News

By Florence Tan and Naveen Thukral

SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil prices lost ground on Thursday, falling more than $1 a barrel from their highest levels in more than a month after U.S. fuel stockpiles surged amid declining demand.

The global benchmark Brent crude futures fell $1.12, or 1.40%, to $79.68 a barrel, as of 0423 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures lost $1.04, or 1.3%, to $76.81 a barrel.

U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell last week while gasoline inventories surged more than 10 million barrels, the biggest weekly build since April 2020, as supplies backed up at refineries due to reduced fuel demand. [EIA/S]

“Implied product demand – particularly for gasoline – slumped, suggesting that the public were cautious about travel in the wake of surging cases of the Omicron variant,” Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics said in a note.

“These fears are likely to persist for a few weeks yet.”

The United States reported nearly 1 million COVID-19 cases on Monday, setting a global record as the spread of the Omicron variant showed no signs of slowing, while heavy snow also disrupted traffic.

As well, minutes from a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting that showed policymakers may raise rates more quickly than markets anticipated weighed on riskier assets such as oil. [MKTS/GLOB]

On Wednesday, Brent and WTI futures climbed to their highest since late November as a decision by OPEC+ to increase supplies signalled easing concern of a big surplus in the first quarter.

OPEC+, a group that includes members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and other producers, agreed on Tuesday to add another 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of supply in February, as it has done each month since August.

“Our reference case now assumes the alliance will fully phase out the remaining 2.96 million bpd of oil production cuts by September 2022,” JP Morgan analysts said in a note.

“With signs of demand withstanding the Omicron variant, low stocks and increasing market vulnerability to supply disruptions, we see the need for more OPEC+ barrels,” the bank said. JP Morgan forecast Brent prices to average at $88 a barrel in 2022, up from $70 last year.

Meanwhile, TC Energy’s 590,000-bpd Keystone oil pipeline was shut on Tuesday evening for unplanned maintenance, the company said on Wednesday, as parts of western Canada grappled with frigid winter weather.

(Reporting by Florence Tan and Naveen Thukral; Editing by Tom Hogue)

By Courtney Walsh and John Mair

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – World number one tennis player Novak Djokovic was denied entry into Australia on Thursday amid a storm of protest about a decision to grant him a medical exemption from COVID-19 vaccination requirements to play in the Australian Open.

The tennis star was transported to a quarantine hotel in Melbourne after being held at the city’s airport overnight and was told he would be removed from the country later on Thursday, a source close to the tournament told Reuters.

Australia’s Border Force confirmed Djokovic’s visa had been revoked, while the source said the player’s lawyers planned to file an injunction to prevent his removal.

Djokovic’s injunction request against the visa cancellation was listed for hearing at 4 pm (0500 GMT) in the Federal Circuit and Family Court, according to court documents.

The saga, fuelled by domestic political point-scoring about the country’s handling of a record surge in new COVID-19 infections, has created an international incident with the Serbian president claiming harassment of its star player.

“There are no special cases, rules are rules,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a televised media briefing.

“We will continue to make the right decisions when it comes to securing Australian borders in relation to this pandemic,” Morrison said.

Djokovic, who has consistently refused to disclose his vaccination status while publicly criticising mandatory vaccines, kicked off the furor when he said on Instagram that he had received a medical exemption to pursue a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam win at the Open starting Jan. 17.

The announcement prompted outcry in Australia, particularly in tournament host city of Melbourne, which has endured the world’s longest cumulative lockdown to ward off the coronavirus.

Australia’s adult vaccination rate of about 91% is high by international standards and there is little public sympathy for those who refuse to be inoculated, as the Omicron variant sends case numbers to record levels.

However, the move by the Australian government to block his entry caused ructions between Canberra and Belgrade.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he had spoken with Djokovic to reassure the player “that the whole of Serbia is with him and that our bodies are doing everything to see that the harassment of the world’s best tennis player is brought to an end immediately.”

“In line with all norms of international law, Serbia will fight for Novak, truth and justice,” Vucic said on Twitter.

Morrison said he was aware that “representations have been made” by the Serbian embassy in Canberra and denied the claims of harassment.

“Australia has sovereign borders and clear rules that are non-discriminatory,” Morrison said.

Serbian media reported that Vucic had summoned the Australian ambassador in Belgrade and demanded Djokovic be released and allowed to play.

POLICE GUARD

In a dramatic series of events, Djokovic’s father told media in Serbia that his son was ushered into an isolation room under police guard when he touched down at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport at about 11:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) on Wednesday after a 14-hour flight from Dubai.

His fate was the focus of a political fight in Australia, characterised by fingerpointing between Morrison’s conservative administration and the left-leaning Victorian government led by Premier Dan Andrews.

Under Australia’s federal system, states and territories can issue exemptions from vaccination requirements to enter their jurisdictions. However, the federal government controls international borders and can challenge any exemptions granted by states.

Djokovic travelled to Australia after receiving an exemption from the Victorian government, granted after a process that included a panel of health officials. That exemption – the reasons for which are not known – supported his federal government-issued visa to play at the Australian Open.

On arrival, however, Federal Border Force officials at the airport said Djokovic was unable to justify the grounds for his exemption.

The Australian task force that sets the exemption parameters lists the risk of serious cardiac illness from inoculation and a COVID-19 infection within the past six months as qualifiers. However, Morrison said on Thursday that Tennis Australia had been advised several months ago that a recent infection did not meet the criteria for exemption.

The squabbling overshadowed the fact that Australia’s daily COVID-19 infections hit a record high for the fourth consecutive day, with new cases exceeding 72,000, overwhelming hospitals and causing labour shortages.

Tennis Australia and government officials said Djokovic received no preferential treatment, adding he was among “a handful” of the 26 people who applied who were approved in an anonymous and independent process.

With just 11 days to go until the Open starts, a legal challenge could go all the way to the High Court.

ANGRY AUSSIES

The Serbian has won nine titles at Melbourne Park including the last three, but his anti-vaccination stance means he faces a tough crowd to take his tenth in Victoria.

Australian tennis great Rod Laver, after whom the main showcourt is named, warned that Djokovic would likely face hostility.

“I think it might get ugly,” Laver told News Corp. “I’d think the Victorian people would be thinking ‘Yes I’d love to see him play and compete, but at the same time there’s a right way and a wrong way’.

Paul McNamee, former Australian Open tournament director and tennis professional, said Djokovic had followed the required steps to obtain a visa and should be allowed to play.

“So he deserves his day on court, not in court, in my opinion,” McNamee told ABC TV.

(Writing by Jane Wardell; Editing by Stephen Coates)

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – The South Korean government said on Wednesday it will appeal against a court order to exclude private education facilities from a COVID-19 vaccine pass mandate, the first major legal tussle over vaccinations that have been widely accepted.

A Seoul administrative court ruled on Tuesday that private education facilities such as cram schools, reading rooms and study cafes should be temporarily exempted from the mandate, granting an injunction requested by coalitions of private education providers and parents’ groups.

“We think it is necessary to expand the vaccine mandate to stabilise the current situation and expedite the recovery of our normal daily lives,” health ministry spokesman Son Young-rae told a briefing.

“We will carry out the suit as rapidly and diligently as possible, and immediately appeal against the injunction.”

South Korea has largely been one of Asia’s coronavirus mitigation success stories even though it has suffered regular flare-ups in infections.

More than 90% of South Koreans aged 12 and older were fully vaccinated as of Tuesday.

The vaccine mandate, one of the most stringent in the region, requires proof of vaccination and a booster to gain access to most public facilities, including restaurants, bars, gyms, department stores and large supermarkets, as well as privately run educational centres.

It does not apply to public schools.

But it has triggered an uproar among some parents who refuse to vaccinate their children mainly due to concern about possible side effects. They have called the mandate “vaccine dictatorship.”

The policy took effect on Monday for people aged 18 and older and will begin for teenagers in March, after a delay following the backlash.

Infections have been surging among teenagers since distancing curbs were eased in November, under a plan to “live with COVID-19”, including the resumption of full-time in-person classes in schools.

The government reinstated the curbs after just six weeks as record-breaking daily tallies and serious cases put ever greater strains on the medical system.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 4,444 new cases for Tuesday, bringing total infections to 649,669 with 5,838 deaths.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Robert Birsel)

By Mohi Narayan

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Oil prices dropped on Wednesday after U.S. fuel stockpiles climbed, indicating declining demand in the world’s biggest oil consumer amid a massive spike in COVID-19 cases caused by the Omicron variant.

Brent crude futures fell 9 cents, or 0.11%, to $79.91 a barrel at 0537 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell 13 cents, or 0.17%, to $76.86 a barrel.

U.S. gasoline stockpiles rose by 7.1 million barrels in the week to Dec. 31, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported late on Tuesday. Distillate stockpiles climbed by 4.4 million barrels in the week. [API/S]

The surging stockpiles, which exceeded analysts’ expectations, undermined the bullish outlook from investors during the previous session when price climbed more than 1% as market participants took the decision of major producers to add supply next month as a sign of confidence that surging COVID-19 cases would not hit demand for long.

“Rising U.S. production as more and more producers find it lucrative to return to the well pad is weighing on oil prices,” Sugandha Sachdeva, vice president of commodities research at Religare Broking said.

Meanwhile, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and allies, together called OPEC+, on Tuesday agreed to add another 400,000 barrels per day of supply in February, as it has every month since August.

The decision to stick their output increase reflected the group’s view that Omicron will only have a short-lived impact on global energy demand.

“Two consecutive days of strong gains have put crude in over-bought territory,” said Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights, provider of oil market analysis.

Market sentiment will continue to see-saw, Hari said.

One the one hand, there may be growing hope that the Omicron variant may herald COVID-19’s shift from pandemic to a more easily manageable disease, at least in the highly vaccinated parts of the world.

But on the other, prices may be hit by a sobering realisation that countries remain on high alert, and governments are not ready to relax restrictions as long as infections are spiking.

(Reporting by Mohi Narayan and Sonali Paul; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kenneth Maxwell)

BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese capital Beijing met state air quality standards for the first time last year, officials said on Tuesday, following a concerted effort to cut coal consumption, reduce transportation emissions and relocate heavy industry.

China declared war on pollution in 2014 after a series of hazardous smog build-ups in Beijing and elsewhere triggered widespread public anger.

Average readings of small, hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5 reached 33 micrograms per cubic metre in Beijing over the whole of 2021, down 13% compared to a year earlier and meeting China’s interim standard of 35 micrograms for the first time on record, officials said during a briefing on Tuesday.

The annual average of 33 micrograms remains much higher than the recommended World Health Organization level of 5 micrograms.

Yu Jianhua, deputy head of Beijing’s environmental protection bureau, described the city’s efforts over the last decade, as well as the speed of its improvements, as “unprecedented”.

“All regions and all departments worked together and organised the whole society to achieve comprehensive improvements in Beijing’s air quality,” he said.

Beijing residents enjoyed nearly four months more of clear skies last year compared to 2013, he added.

Beijing promised in 2015 that it would use its staging of the Winter Olympics in 2022 to help drive improvements in its environment, with Chinese President Xi Jinping vowing to host a “green” Games.

As a measure of the progress made, in 2016 average PM2.5 readings stood at 71 micrograms, but frequently approached 500 micrograms during the winter months, when coal-dominated heating systems were switched on throughout the region.

Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei have since made efforts to switch to cleaner natural gas and also planted vast numbers of trees across the region.

They have also imposed tough new fuel standards on cars and forced steel mills and other industrial facilities to install equipment aimed at controlling emissions.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom and David Stanway; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

LONDON (Reuters) – People being hospitalised with COVID-19 in the United Kingdom are broadly showing less severe symptoms than before, Britain’s vaccine minister said on Tuesday.

“At the moment, if you look at the people who have been hospitalised, they are going in with less severe conditions than before,” Minister for Vaccines and Public Health Maggie Throup told Sky News.

“The numbers that are in hospital beds is about half what it was a year ago – and that just shows the power of the vaccine.”

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kate Holton)

By Ahmed Aboulenein and Ankur Banerjee

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday authorized the https://www.fda.gov/media/150386/download use of a third dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 15, and narrowed the time for all booster shots by a month to five months after the primary doses.

The agency also authorized a third shot for children aged 5 through 11 years who are immunocompromised.

The regulatory decisions come as schools reopen in much of the country, and as COVID-19 cases surge due to the Omicron variant of the virus, with health authorities warning that its high transmissibility could overwhelm many health systems.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to weigh in on the changes this week, according to the New York Times. The CDC was not immediately available for comment.

“Based on the FDA’s assessment of currently available data, a booster dose of the currently authorized vaccines may help provide better protection against both the Delta and Omicron variants,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

The U.S. government has been urging vaccinated Americans to get boosters and for the unvaccinated, who are at much higher risk of severe COVID-19 and death, to be inoculated.

So far, 62% of the eligible U.S. population is considered fully vaccinated with a third of them also having received a booster dose.

In making its decision, the FDA said it reviewed real-world data from Israel, including safety data from more than 6,300 individuals aged 12 through 15 years who received a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at least 5 months following completion of the primary two-dose vaccination series.

There were no new cases of a rare type of heart inflammation reported to-date in these individuals, the FDA said.

Laboratory tests have shown that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines generate low immune responses against Omicron, while the addition of a booster appears to restore protection against the highly-mutated variant.

Two shots of the mRNA vaccine are about 35% effective against infection from the Omicron variant, but a booster dose restores effectiveness to 75%, according to the CDC, based on data from South Africa and the United Kingdom.

The FDA said authorizing the shot at 5 months instead of 6 may provide better protection sooner against Omicron.

Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California, said a third shot is essential to protect against Omicron for severe disease.

“A good thing here is also the change on the timing of the booster to five months instead of six. That’s a big step for this country, which has been resistant to the data,” he added.

Countries including the United Kingdom and Israel have narrowed their window for boosters from six months to three or four following the second shot to try to fight the spread of the easily transmitted Omicron variant.

Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Health Security, said he does not believe a boosters is necessary for most people since two doses of the vaccine have been effective at preventing hospitalizations and severe disease in all but older people.

“When I work at the hospital, I don’t see patients there because they lack a booster, I see patients because they lack first and second doses,” Adalja said.

(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru and Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington DC; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Bill Berkrot)

By Joyce Lee and Manya Saini

(Reuters) -Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology, two of the world’s largest memory chip makers, warned that strict COVID-19 curbs in the Chinese city of Xian could disrupt their chip manufacturing bases in the area.

The lockdown in the city puts further pressure on global supply chains and adds to a torturous year for exporters facing sharply higher freight costs even as prices for raw materials including semiconductors skyrocket amid the pandemic.

The curbs could cause delays in the supply of DRAM memory chips, widely used in data centres, Micron said on Wednesday.

The stringent restrictions, which went into effect earlier this month, may be increasingly difficult to mitigate and have resulted in thinner staffing levels at the manufacturing site, Micron added.

Samsung Electronics also said on Wednesday that it would temporarily adjust operations at its Xian manufacturing facilities for NAND flash memory chips, used for data storage in data centres, smartphones and other tech gadgets.

Seoul-based analysts said chips made in Samsung’s Xian NAND plant mainly go to China with limited shipments heading overseas. Some of the biggest demand for the kind of chips made in the plant come from Chinese server companies, they added.

Chinese officials have imposed tough curbs on travel within and leaving Xian from Dec. 23, in line with Beijing’s drive to immediately contain outbreaks as they appear.

The COVID-19 outbreak in Xian is the biggest seen by any Chinese city this year, with over 1,100 cases in total during the latest flare-up.

“We are tapping our global supply chain, including our subcontractor partners, to help service our customers for these DRAM products,” Micron said in a blog post https://www.micron.com/about/blog/2021/december/micron-statement-on-current-situation-in-xi-an-china.

“We project that these efforts will allow us to meet most of our customer demand, however there may be some near-term delays as we activate our network,” the company said.

Micron added that it was working to minimize the risk of virus transmission and had employed measures including physical distancing and on-site testing and was encouraging vaccination.

Samsung’s memory chip operation in Xian is one of the largest foreign projects in China. The tech giant has two production lines in Xian making advanced NAND Flash products, which account for 42.5% of its total NAND flash memory production capacity and 15.3% of the overall global output capacity, according to analysis provider TrendForce.

Samsung said in a late October earnings call that it had entered the July-September quarter with low inventory of NAND chips, and intended to normalise levels during that quarter.

It is expected to announce October-December earnings results in January.

(Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru, Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang in Seoul; Writing by Shri Navaratnam; Editing by Maju Samuel and Himani Sarkar)

(Reuters) -The average number of daily confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States hit a record high of 258,312 over the past seven days, a Reuters tally showed on Wednesday, as U.S. officials weigh the impact of the more transmissible Omicron variant.

The previous peak for the seven-day moving average was 250,141 confirmed cases recorded on Jan. 8 of this year. Daily records were broken this week in at least seven European nations.

The surge comes as Americans travel over the holidays. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled across the country each day since Christmas as airline staff test positive for the coronavirus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it was monitoring 86 cruise ships that have reported COVID-19 cases.

While some data from other countries showed less disease with Omicron, it was too early to gauge the impact across the United States, particularly given its uneven vaccination rates, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday.

Still, she noted in a call with reporters that while the seven-day daily average of positive cases is up 60% over the previous week, the hospitalization rate for the same period is up only 14%, to about 9,000 per day. Deaths were down about 7% to 1,100 per day, she said.

More than 76,000 people are hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide, up 19% in the past 10 days, according to a Reuters tally.

The CDC released new guidance this week shortening the isolation period for people with a confirmed infection to five days from 10, so long as they are asymptomatic. The move was partly designed to ease staff shortages in hospitals, airlines and other vital services.

Some infectious disease experts, however, have faulted the policy for not distinguishing between vaccinated and unvaccinated people, who recover from the virus at different rates. The new policy also does not require testing to confirm that a person is no longer infectious before they go back to work or socialize.

States showing the highest daily infection numbers on Tuesday included New York, which reported 40,780 cases, and California, which reported over 30,000. Texas reported more than 17,000 cases and Ohio over 15,000.

The Omicron variant was estimated to account for 58.6% of U.S. infections as of Dec. 25, according to CDC data released on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Susan Heavey in Washington, Lisa Shumaker and Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Aparupa Mazumder in Bengaluru; Writing by Keith Weir and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Gareth Jones, Chizu Nomiyama, Mark Porter and Richard Chang)

By Joe Woodward, Chair Recruitment Director,VistageThroughout any given year, a certain proportion of the workforce will change jobs. But as we know, 2021 has been anything but normal.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) reports that total job vacancies in the UK reached 1.1 million between July and September 2021 – this is the highest figure since records began in 2001.

With so many vacancies and so few candidates, employers have been forced to increase wages to both attract and retain talent. In fact, data from the ONS reveals a 6% rise in average pay.

These statistics are mirrored by Vistage’s latest SME Confidence Index by which, in Q3, 70% business leaders reported difficulties in recruiting and retaining talent. As a result, 71% have increased wages to compensate. The number of vacancies has impacted on retention too. 31% of CEOs are seeing greater levels of employee churn, and 40% of leaders are seeing its impact on their ability to operate at full capacity.

During lockdown in 2020, UK workers were looking out on what they saw as a relatively bleak and uncertain landscape. Fast forward to 2022, the picture is a little different as the economy continues to bounce back, and we all learn to live with COVID-19. Many people have felt empowered to seek new and more fulfilling jobs that meet their new expectations.

This has created a challenge for businesses in the UK to attract new talent as well as retaining their best people. Here are some top tips on how to win the war for talent and retain the most valued employees as a small business leader.

• Identify who your best people are

In order to plan accordingly for the current talent war, business leaders need to take the time to identify the workers they simply cannot afford to lose. Ask yourself, “whose resignation would give me sleepless nights?”.

Every organisation has a small percentage of people who are absolutely mission critical. Once identified, business leaders should make it a priority to connect and understand what the priorities are for these groups of people and what their expectations in the workplace are. By ensuring that the business is doing all it can to ensure that they are happy and performing in their role would be critical for retention.

●       Ensure employees feel valued now

Once businesses can establish their star employees it’s vital that they’re made aware of how valued and appreciated they are within the team. star. Are they getting some stretch in their role? Are they receiving the recognition they deserve?

Failing to communicate this properly can leave employees feeling unacknowledged or taken for granted and push them to look elsewhere for job satisfaction.

●       Invest in your team

It’s also worth sitting down with employees at least every six months to explore their aspirations and the opportunities that might exist for them within the business in the next 12 – 24 months; and have an open conversation about whether their current pay is in line with performance in the company.

Once you’ve answered all these questions, you should be able to clearly see if you’re doing enough to keep your top people. If you’re not doing enough, you’re at a pivotal moment.

What are you going to do to try and keep this team member? Do you need to act now and conduct a retention interview with this person to prevent an exit interview in two- or three-months’ time?

Conclusion

The war for talent doesn’t have to end in attrition resulting in The War for Talent. The past couple of years have been difficult for most business leaders who have been left juggling a lot of moving parts in their business. However, it’s important that valuable employees are not forgotten in the thick of things. Leaders who clearly nurture talent will ultimately fare better than most when it comes to The Great Resignation.

Beyond this, by focusing on retaining your best people, business leaders will be better prepared to weather whatever may come in the new normal but having their most valuable team members become their most loyal; which is turn make attract more loyal employees.