Asia shares mostly lower amid rising coronavirus cases, Washington turmoil

NEW YORK - Asian stocks were mostly lower on Tuesday, tracking Wall Street declines as political turmoil in Washington and rising coronavirus cases worldwide weighed on sentiment ahead of the start of the quarterly earnings season.

Political uncertainty dominated trading as House Democrats introduced a resolution to impeach U.S. President Donald Trump, accusing him of inciting insurrection following a violent attack on the Capitol last week.

Several big tech giants, including Twitter Inc, Amazon.com Inc , Alphabet Inc, Facebook Inc and Apple Inc, have taken actions against Trump and his network of supporters, as concerns mounted over the risk of continued violence.

Twitter’s stock tumbled 6.4 percent on Monday after the micro-blogging site permanently suspended Trump’s account last Friday.

Investors also kept an eye on the continued spread of the coronavirus globally as cases surpassed 90 million on Monday, according to a Reuters tally.

“The weakness was led by tech and I think the banning of Trump’s account by Twitter and Amazon stepping up against Parler all brought a renewed focus on increased regulation and reining in on tech,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman of Great Hill Capital in New York.

Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.48 percent, South Korea’s KOSPI fell 0.91 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures lost 0.54 percent.

Defying the broader selloff, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.24 percent.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.29 percent, the S&P 500 lost 0.66 percent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.25 percent.

Investors are expecting guidance on the extent to which executives see a rebound in 2021 earnings and the economy from results and conference calls from JP Morgan, Citi and Wells Fargo Friday.

Meanwhile, longer-term Treasury yields were at their highest since March before new long-dated supply coming this week and on speculation of more U.S. fiscal stimulus as Democrats will have control of Congress and the White House.

“People are optimistic to see the yield curve steepening and it could help spreads and net interest margins for banks,” Hayes said.

Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 11/32 in price to yield 1.1443 percent, from 1.107 percent late on Friday.

The spread between the two-year and 10-year Treasury yields brushed against 100 basis points to hit its steepest since July 2017.

The climb in yields in turn offered some support to the dollar, which rose to its highest in over two weeks against a basket of currencies.

The U.S. dollar index rose 0.256 percent, with the euro down 0.54 percent to $1.2152. The Japanese yen weakened 0.24 percent versus the greenback at 104.20 per dollar, while Sterling was last trading at $1.3516, down 0.35 percent on the day.

Crude oil prices fell, hit by renewed concerns about global fuel demand amid tough coronavirus lockdowns across the globe, as well as the stronger dollar.

U.S. crude recently fell 0.1 percent to $52.19 per barrel and Brent was at $55.61, down 0.68 percent on the day.

Safe-have spot gold dropped 0.2 percent to $1,844.27 an ounce. Silver fell 1.70 percent to $24.94.

-reuters-

Asian stocks at 2-week high as Trump returns to White House

SINGAPORE - Asian stock markets advanced to a two-week high on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump was discharged from hospital following treatment for COVID-19 and as prospects for a fresh U.S. stimulus package appeared to brighten.

Bonds and the dollar nursed losses amid the improving risk appetite, while oil extended gains.

Trump returned to the White House on Monday after a three-night hospital stay and said he felt "real good", though one of his doctors cautioned that he may not be out of the woods yet. 

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.71 percent to a two week-high, led by Hong Kong climbing 0.88 percent. Japan's Nikkei also added 0.41 percent.

Separately, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke by phone for about an hour and were preparing to talk again Tuesday, continuing their work towards a deal on coronavirus relief spending. 

As well as Trump's health, "there is also some market attention on whether the U.S. Congress will pass the extra stimulus bill," said Tai Hui, Chief Asia Market Strategist, J.P. Morgan Asset Management

"If we do see some form of stimulus coming through, I think the market will take it in a positive light as much of the important support from the previous round has expired," he said.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.08 percent after the best daily gain on the S&P 500 index in a month overnight. Oil held sharp overnight gains. 

Australia's ASX 200 was more subdued, up 0.17 percent, ahead of a central bank meeting at 0330 GMT and the government's budget later in the day.

China's markets remain closed for a holiday.

Asian markets on Monday unwound most of a Friday selloff in the wake of Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis. That improvement also caused Wall Street to rally sharply overnight with energy, tech and healthcare stocks leading. The Dow rose 1.7 percent, the S&P 500 1.8 percent and the Nasdaq 2.3 percent. 

Bond markets also joined in, with the safe-haven asset being sold - especially at the long end - in line with the optimistic mood. The yield on U.S. 30-year government bonds rose 10 basis points to a four month high of 1.5930 percent, before easing slightly. 

Benchmark 10-year yields hit a more than five-week high, and held just shy of that in Asian morning trading at 0.7634 percent.

"Improved near-term stimulus prospects and then potentially bigger deficits under a Biden presidency that has the benefit of clean sweep, are behind the yield gains here," said Ray Attrill, head of FX strategy at National Australia Bank in Sydney.

In currency markets, the dollar was under pressure on other majors apart from the yen, since higher yields can often draw flows from Japan. 

The yen hovered at 105.7 per dollar, while the risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars edged ahead, with the Aussie last up 0.13 percent at $0.7191.

Oil jumped more than 5 percent overnight and held there in Asia, supported by optimism surrounding Trump's health and a supply squeeze as a strike shut six Norwegian offshore oil and gas fields. 

The strike will cut Norway's total output capacity by just over 330,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or about 8% of total production, according to the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG). 

U.S. crude last stood at $39.27 up 0.13 percent and, Brent crude rose 0.2 percent to $41.37. Gold was steady at $1,912 an ounce.

-reuters-

What you need to know about Regeneron's COVID-19 treatment

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump was treated Friday for COVID-19 with a high-dose of the experimental antibody drug developed by the US biotech firm Regeneron.

What is it, how far along are its clinical trials, and why do some experts disagree with using a medicine before it's been approved?

Here's what you need to know.

WHAT IS THE TREATMENT?

Regeneron's treatment, called REGN-COV2, is a combination or "cocktail" of two antibodies: infection-fighting proteins that were developed to bind to the part of the new coronavirus that it uses to invade human cells.

The antibodies attach themselves to different parts of the virus' "spike protein," distorting its structure -- similar in a way to knocking a key out of shape so it no longer fits its lock.

Vaccines work by teaching the body to make its own antibodies, but scientists are also testing ready-made antibodies from convalescent plasma, taken from the blood of recovered patients.

But it is not possible to make convalescent plasma a mass treatment.

Researchers can also comb through antibodies produced by recovered patients and select the most effective out of thousands, and then manufacture them at scale.

In a paper published in Science in June, Regeneron scientists described how they selected the two best antibodies from both recovered human patients and infected mice that were genetically modified to give them human-like immune systems.

In another paper in the same journal, scientists argued that by using two antibodies, they had guarded against the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 might randomly mutate to evade the blocking action of one, and then go on to become the dominant strain of the virus.

The company used the same "humanized mouse" technology to develop a triple-antibody cocktail which was shown to be effective against Ebola last year.

"That's part of what's giving us confidence, the platform has been tried and has been shown to be to work very, very well," Christos Kyratsous, Regeneron's lead infectious disease scientist told AFP in March.

The treatments are given by an intravenous drip.

DOES IT WORK?

Clinical trials are being carried out to test the drug's safety and efficacy at different dose levels and to compare it against a placebo, to answer this question.

On Tuesday, the firm announced some results from an early stage clinical trial, saying that its treatment reduced the viral load and recovery time in non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

The results related to 275 patients, and Regeneron's president George Yancopoulos said the company had begun talks with regulatory authorities -- presumably for temporary approval before full licensure.

But the detailed data hasn't yet been made public or peer-reviewed.

In terms of safety, it said "infusion reactions" were seen in four patients -- two on placebo and two on the drug, while "serious adverse events" occurred in two placebo patients and one on the drug. No one died.

The company did not detail what these side-effects were, but Arun Swaminath, a doctor at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital, said that in general, mild reactions to IV-therapies include fevers, chills and fatigue.

More serious symptoms include chest pain and shortness of breath.

The outpatient trial has now moved to late-stage.

Regeneron is also running late-stage trials for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the UK and for the drug's potential use to prevent household contacts of COVID-19 patients from being infected.

WHY ARE SOME EXPERTS CONCERNED?

The decision to give Trump the treatment before the trials have even produced enough data for emergency use authorization has puzzled some scientists.

Carla Perissinotto, a geriatrician and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, told AFP that using unapproved treatments on a "compassionate use" basis normally happens when everything else has failed.

"The risk of having side effects is so much greater, that I usually am very cautious about anything that's experimental and not proven," she said. 

Jeremy Faust, a public health expert at Harvard, said it raised uncomfortable possibilities: Either the president's team had not understood the scientific process, or they had understood but were overridden by Trump on someone else's advice.

"People will see this and they'll think that this is the treatment you should have -- and if you don't give it to other people who have coronavirus that we're denying them special treatment. 

"In reality that's not the case... we shouldn't be treating the president as a guinea pig." 

Agence France-Presse

Trump's COVID-19 symptoms 'very concerning', next 48 hours critical -source

Trump says feels better, but next few days will be "real test"

WASHINGTON  - President Donald Trump is not yet on a clear path to recovery from COVID-19 and some of his vital signs over the last 24 hours were very concerning, a person familiar with his health said on Saturday.

The source's assessment of the Republican president's medical status came after a team of doctors told reporters at a press conference earlier on Saturday that he was "doing very well."

One of those doctors said Trump had told them "'I feel like I could walk out of here today.'"

The source, who asked not to be identified, said the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of Trump's care.

Trump said Saturday he is feeling better than before as he battles the novel coronavirus, but suggested the coming days will be crucial to his recovery.

"I'm starting to feel good. You don't know, over the next period of a few days, I guess that's the real test. So we'll be seeing what happens over those next couple of days," he said in a video message posted on Twitter.

Trump, 74, left the White House and was moved to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington on Friday just hours after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.

The New York Times said the decision to transport Trump to the hospital came after he had experienced difficulty breathing and his oxygen level dropped, prompting his doctors to give him supplemental oxygen, according to two sources that the newspaper said were close to the White House.

White House doctor Sean P. Conley told reporters outside the hospital on Saturday that Trump had not experienced difficulty breathing, and was not given oxygen at Walter Reed.

"The team and I are extremely happy with the progress the president has made," Conley said. He declined to give a timetable for Trump's possible release from the hospital.

Trump tweeted praise for the medical staff at Walter Reed, and other institutions that have joined them, saying they are "amazing" and that with their help, "I am feeling well!"

The White House has said Trump will work in a special suite at the hospital for the next few days as a precautionary measure. He had no public events scheduled on Saturday.

The diagnosis was the latest setback for the Republican president, who is trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Trump has downplayed the threat of the coronavirus pandemic from the outset, even as the disease has killed more than 200,000 Americans and hammered the US economy.

Conley said Trump had received a first dose of a five-day course of Remdesivir, an intravenous antiviral drug sold by Gilead Sciences Inc that has been shown to shorten hospital stays. He is also taking an experimental treatment, Regeneron's REGN-COV2, one of several experimental COVID-19 drugs known as monoclonal antibodies, as well as zinc, Vitamin D, famotidine, melatonin and aspirin, Conley has said.

Trump announced on Twitter early on Friday that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, had contracted the virus.

He is at high risk because of his age and weight. He has remained in apparent good health during his time in office but is not known to exercise regularly or to follow a healthy diet.

A number of other prominent Republicans have also said they tested positive for COVID-19 since Trump's announcement, including Republican Senators Mike Lee, Thom Tillis and Ron Johnson, former White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

Vice President Mike Pence, who would take over presidential duties if Trump became severely ill, tested negative, a spokesman said. The former Indiana governor, 61, is working from his own residence about three miles from the White House.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was himself hospitalized with COVID-19 in April, told reporters on Saturday he had no doubt Trump would make a strong recovery.

"He's a naturally obviously very resilient character and I'm sure he'll come through it very well," Johnson said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message to Trump and his wife on Saturday, wishing them a speedy recovery, Chinese state TV said.

ELECTION DAY LOOMS

The Trump campaign on Friday suspended in-person campaign events involving the president or his family. But Pence will continue stumping for the president and Trump's campaign said on Saturday that Pence will host an Oct. 8 event in Peoria, Arizona.

Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, also tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday and will work from home, according to a senior campaign official.

Biden pulled ads attacking Trump off the air but otherwise continued his campaign, traveling to Michigan on Friday after testing negative for the virus.

In a Twitter post on Saturday, Biden urged Americans to don masks. "Don't just do it for yourself. Do it for the people you love."

Pence's Oct. 7 debate with Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris will go forward as planned, organizers said.

The virus could complicate Trump's push to install conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court.

Lee and Tillis are both members of the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to begin hearings on Barrett's nomination on Oct. 12.

On Saturday, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said all Senate floor activity would be rescheduled until after Oct. 19, but committee work, including Barrett's confirmation hearing, would continue.

- with report from Kyodo News

-reuters-

Older, overweight and male: Trump's COVID risk factors make him vulnerable

Older, overweight and male: Trump's COVID risk factors make him vulnerable

LONDON/FRANKFURT - US President Donald Trump's gender, age and weight are all factors that make him more vulnerable to developing severe COVID-19, and give him a notional risk of around 4 percent of dying from it, health experts said on Friday.

The probability is hard to assess precisely, however, since factors such as overall fitness and activity levels, pre-existing conditions and recent medical research can all make a significant difference.

A working paper by the US National Bureau of Economic Research published in July put an infected but otherwise healthy 70- to 79-year-old's risk of dying from COVID-19 at 4.6 percent, regardless of gender.

David Spiegelhalter, a professor of risk and an expert in statistics at Britain's Cambridge University, cited a COVID-19 survival calculator that put the mortality rate for an otherwise healthy 74-year-old white man with COVID-19 during the peak of the pandemic in Britain earlier this year at 3 percent to 4 percent.

That risk would now "presumably be somewhat less", he said, as doctors have gained experience in treating the disease.

Michael Head, a global health professor at Britain's Southampton University, said that "the president's profile would classify him as vulnerable."

Information provided by a White House physician in June puts the 74-year-old president in the obese category, which triples his risk of needing hospital treatment, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released in August.

David Strain, also at the University of Exeter medical school, said that, assuming Trump contracted the virus recently, he is likely to have few symptoms over the next four to five days.

"The classic respiratory symptoms would occur midway through next week," Strain said.

"His physicians will be aware of the risk that a crash, similar to that ... Prime Minister (Boris Johnson) experienced at around day 10, may occur," Strain said.

"Should this occur at his age, he would need to be hospitalized and we would be concerned for his survival."

WALKING AND GOLF

Even for otherwise healthy 65- to 74-year-olds infected with coronavirus, the mortality risk is 90 times higher than for those aged 18-29, according to the CDC data.

Julian Tang, an expert in respiratory sciences at Leicester University, said that, apart from age and obesity, "other existing medical conditions like diabetes, hypertension, other chronic heart and lung disease can lead to serious COVID-19 disease".

But Naveed Sattar, a professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, noted that Trump has no reported chronic conditions and is reasonably active - he plays golf frequently and appears to walk briskly - which may offset some of the risks.

The CDC data also do not take into account the state-of-the-art care that the president is likely to receive, although medical experts warned Trump's doctors not to be tempted to treat him differently from any similar patient.

"I would advise them: Do not deviate from your standard protocol - because that's when mistakes happen and you're starting to experiment," said Bharat Pankhania, senior clinical lecturer at Britain's University of Exeter Medical School.

"This is not a time or place to experiment, just because he happens to be the president."

A number of possible COVID-19 treatment approaches are currently being tested in late-stage trials, including manufactured antibodies designed to stop the coronavirus from invading cells.

Pankhania said the standard protocol for Trump's doctors would be to "monitor, and act if required".

"The usual thing that we need to act on, if required, is oxygen," he said. "And if a patient needs oxygen support, there may also be some benefit from giving the steroid dexamethasone."

The generic anti-inflammatory drug and Gilead's anti-viral remdesivir are the only drug therapies approved for treating hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

-reuters-