(Reuters) – Authorities in China’s southern city of Shenzhen shut the world’s largest electronics market of Huaqiangbei and suspended service at 24 subway stations on Monday in a bid to curb an outbreak of the coronavirus.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
ASIA-PACIFIC
* China reported 1,696 new COVID-19 infections on Aug. 28, of which 352 were symptomatic and 1,344 were asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Monday.
* Shanghai reported no new domestically transmitted asymptomatic coronavirus cases for Aug. 28, down from eight a day earlier, while zero local symptomatic cases were reported, the city government said on Monday.
AMERICAS
* Moderna sued Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech on Friday for patent infringement in the development of the first COVID-19 vaccine approved in the United States, alleging they copied technology that Moderna developed years before the pandemic.
MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS
* Todos Medical says it is able to test for both COVID-19 and monkeypox from same saliva sample.
* Japan’s health ministry said on Monday that its panel of experts had agreed to approve manufacturing and sales of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 preventive treatment Evusheld.
* European Medicines Agency published clinical data on use of a booster dose of Moderna’s Spikevax in adolescents aged 12 to 18.
* Valneva reports positive phase 3 immunogenicity and the first heterologous booster results for its inactivated, adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine VLA2001.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
* Asian shares slid on Monday as the mounting risk of more aggressive rate hikes in the United States and Europe shoved bond yields and the dollar sharply higher, and tested equity and earnings valuations.
* China’s factory activity likely contracted again in August, a Reuters poll showed, as COVID flare-ups and a distressed property sector pummelled demand while a power crunch in southwestern China hit production.
* Central banks will fail to control inflation and could even push price growth higher unless governments start playing their part with more prudent budget policies, according to a study presented to policymakers at the Jackson Hole conference in the United States on Friday.
* Hungarian consumer and business confidence both deteriorated further in August, a survey by think tank GKI showed, with households’ confidence plunging to its lowest since April 2020, the first wave of the COVID pandemic.
* Profits at China’s industrial firms sank in July, reversing previous gains as fresh COVID-19 curbs dragged down demand and squeezed factory margins, while power shortages due to heatwaves threatened production.
* Hong Kong private home prices in July dropped to the lowest since February 2020, official data showed, as homebuyers turned more bearish due to rising interest rates and an uncertain outlook.
* India likely recorded strong double-digit economic growth in the last quarter but economists polled by Reuters expected the pace to more than halve this quarter and slow further toward the end of the year as interest rates rise.
(Compiled by Alessandro Parodi and Sherry Jacob-Phillips; Editing by Ros Russell)
