Good morning and welcome to the Investors Chronicle's Markets Live blog for a rundown of the latest markets news which affects your portfolio.
Big oil in the crosshairs
If big polluters won’t toe the line on reducing emissions, can legal redress work. Certainly the Dutch wing of Greenpeace is hoping so after winning a landmark court victory yesterday against Royal Dutch Shell in which the company was ordered to accelerate its emissions cuts. The court in the Hague ruled that Shell’s current emissions reduction plans were not watertight or far reaching enough and said that the company must reduce its emissions by 45 per cent by 2030. There are fears that this could open the floodgates to copycat legal action around the world against major polluters.
Shell has said it will appeal the decision amid fears that it will restrict growth of the company in the future.
We recently highlighted one activist fund manager which accused Shell and BP of not being serious about net zero. Are those fears coming home to roost?
I’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond
Amazon has moved to beef up its streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, with the acquisition of Hollywood’s famous MGM Studios for a little less than $8.5bn, a deal which adds around 4,000 movies to Amazon’s back catalogue including the James Bond series.
This is the latest move in the long going consolidation of the US media scene as the streaming services continue their battle. The move is seen by analysts as a solid bolstering of Amazon’s back catalogue - something seen as a strength of the Disney+ streaming service and a threat to Netflix, whose business model has been skewed towards investing heavily in its own original content. Read our recent results coverage on Amazon.
Tesla seeking chip shortcut
The global shortage of microchips is threatening many an industry, with the automotive manufacturers in particular struggling for supplies for increasingly sophisticated cars. One way of potential circumventing this supply chain crunch is to own your own supply - something Tesla has been rumoured to have considered through the purchase of its own foundry. In the current climate this could be prohibitively expensive though and Tesla is now believed to be looking to secure supply by paying in advance - something previously unheard of in the industry.
Tesla is desperate to maintain the dramatic and ambitious pace of its expansion as it looks to stay ahead of its increasingly match-fit competitors in the industry. But will it be enough? One famous short seller thinks Tesla is ripe for knocking off its perch if his recent positioning is to be believed.
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