Bloomberg - Evening Briefing - Giants are coming for Tesla

It took awhile, but the big names in car manufacturing have cottoned to the reality that combustion engines are unlikely to be long for this world. While Tesla has dominated the space of (and publicity for) electric vehicles, Elon Musk’s company only sells about 1 car for every 10 or 11 sold by legacy giants Toyota and Volkswagen. Now, those two are beginning to act on the realization that the battery-powered age is here. The sleeping giants are awake, and they’re coming for Tesla. —David E. Rovella

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

Another giant is on the loose: It goes by the name of Brexit and it’s turning on its master. As the pandemic repeatedly smashed the U.K. with waves of infections, Prime Minister Boris Johnson kept insisting the country was on the path back to greatness, free of the European Union yoke. Not so much: Covid-19 has only turbocharged the damage being done by Brexit. Together, they may very well be his undoing.  

Boris Johnson  Photographer: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

Thursday is the one year anniversary of the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, an event unprecedented in the nation’s 246-year history. White supremacists along with other far-right extremists who advocate violent overthrow of the government moved among a larger crowd that ransacked the building. Some sought to capture members of Congress while others hung a noose on a scaffold outside. Several people died and scores of police officers were badly injured. On Thursday, the president who some in that insurrection sought to block from power will give a speech seeking unity, the White House said. But Joe Biden will also place blame for the deadly assault, and it will land squarely on Donald Trump. 

The hammering inflicted on technology stocks that began to spread into the broader market Wednesday is being fueled by one of the most intense bouts of selling by professional speculators since the 2008 financial crisis.

Rivian Automotive fell the most since mid-November after Amazon—one of its biggest backers and customers—agreed to buy electric delivery vans from rival automaker Stellantis.

U.S. Federal Reserve officials said a strengthening economy and higher inflation could lead to earlier and faster interest-rate increases, with some policymakers also favoring starting to shrink the central bank’s $8.8 trillion balance sheet soon after. Here’s your markets wrap.

Russia, which managed to bring about new security talks with western nations over Eastern Europe by massing troops on Ukraine’s border, is now demanding quick results. But the U.S. and other NATO powers have already rejected much of Vladimir Putin’s proposal, which centers on a radical remaking of European defenses in Moscow’s favor.

French President Emmanuelle Macron has a message for the willfully unvaccinated, and they are not going to like it. Hong Kong is imposing strict new virus control measures for the first time in almost a year as the highly transmissible omicron variant seeps spreads in the city. In New York, which is reprising its role as global epicenter three years after the first wave, the city has yet to reach its omicron peak. Worldwide, there were 1.2 million confirmed new Covid-19 cases and 4,400 deaths on Jan. 4 alone, though the actual numbers are likely higher. Here’s the latest on the pandemic. 

More Hong Kong residents are getting their first shots against Covid-19 as a cluster of omicron infections grows in the city. Above a community vaccination center on Jan. 4. Photographer: Chan Long Hei/Bloomberg

• Kazakh president turns to Putin for help as protests spread.
• Bloomberg QuickTake: It finally happened. “Flurona” has arrived.
• Bank of America to make $100 donation for each boosted employee.
• Bitcoin’s low-volatility price drop may be nearing an end.
• Serbian tennis star Djokovic booted from Australia over Covid papers.
• Bloomberg Businessweek: Can lab-grown meat be halal or kosher?
• New Yorkers may soon be able to get that whiskey-to-go for good.

Although 2021 brought some encouraging cracks in the pandemic’s barriers to travel, there were still many places you couldn’t go. When planning group trips, attempting to reach distant loved ones or trying to attend social events abroad, there were obstacles at every turn. The current monster wave of Covid-19 infections may be darkening the outlook for 2022 travel, but let’s assume that soon you’ll be heading for the airport again. Bloomberg Pursuits and Bloomberg Businessweek have joined forces to recommend some destinations for your 2022 getaway.

Bartenders make tiki drinks at Malo, the bar at the Peri Hotel Hua Hin.  Source: The Peri Hotel Hua Hin

Like getting the Evening Briefing? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and gain expert analysis from exclusive subscriber-only newsletters.

Bloomberg’s Green Daily is where climate science meets the future of energy, technology and finance. Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the smartest takes from our team of climate columnists. Sign up here.