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Today's markets: Oil price high, Billionaire space race, J&J vaccine results, lorry driver shortage starts to pinch & more

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July 2, 2021

 

  • Oil price rises
  • Bezos vs. Branson
  • Lorry driver shortage set to bite?

Oil price reaches near three-year high as OPEC decision awaited

The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil has reached a near three-year high of $75 per barrel as OPEC deliberates increasing production by a modest 400,000 barrels per day each month between August and December. This comes amid resurgent demand as developed economies reopen their economies following pandemic lockdowns.

But OPEC+ failed to reach an agreement on Thursday and has delayed a decision on potentially lifting output until today. The stumbling block is the United Arab Emirates, which is looking for its production quota to be increased. Without a breakthrough, oil output could remain unchanged until 2022.

Space: the next frontier in the billionaire battles heats up

Shares in Virgin Galactic (US:SPCE) leapt by over 27 per cent in after-hours trading after the company’s founder, Richard Branson, announced that he would be flying to space aboard its next test flight on 11 July – nine days earlier than the mission planned by rival Blue Origin that will carry Amazon (US:AMZN) boss Jeff Bezos into sub-orbit.

Virgin Galactic was granted a licence by the US Federal Aviation Authority for commercial launches last month, allowing it to fly paying customers to space and paving the way for Branson’s inaugural trip.

“Virgin Galactic still has tests to come, and this is the time for me to assess the astronaut experience,” says Branson. “After 17 years of research, engineering and innovation, Virgin Galactic stands at the vanguard of a new commercial space industry poised to open the universe to humankind and change the world for good.”

Fellow billionaire Bezos – who is stepping down as Amazon’s chief executive on Monday – is being accompanied to the edge of outer space by his brother Mark and 82-year-old Wally Funk, a US aviator who was part of the cancelled Mercury 13 programme to send women to space. There is also an as yet unnamed fourth passenger who paid $28m at an auction for the coveted seat. NK

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Early data shows Johnson & Johnson vaccine effective against Delta variant

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) announced yesterday that its single dose Covid-19 vaccine demonstrated “strong neutralizing antibody activity” against the Delta variant of the virus in a small preliminary study.

Using blood samples from eight vaccinated people, J&J says that its vaccine triggered a stronger immune response than for the Beta variant from South Africa, where it has already demonstrated “high efficacy against severe/critical disease.”

Chief scientific officer Paul Stoffels says that “[t]his adds to the robust body of clinical data supporting our single-shot vaccine’s ability to protect against multiple variants of concern.”

It follows AstraZeneca (AZN) revealing last month that its vaccine reduces the chance of being hospitalised due to the Delta variant by 92 per cent, and Moderna (US:MRNA) announcing that its vaccine “produced neutralizing titres against all variants tested.”

Meanwhile, J&J also said that a separate study involving 20 people has shown that the immune response from its vaccine lasts for at least eight months. NK

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