Net neutrality, booster shots, and a china blacklist?!

Net Neutrality

President Biden plans to reinstate rules on net neutrality that have previously been wiped clean by former president Donald Trump. The initiative enhances further competition in many sectors particularly content providers and broadband operators. Big broadband operators like Netflix would be under the spotlight after the U.S. session opening today.

Pfizer booster shot

On another note, Delta covid-19 strain dominates financial market headlines as it weighs heavily on market sentiment. But most big vaccine giants like Pfizer and BioNTech are already working on getting an emergency authorization for a booster vaccine shot. The new booster shot should work to fight against the highly infectious variant.

BioNTech and Pfizer traded higher on Friday pre-market following the optimistic news.

US-China relations

Well, it's not a surprise that the turmoil continues, as the U.S. adds another 10 Chinese companies on the ongoing ban. This time its for allegedly being involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang. The identities of these companies haven’t yet been identified but the Biden administration seems to be taking the sanctions and restrictions seriously.

The list supposedly prohibits U.S. companies from working with any of these entities on the list. The news was one the key market movers of why markets dipped overnight.

Unemployment claims

Data on Thursday showed, Unemployment claims unexpectedly rose 373 thousand vs 345 thousand last month, indicating a slow down in the labor market. In comparison to the declining numbers over the past few months as economies were seen opening and recovering. But yet again, this is still good if we look back at the numbers of 2020 that nearly topped 1 million claims.