Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Back where we started

Many on Wall Street will be starting the first workweek of 2022 in their home office as the omicron variant breaks infection records across America. U.S. pediatric hospitalizations for Covid-19 have risen to unprecedented levels, and in Texas—one of many Republican-led states that have sought to block safety measures and vaccine requirements—some healthcare systems are failing. Now, Governor Greg Abbott is pleading for help from an administration he regularly condemns. In the U.K., regulators followed U.S. counterparts in allowing the use of Pfizer’s new antiviral pill, though the drug raises some thorny ethical issues. Meanwhile, more research is arriving with the new year, and what was preliminary is starting to look solid: Animal studies (while not yet peer reviewed) may provide an explanation why omicron is less severe than its predecessors. Here’s the latest on the pandemic. —David E. Rovella

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

New Year’s Eve air travel got off to a bumpy start Friday morning, with another 1,300 flights canceled in the U.S. and 1,000 scrubbed for Saturday. Among the biggest offenders were JetBlue, which clipped at least 14% of its schedule; Allegiant, which nixed 19% of its planes; And United, which eliminated 11% of its service. And that was only at midday. 

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport  Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg

For most of the world, 2021 was a year of unyielding calamity. For Wall Street, it was quite profitable. U.S. stocks ended the year with a rally few predicted back in January. It was a banner year for equities, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 surging about 27%, surpassing even the most bullish outlooks. Here’s your markets wrap.

It was also a great year for multibillionaires. The richest person on Earth, Elon Musk, saw his wealth soar to levels only achieved by John D. Rockefeller. Sky-high equity markets and rising valuations of everything from mansions to crypto to commodities boosted the collective fortune of the world’s 500 richest people by more than $1 trillion.

News that the U.S. population barely grew this year, together with ever-falling birthrates and the decline in immigration, raises the possibility that the nation will be shrinking in the not-so-distant future. So fewer people means housing will be more affordable, right? Actually, no, writes Conor Sen in Bloomberg Opinion. For some it may be just the opposite.

More than 30 million fishing operations worldwide—around 90% of the total—are considered small-scale. With developing nations getting wealthier, demand for seafood is escalating, making accurate assessments of shrinking fish stocks crucial to food security. While right now that’s impossible because many don’t report catches, there may be a solution.

In 2021, gold was pretty dull. After the start of the pandemic drove it to record prices, the metal often touted as the ultimate hedge failed to capitalize on this year’s inflation. Here’s why.

Almost two years have passed since BlackRock CEO Larry Fink declared capitalism was going green and that he would help lead the way. He pledged to help make it easier to invest in companies with sustainable environmental and social practices. The reality however is trickier. His firm has been raking in ESG fund cash in ways unforeseen and the way ESG ratings are being doled out have almost zero to do with sustainability.

Larry Fink Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg

• Biden to Putin on Ukraine: U.S. will bring economic hammer down.
• Once Asia’s gleaming hub, Hong Kong is increasingly isolated.
• U.S. company said it purposely released huge methane cloud.
• Bloomberg Opinion: Here are the 10 best trades of 2021.
• Be prepared to go hungry when flying Air New Zealand.
• American television actress Betty White is dead. She was 99.
• These are the 10 best video games of 2021.

It’s been a year of massive challenges for many companies, what with an ongoing pandemic, labor shortages, supply-chain bottlenecks and rising inflation. As if all that weren’t enough, some corporations added to their own afflictions with self-made crises caused by dreadful public-relations judgment. Kara Alaimo, an associate professor of public relations at Hofstra University, reveals in Bloomberg Opinion the five biggest examples of companies or executives who squarely put their foot in it. 

Elon Musk makes the list. Photographer: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg

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