the Ukrainian tennis player Kateryna Baindl at the Australian Open today.

“I call on Tennis Australia to immediately enforce its ‘neutral flag’ policy,” the ambassador wrote on Twitter.

I strongly condemn the public display of the Russian flag during the game of the Ukrainian tennis player Kateryna Baindl at the Australian Open today. I call on Tennis Australia to immediately enforce its “neutral flag” policy. @TennisAustralia @AustralianOpen pic.twitter.com/zw8pLN4FIF

— Vasyl Myroshnychenko (@AmbVasyl) January 16, 2023

Ukraine’s Baindl went on to defeat Russia’s Rakhimova 7-5, 6-7 (8), 6-1.

Ban ‘Effective Immediately’

Tennis Australia responded a day after immediately banning the flag.

“Flags from Russia and Belarus are banned onsite at the Australian Open,” the Australian Open organiser said in a statement obtained by AAP.

“Our initial policy was that fans could bring them in but could not use them to cause disruption. Yesterday we had an incident where a flag was placed courtside.

“The ban is effective immediately. We will continue to work with the players and our fans to ensure the best possible environment to enjoy the tennis.”

The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations said it would be writing to Tennis Australia about the incident.

“Around the world, international sporting events such as Formula One, FIFA, the Olympics and Wimbledon have condemned Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, by introducing sanctions against athletes,” said Stefan Romaniw, co-chair of the organisation, in a statement.

“We were extremely disappointed that [Tennis Australia] chose to ignore these principled actions by sporting bodies. Besides sending a strong signal to Putin that his war is condemned, these types of sanctions prevent Russia from trying to use athletes to project Russian power and prestige.”

Russian and Belarusian players were banned from the Wimbledon tennis tournament last year, as well as the Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup competitions.

The country of Belarus is being used as a staging ground for Russian forces to invade Ukraine.

Until yesterday, Ryan Cohen was best known as the vice-chairman of meme stonk meltups and short squeeze, famous for generating eye-popping returns from investments in just a few months, including fueling repeat short squeeze in doomed stocks like GameStop (many of these staggering gains evaporated just as fast after Cohen pulled the rug on his followers and high tailed it out of GameStop and Bed Bath), and also for building Chewy.com into a $3 billion pet supply firm, a feat which to some has cemented his reputation as a lite version of Elon Musk.

So Monday’s news that Ryan Cohen has decided to invest “several hundred million” in China’s marquee stock, Alibaba (and according to some, megafraud), will be a key test for the meme-stock icon in a country where individual attempts to drive change at companies and generate stock returns remain a novelty.

As the WSJ reported, Cohen has taken a stake in Alibaba and is pushing the e-commerce leader to buy back more of its shares, in a rare case of activism targeting a prominent Chinese firm. While the stake is tiny in comparison to Alibaba’s market capitalization of nearly $300 billion, Cohen has a wide following among individual investors who often follow his lead.

Cohen, whose net worth is over $2.5 billion and whose stocks portfolio including Apple as well as Wells Fargo and Citigroup, first contacted Alibaba’s board in August to express his view that the company’s shares are deeply undervalued based on his belief that it can achieve double-digit sales and nearly 20% free-cash-flow growth over the next five years.

It’s unclear if Alibaba will bother responding, especially now that China’s government bought a “golden share” in tech giants Alibaba and Tencent to ensure influence over tech giants, and not to replace one pesky billionaire – Jack Ma – with another. We do know that subsequent to Cohen’s initial communication, Alibaba in November announced its board approved expanding the company’s share-repurchase program by $15 billion, to $40 billion, while also extending it through March of 2025. Alibaba said it had repurchased roughly $18 billion of its shares under its existing buyback plan, as of Nov. 16. Cohen has communicated to Alibaba’s board that the share-repurchase plan could be boosted by another $20 billion, to roughly $60 billion, the people said.

The good news for Cohen is that Alibaba’s shares have already climbed about 85% from a multiyear low in October, with its ADRs closing at $117.01 on Friday, but are still down from a high of over $300 reached in late 2020 as technology and other shares rallied in the early days of the pandemic.  Still, assuming that Cohen bought BABA shares in recent months, he is likely already sitting on a generous profit.

So will this particular activist campaign be successful or will the attempt to change policy in a systematically important Chinese company crash and burn? Before we address this, here is a snapshot of what Cohen has achieved in the stock market since 2020 courtesy of Bloomberg.

Meme-Stock Idol

GameStop soared 6,347% between August 2020 and its peak in January 2021, after an investment firm managed by the co-founder of Chewy disclosed that it had acquired a stake in the troubled video-game retailer. The stock has been trending lower since that astonishing rally.

Bankruptcy

Bed Bath & Beyond jumped 68% in a matter of about three weeks after Cohen’s investment firm RC Ventures disclosed last March a large stake in the retailer and asked that it consider a sale of the whole company. It has since dropped 87% from that peak, exacerbated by fears of an impending bankruptcy.

Pre-Meme Stock Days

Cohen plowed virtually all of his proceeds from the 2017 sale of the pet retailer Chewy into just two stocks: Apple and Wells Fargo. Cohen said at that time that his portfolio, when including dividends and a few other stock holdings, has returned more than 40% over the previous three years, beating the market.

* * *

With that in mind what does Wall Street think? According to several analysts, Ryan Cohen buying into Alibaba is another reason for optimism over China’s tech stocks, which have been getting a boost recently from signs that regulators are ending a years-long crackdown on the sector. Alibaba’s shares closed 1% higher in Hong Kong, paring an earlier advance of as much as 3%, after people familiar with the matter said Cohen has taken a stake in the e-commerce leader and is pushing the firm to buy back more of its shares.

The Cohen news follows a string of positive developments for the sector, the most notable of which was the approval of $1.5 billion in funding for billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group. Cohen’s move is in line with a recent wave of foreign investors, who were previously underweight on Chinese stocks, returning to the asset class amid growing optimism over the country’s reopening and pro-growth measures.

Here’s what market participants are saying: 

Union Bancaire Privee (Vey-Sern Ling)

• “It’s positive for the stock because it helps to raise confidence, especially among Western investors who have been skeptical of China”
• It also highlights “how undervalued the shares are, and if he encourages more buybacks then that helps shareholder returns too”
• Cohen’s forecasts are not very different from consensus so they’re not unrealistic

Saxo Capital (Redmond Wong)

• Cohen’s entry should work as an additional positive to get more overseas investors interested in Alibaba again
• “Buying from high- profile investors like Cohen will add to the positive sentiment toward A-shares among overseas investors”

Grow Investment (Hao Hong)

• Cohen is right in seeing value in Alibaba as the company is a “cash-flow machine”
• “While Ryan is influential and the news is positive for BABA, he’s unlikely to have much sway with the board, in which the Chinese authority has golden share”
• Allibaba’s momentum remains positive but the share price has not been going up because of Cohen

Mariana UFP (Jin Rui Oh)

• “Cohen’s entry can be broadly positive for Alibaba’s stock, and given his wide following it should lift sentiment for Chinese tech generally”

Bloomberg Intelligence (Catherine Lim)

• Cohen’s presence on Alibaba’s board might help raise public shareholders’ governance over strategic decisions at the company, particularly as Beijing takes a stake in the internet giant

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

• OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais has said that the group is cautiously optimistic about oil demand as China opens up again.

• The group believes that a stronger demand outlook for China could offset continued concerns about a global economic slowdown.

• OPEC has reiterated its willingness to do “whatever it takes” to keep the oil market balanced in 2023.

Signs of cautious optimism about a recovery in economies and oil demand have emerged, OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Tuesday.  

The cautious optimism stems from the easing of the Covid curbs in China and the reopening of the Chinese borders earlier this month, according to OPEC’s secretary general.

“We’re seeing signs of green,” Al-Ghais told Bloomberg.

“We are optimistic, but we are cautiously optimistic.”

The Chinese reopening has created some tailwinds for oil prices in recent weeks, although the impact of the easing of the curbs may not be felt immediately in rising oil demand due to the surge in the number of Covid cases after China abandoned its ‘zero Covid’ policy.

China’s oil consumption is expected to jump by 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year to a record 16 million bpd, a median estimate of 11 China-focused consultants polled by Bloomberg News showed last week.

Following the initial exit Covid wave after the strictest curbs were lifted, Chinese oil demand is set to rebound from the second quarter onwards, also raising global oil demand for this year, many analysts say.

The more optimistic demand outlook for China offsets to an extent continued concerns about developed economies, where rising interest rates could result in a significant slowdown and even recessions, according to OPEC’s Al-Ghais.

Still, the cartel is determined to do “whatever it takes” to keep the oil market balanced in 2023, OPEC’s secretary general told Bloomberg.

Analysts expect OPEC and the wider OPEC+ group to step up and defend an $80 per barrel floor under oil prices should recessions drag oil further down.

The first OPEC+ meeting for this year is in early February, but some analysts expect that the group will wait to see how much the EU embargo on imports of Russian oil products – effective February 5 – would disrupt the markets before taking any decision on changing the collective oil production targets.