Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Meme stock meltdown

Losses for a basket of so-called meme stocks are mounting, with nervous traders shifting away from riskier assets as the year nears an end. The group of 37 retail trading favorites tracked by Bloomberg extended losses to 5.5% on Monday, as selling pressure for markets around the globe accelerated. The index has shed almost one-quarter of its value over the past three weeks as it slides to the lowest level in seven months. Here’s your markets wrap. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the coronavirus pandemic and the progress of global vaccination efforts.

Treasury investors are losing more money than they have in four decades—once inflation is taken into account. And if markets are right, they’re unlikely to come out ahead for years. 

While most gauges of U.S. rents and home prices are surging—some at double-digit rates—the government’s consumer price index shows housing costs rising at a much tamer pace, a disparity that’s getting some high-profile attention.

Binance Asia Services, the Singapore affiliate of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has withdrawn its application to run a bourse in the city-state, ending an effort that started last year.

Construction cranes stand idle in China’s Yunnan Province, on the easternmost edge of the Himalayas. Building has ground to a halt on Hainan, off the coast of Vietnam, and up in Heilongjiang, along the Russian border. Across China, tens of millions of square feet of unfinished apartment buildings are the legacy of a real estate boom gone off the rails.

China Evergrande Group’s Health Valley development on the outskirts of Nanjing  Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

The U.K. is poised to announce as soon as Tuesday the removal of all 11 countries from its so-called Covid-19 red list, ending mandatory hotel quarantine for travelers arriving from the riskiest countries. Omicron has begun to claim lives, but the jury is still out on exactly how dangerous the variant is. More evidence is coming in, however, that shows booster shots are integral to slowing the spread of the highly transmissible mutation. In the U.S., at least 50 million people have been infected with the coronavirus over the past two years, and close to 800,000 have died. Here’s the latest on the pandemic.

South Africa withdrew a controversial notice it circulated that prompted some banks to threaten closure of accounts for thousands of Zimbabwean immigrants with permits to live and work in the country.

Inger Stojberg, a Danish politician behind some of Europe’s strictest immigration policies, will be jailed after she was found guilty of breaching her duties by illegally separating refugee couples. 

Inger Stojberg Photographer: Martin Sylvest/AFP/Getty Images

• These are the biggest economic risks for 2022.
• Bitcoin slide risks break below a key level.
• Johnson doesn’t rule out closing U.K. schools as omicron spreads.
• Northeast U.S. states deploy soldiers, home tests in Covid battle.
• Supreme Court allows New York vaccine mandate for health workers.
• New York City’s JFK airport is set for a $9.5 billion redo.
• Elon Musk loves poking the SEC bear. Will the agency claw him?

The Golden Globe Awards are coming back whether Hollywood wants them or not. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the nominees on Monday for the annual ceremony celebrating the year’s best work in film and TV. The event has been tarnished by a year of scandal. 

“Squid Game” Photographer: Youngkyu Park/Netflix

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