Connect with us

International

Tech Tumbles As Yields Surge, Meme Stocks Explode

Tech Tumbles As Yields Surge, Meme Stocks Explode

It’s not just the surge in meme stocks that is a case of deja vu all over again: the big action this morning is in another closely watched asset – the 10Y – where yields have soared by almost.

Published

on

Tech Tumbles As Yields Surge, Meme Stocks Explode

It's not just the surge in meme stocks that is a case of deja vu all over again: the big action this morning is in another closely watched asset - the 10Y - where yields have soared by almost 10bps, rising from 1.38% to a one-year high of 1.46%, rising just 4bps shy of the closely watched 1.50% level which Nomura predicts will spark an equity selloff.

"Inflationary signals, including a surge in commodity prices, are higher than we have seen in years,” said Geir Lode, head of global equities at the international business of Federated Hermes. “The prospect of a sooner-than-expected economic recovery has led to a surge in the U.S. 10-year yield.”

And amid fears that the stock rout will only get worse, Nasdaq futures fell 1% on Thursday, sliding for seven out of the last eight sessions, as investors rotated out of technology-related stocks...

... and into small cap and reflationary shares that will benefit from an economic rebound later in the year. The Russell 2000 index rallied and S&P500 eminis were modestly in the red. At 715 am ET, Dow e-minis were up 5 points, or 0.01%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 12.35 points, or 0.3%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 123.5 points, or 1%.

Banks such as Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Bank of America Corp were up between 0.6% and 1.2%, tracking a rise in U.S. 10-year Treasury yields. Oil producer Apache Corp gained 1.3% after it reported a smaller-than-expected fourth-quarter loss and raised its spending forecast. Tesla fell as much as 2.7% in premarket trading Thursday after the company told workers it will temporarily halt some production at its car assembly plant in California.

Meanwhile, traders were kept busy after a renewed retail frenzy re-ignited the likes of GameStop, bets on $70 a barrel oil and a decade high in copper prices drove a commodity currency rally and bond yields were still rising too. In a fresh sign of a renewed retail-driven frenzy in equity markets, GameStop shares quadrupled, rising as high as $200 overnight.

The new frenzy puzzled analysts, who had ruled out another short squeeze of the stock which had battered some hedge funds, and fueled more hype after some Twitter users pointed out a cryptic tweet of an ice-cream cone photo from activist investor Ryan Cohen - a major shareholder in GameStop and a board member.

Reddit discussion threads were buzzing again about GameStop on Thursday, with members exhorting others to pile into the stock as the rally gathers steam. “Bought lots more #GME today, let’s keep fighting !!,” wrote one Reddit user Fundssqueezzer, while another user Responsible_Fun6255 said, “Rise of the planet of the ape: GME edition”.

Other “stonks” favored by WallStreetBets retail traders also leapt again, although explanations for the moves were tenuous.  Headphone maker Koss Corp surged 57%, while cannabis company Sundial Growers rose 10%; AMC rose 29%, Express was up 42%, and Koss soared 75%. In Europe, Nokia shares are up 6.2%; the stock was also a Reddit favorite last month

The risky trading strategies employed by some traders on Reddit have drawn the ire of investing legends such as Charlie Munger, long time business partner of Warren Buffett. “It’s really stupid to have a culture which encourages as much gambling in stocks by people who have the mindset of racetrack bettors,” said Munger on Wednesday.

Of course, everyone ignored the warning and GameStop’s U.S.-listed shares soared nearly 104% on Wednesday. The volatility in GME, AMC Entertainment and other stocks led to outages on Reddit and periodic trading halts by the New York Stock Exchange. Robinhood said in a tweet that the NYSE action would impact all brokerages, but that it had not paused trading on the shares.

“It’s a pretty risky play to try and buy now ... what we might (see) at the open of the cash market is some people trying to get in,” said Oriano Lizza, premium sales trader at CMC Markets in Singapore, which does not offer pre- or post-market trade.

In any case, back to global markets where European stocks erased an earlier gain even as most European equities hold in the green. Eurostoxx 50 traded 0.2% higher having gapped up on the open. DAX fades an initial 0.5% gain to trade flat. FTSE 100 and IBEX outperform. Oil & gas, banks and miners are the best performers. Here are some of the biggest European movers today:

  • Nokia shares jump as much as 8.2%, the biggest gainer in the Stoxx Telecom Index, amid fresh interest in meme stocks. Nokia surged 26% last month as the stock became a Reddit trader favorite.
  • Telefonica shares gain as much as 5.7%, the best performer in Spain’s benchmark IBEX 35 index, after results, with Berenberg saying the telecom firm’s 4Q financials were strong.
  • DS Smith surges as much as 14%, the most since 2011, after Bloomberg reported Wednesday night that rival Mondi is exploring a potential takeover.
  • Vestas shares jumps as much as 6.2% after UBS analysts said the outlook for wind-turbine makers is continuing to gain momentum and upgraded the stock to buy.
  • Standard Chartered falls as much as 5.5% in London as the Asia-focused lender’s financial markets unit and progress on cost cutting disappoint at quarterly results.
  • Bayer shares drop as much as 4.5% after what Redburn describes as “messy” 4Q earnings and cautious 2021 dividend expectations, as well as management comments that co. may withdraw from various Roundup settlement agreements if certain eligibility and participation rates are not satisfied.

Earlier in the session, Asian stocks rebounded from their biggest drop in almost three months, bolstered by a rally in technology names. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing boosted the MSCI Asia Pacific Index after U.S. President Joe Biden said he plans to address shortfalls in chip output that have idled production at some auto plants. SK Hynix hit a 20-year high. Tencent and SoftBank were the other big contributors to the Asian benchmark’s rise. South Korea’s equity benchmark surged 3.5% to lead gains in Asia. Key gauges in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan rallied at least 1.5% each. Markets in the Philippines were shut for a local holiday. Stocks in New Zealand bucked the regional trend, with the S&P/NZX 50 index sliding 1.2%. The nation’s government said it will require the central bank to take account of rampant house prices when it sets interest rates, a change that may restrict its ability to run loose monetary policy.

“There are two clear stories now” said CMC Markets senior analyst Michael Hewson. “You have the concerns about rising yields and they are continuing to move higher today, and then you have got an economic recovery story, which is helping lift the more moderately-valued parts of the market.”

Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds have soared recently (and with CTAs the most short in two years, they are likely to rise even more), pressuring technology-related companies as the United States accelerates its coronavirus vaccination program and plans further fiscal spending. Commodities also extended gains, with investors piling into metals that can ride faster growth trends. Copper, as previewed last week, moved closer to a record high set a decade ago and aluminum touched a two-year high.

Yields have blown up despite two days of reassuring remarks by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell who offered reassurance that policy would continue to be supportive and look beyond a temporary pick-up in inflation, especially from a low base. That’s given the bond market enough reason to keep driving yields higher. Powell said on Wednesday that U.S. rates could remain low for years, while ECB board member Isabel Schnabel was out early on Thursday saying it would fight any big increases in inflation-adjusted market rates.

“A too-abrupt increase in real interest rates on the back of improving global growth prospects could jeopardise the economic recovery,” she said. “Therefore, we are monitoring financial market developments closely.”

Despite growing central bank jawboning, bond markets are still not playing ball and are threatening to steamroll over what little credibility central bankers have. Ten-year German Bund yields climbed 3 basis points in early trading. U.S. 10-year Treasury yields blew to one-year highs of 1.46% and on course for the biggest monthly rise since Donald Trump’s 2016 U.S. election victory jolted markets.

In the FX markets, the dollar slumped in early trading to three-year lows as the Fed’s stance, ongoing progress with COVID vaccination programmes and commodity market uplift boosted riskier currencies. However, it has since rebounded back to unchanged. The Australian and Canadian dollars both hit three-year highs of $0.7978 and C$1.2503 per U.S. dollar respectively. The euro touched a one-month high of $1.2183. The safe-haven yen and Swiss franc both weakened.

“It is pretty clear that there is a pretty strong concentration in the commodity currencies,” said Saxo Bank’s John Hardy. “Even with emerging markets you are seeing it to a degree,” he added, pointing to how big energy importers like Turkey’s lira had faded.

In commodities, crude oil climbed to 13-month highs after U.S. government data on Wednesday showed a drop in crude output as a deep freeze in Texas disrupted production last week. Copper prices steadied near $9,500 a tonne in London. It’s now at its highest level in almost a decade and could log its biggest monthly gains in 15 years this month.

Looking at the day ahead, data releases from the US include the second estimate of Q4 GDP, weekly initial jobless claims and the preliminary January durable goods orders reading.  From central banks, we’ll hear from the Fed’s Quarles, Bostic, Bullard and Williams, and the ECB’s De Guindos, Lane and Hernandez de Cos. Earnings releases include Salesforce, American Tower, Moderna and HP, and this afternoon EU leaders will be gathering via videoconference for a European Council meeting. Highlights on the earnings agenda include Salesforce, HP, Etsy and Monster Beverage, all expected after markets close

Market Snapshot

  • S&P 500 futures down 0.1% to 3,917.50
  • Euro up 0.4% to $1.2213
  • Brent Futures up 0.5% to $67.35/bbl
  • MXAP up 1.4% to 215.29
  • MXAPJ up 1.5% to 723.82
  • Nikkei up 1.7% to 30,168.27
  • Topix up 1.2% to 1,926.23
  • Hang Seng Index up 1.2% to 30,074.17
  • Shanghai Composite up 0.6% to 3,585.05
  • Sensex up 0.5% to 51,043.83
  • Australia S&P/ASX 200 up 0.8% to 6,834.03
  • Kospi up 3.5% to 3,099.69
  • Brent Futures up 0.5% to $67.35/bbl
  • Gold spot down 0.8% to $1,790.99
  • U.S. Dollar Index down 0.40% to 89.82

Top Overnight News from Bloomberg

  • Economic confidence in the euro area improved in February, as consumers and businesses grew more optimistic that vaccine rollouts will spark a recovery this year
  • The European Central Bank is keeping a close eye on the euro area’s financing conditions and will use bond purchases to counter any unwarranted tightening, according to chief economist Philip Lane
  • New Zealand’s government will require the central bank to take account of rampant house prices when it sets interest rates, a change that may restrict its ability to run loose monetary policy.
  • Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell emphasized his view that the economy has a long way to go in the recovery and signs of prices rising won’t necessarily lead to persistently high inflation
  • Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine was overwhelmingly effective against the virus in a study that followed nearly 1.2 million people in Israel, results that public-health experts said show that immunizations could end the pandemic
  • Australia’s central bank found itself overwhelmed by the global reflation trade after it dived back into markets and discovered its biggest bond purchases in 11 months did little to hold down yields
  • New Zealand’s government will require the central bank to take account of rampant house prices when it sets interest rates, a change that may restrict its ability to run loose monetary policy
  • The Bank of Japan’s policy review will likely center on flexible stock-fund buying, bond yield movements and the potency of negative rates
  • Oil held gains after closing at the highest level in more than a year as a slump in U.S. crude production following the cold blast and shrinking European stockpiles tightened the market further

A quick look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk

European stocks trade mostly firmer (Euro Stoxx 50 +0.1%) with price action somewhat contained in early hours as the region picked up a similarly mixed APAC lead heading into month-end. US equity futures also see a mixed session early-doors, but have waned off best levels seen overnight with the growth-led NQ (-0.6%) once again the laggard in European hours whilst the value-driven RTY (+0.6%) remains propped. The lukewarm tone in the equities markets comes as Fed officials downplayed the sustainability of the expected rise in inflation, whilst yields continue to remain elevated – with French 10yr yield turning positive for the first time since mid-2020. On the topic of rising yields, it’s worth recapping the sectorial correlation relative to a high-yield environment. The top beneficiaries from rising yields (by order) includes Banks, Cyclicals, Value, Insurance, Autos, Basic Resources. The top hit sectors meanwhile (by order) goes as such: Food & Beverage, Defensives, Growth, Healthcare, Real Estate. Meanwhile Technology and Retail see little correlation with rising rates in the context of weekly relative returns, as suggested by Goldman Sachs. This higher-yield playbook is currently portrayed within European sectors, with Banks, Oil & Gas, Basic Resources and Auto’s residing as the winners, whilst Healthcare, Food & Beverage and Chemicals reside on the other end of the spectrum. In terms of individual movers, heavyweight Bayer (-3.5%) pressures the DAX (-0.1%) lower following dismal earnings whereby revenue and Adj. EBIT deteriorated Y/Y whilst a large number of segments reported sales contractions. Other earnings-related movers include Axa (+3%), Telefonica (+2%), AB Foods (+1%), AB InBev (-5%) and Standard Chartered (-5%). Looking at M&A, FTSE-listed DS Smith (+7%) is lifted on reports Mondi (-0.7%) is reportedly considering a bid for DS Smith and has been speaking with advisors on the matter. Finally, heading into the US session, it’s worth mentioning the Reddit darling stocks - GME (+50% pre-mkt) and AMC (+16% pre-mkt) - are seeing another bout of upside after a late-door buying frenzy heading into the close.

Top European News

  • Europe’s Recovery Choices Will Leave It a Year Behind the U.S.
  • Merkel Is Leaving, But the EU Has a New Heavyweight in Draghi
  • Sunak Gives Himself Room to Raise Corporation Tax in U.K. Budget
  • How U.K. and Israel Raced to Global Lead in Covid Vaccination

Asia-Pac stocks rebounded from yesterday’s selldown after the region took impetus from the strong performance on Wall St where sentiment was underpinned by dovish Fed rhetoric and with gains led by energy and financials after oil prices and yields edged higher. ASX 200 (+0.8%) was positive in which energy stocks spearheaded the advances across the commodity-related sectors and with participants occupied by a heavy stream of earnings results including Qantas which surged despite posting a H1 net loss, as it also announced it was on track to deliver billions of cost savings over the next 3 years and is working on the assumption for international travel to resume in October. Nikkei 225 (+1.6%) coat-tailed on favourable currency flows and reclaimed the 30k status, while KOSPI (+2.1%) outperformed post-BoK meeting in which the central bank maintained its 7-day repo rate at 0.50% as expected and suggested the economy is to recover gradually led by solid growth in exports. Hang Seng (+2.1%) and Shanghai Comp. (+1.2%) were also positive in light of the global optimism and with MOFCOM planning to reinforce policy support for foreign trade, although tensions continued to linger after a US Navy warship transited through the Taiwan Strait and with USTR nominee Tai suggesting the US needs a plan for holding China accountable and to compete with its state-run economy. Finally, 10yr JGBs were lower amid gains in stocks which saw prices slip beneath the 151.00 level and as JGB yields extended to multi-year highs with 30yr and 40yr yields reaching the highest since December 2018 and January 2019, respectively, while the presence of the BoJ in the market for nearly JPY 1.3tln of JGBs with up to 10yr maturities failed to support prices.

Top Asian News

  • Hong Kong’s Biggest Builder Sun Hung Kai Posts Higher Profit
  • Hong Kong’s Richest Property Tycoon Said to Plan U.S. SPAC
  • Armenian Premier Warns of Coup as Army Tells Him to Quit
  • Aussie Dollar Breaches 80 U.S. Cents to Reach Three-Year High

In FX, the Euro marginally pipped the Aussie to the post in round number terms, but it was much more even between the single currency and both Antipodean Dollars when it came to percentage gains vs the Greenback before the former accelerated beyond 1.2225. All 3 are gleaning leverage from yield differentials, while Eur/Usd is also benefiting from supportive month end rebalancing flows and what looks like a more concerted technical correction in Eur/Gbp after the midweek bounce from just under 0.8550. Hence, the headline pair has breached recent highs ahead of 1.2200 on the way to circa 1.2235 and applied further pressure on the DXY that is losing touch with 90.000 between 90.144-89.720 parameters following Wednesday’s false break through the 50 DMA. Meanwhile, Aud/Usd has peered over 0.8000 where big barriers reside with impetus from an unexpected rise in Q4 Capex that reversed the prior quarter’s fall precisely, and Nzd/Usd is hovering around 0.7450 having spiked above 0.7460 in wake of NZ Finance Minister Robertson formally announcing changes to the RBNZ’s remit to include house prices. Note, modest declines in NBNZ business sentiment and the activity outlook were largely shrugged off, but looming trade data will likely draw more attention.

  • GBP/CAD - Notwithstanding the aforementioned retracement against the Euro, Sterling has taken advantage of general Dollar weakness to reclaim 1.4150+ status, and the Loonie has notched another milestone with the aid of strong oil prices with Usd/Cad down through 1.2500.
  • CHF/JPY- The Franc and Yen are still lagging due to less attractive costs of carry even though JGBs were flogged overnight in catch-up trade as widely anticipated, as the former languishes below 0.9050 and latter under 106.00 ahead of Tokyo CPI, Japanese ip and retail sales.
  • SCANDI/EM - The Sek is back on a more even keel vs the Nok and Eur amidst bullish rebalancing requirements given an above average standard deviation for the end of February, while Swedish sentiment indices for the current month were firmer across the board. Elsewhere, most EM currencies are reeling on the high yield eroding risk appetite and threatening capital flight scenario.

In commodities, WTI and Brent front-month futures are firmer on the session and hovering around best levels during early European trade. The complex overnight benefited from a mostly upbeat APAC session, whilst sources yesterday highlighted a rift building among OPEC+ members ahead of the meeting next week. One source suggested prices are “definitely high” and more oil is needed to cool the markets – adding that a 500k BPD increase looks to be a good option. Conversely, another source suggested no more relaxations until June given the risk of new variants and setbacks in the battle against COVID. Saudi will have to avoid a rift widening as the Kingdom itself is currently poised to reintroduced the 1mln BPD of oil which was taken offline as a goodwill gesture in January. ING previously suggested “It is unlikely that the group would bring a little over 2.2mln BPD of supply back onto the market, aware that the market would baulk at such a decision”, but the bank highlights that there is room for some sort of easing, contingent on how much output volume Saudi decides to bring back from its own additional cuts. Barclays meanwhile, forecasts 2021 Brent at USD 62/bbl & WTI at USD 58/bbl reflecting their projection of OPEC+ to increase aggregate supply by 1.5mln BPD over Q2 and for Saudi Arabia to reverse the unilateral cut in April. Furthermore, as production in Texas is coming back online - a subsequent reflection in the price of WTI may be noticed as ING states it expects to see further crude oil builds in the weeks ahead. WTI resides mid USD 63/bbl (vs high USD 63.79/bbl) and Brent mid USD 67/bbl (vs high USD 67.70/bbl). Notable tail-risks on the table surrounds month-end factors which may offer volatility, several Fed officials speaking through the session alongside US data which includes Initial Jobless Claims and Q4 PCE prices. Elsewhere, precious metals are mixed on the session, with spot gold trading below the USD 1800/oz handle amid headwinds from rising yields and spot silver nursed earlier losses. As a side note for silver, Reddit retail traders have been driving GME prices higher again so it may be something to just keep an eye on for any potential targeting of silver. Turning to base metals, LME copper has gains of around 0.5% and trades above USD 9,500/t, continuing the narrative as a recovery metal surrounding the reflationary backdrop. More on base metals. Looking further ahead, some suggest aluminium supply in China could be affected by China’s journey to net-zero CO2 emissions by 2060. China Inner Mongolia has seen a series of environmental changes which would inhibit further capacity growth as the region accounts for 9.0% of total Chinese aluminium supply.

US Event Calendar

  • 8:30am: 4Q GDP Annualized QoQ, est. 4.2%, prior 4.0%
  • 8:30am: Feb. Initial Jobless Claims, est. 825,000, prior 861,000; Continuing Claims, est. 4.46m, prior 4.49m;
  • 8:30am: Jan. Durable Goods Orders, est. 1.1%, prior 0.5%
  • 8:30am: Jan. Cap Goods Ship Nondef Ex Air, est. 0.6%, prior 0.7%; Cap Goods Orders Nondef Ex Air, est. 0.8%, prior 0.7%
  • 8:30am: 4Q PCE Core QoQ, est. 1.4%, prior 1.4%; 4Q Personal Consumption, est. 2.5%, prior 2.5%
  • 8:30am: 4Q GDP Price Index, est. 2.0%, prior 2.0%
  • 9:45am: Feb. Bloomberg Consumer Comfort, prior 45.8
  • 10am: Jan. Pending Home Sales YoY, prior 22.8%; Pending Home Sales (MoM), est. 0%, prior -0.3%
  • 11am: Feb. Kansas City Fed Manf. Activity, est. 15, prior 17

DB's Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap

Risk appetite showed signs of returning to global markets over the last 24 hours as Fed Chair Powell stuck to his reassuring tone and continued to signal that the central bank would keep policy accommodative for some time to come. The remarks led to a sharp turnaround across a number of different asset classes, with the S&P 500 moving from an intraday low of -0.56% shortly after the open to end the session +1.14% higher, which was the strongest daily performance for the index in over 3 weeks. Perhaps the most headline-grabbing comment from Powell was thatit could take more than 3 years before the Fed reached its inflation goal of 2%, helping to reiterate the message that the Fed are in absolutely no rush to pare back on stimulus any time soon, and he reaffirmed his message that the labour market was very far from the Fed’s goal, saying that there was still “a long way to go” before the US got to maximum employment. We should find out more on the Fed’s current thinking on inflation in the next 3 weeks when they release their new Summary of Economic Projections at the March FOMC meeting.

Looking at the moves in more depth, risk assets had their best day for some time thanks to Powell, though it was energy stocks that saw the largest gains thanks to another sizeable rise in oil prices. In fact, both Brent crude (+2.55%) and WTI (+2.51%) climbed to their highest levels in over a year yesterday, at $67.04/bbl and $63.22/bbl respectively, as the combination of tighter supplies and recovering economic demand proved supportive, and they’re holding those levels this morning. Otherwise though, it was cyclical industries that led the advance, with autos (+5.60%), banks (+2.49%) and capital goods (+2.26%) being among the strongest performers in the S&P. Tech stocks recovered their losses too, with the NASDAQ up +0.99%, while over in Europe the STOXX 600 gained +0.46%. The reflation/reopen trade was in full force in Europe as well with the travel & leisure (+1.87%), energy (+1.71%) and basic resources (+1.46%) again leading the charge here.

Even as Powell struck a dovish tone, sovereign bonds continued to lose ground on both sides of the Atlantic, and yields on 10yr Treasuries rose +3.4bps to 1.376%, their highest closing level in a year, and have moved up a further +2.0bps this morning. As with equities though, that was some distance from its intraday high, at which point yields had climbed all the way to 1.434%. The moves were evident across the curve, with 30yr Treasury yields rising +5.2bps yesterday to their own 1-year high, which helped the 5s30s curve reach its steepest level in over 6 years. For Europe it was a similar story, with yields paring back their intraday highs as Powell spoke, though they still closed at levels not seen in months, with yields on 10yr bunds (+1.2bps), OATs (1.4bps) and BTPs (+4.2bps) all moving higher. The moves in turn have proved supportive for bank stocks, with the STOXX Banks index in Europe up a further +1.36% yesterday at its highest level since the pandemic began.

Overnight in Asia, markets have taken Wall Street’s lead with the Nikkei (+1.57%), Hang Seng (+2.15%), Shanghai Comp (+1.07%) and ASX (+0.93%) all rising. Futures on the S&P 500 are also trading +0.25% higher and sovereign bond yields have continued to climb in Asia, with Japan’s 30yr yield (+1.9bps) at its highest level since December 2018, and 10yr yields on Australian (+10.3bps) and New Zealand (+18.4bps) debt seeing sharp moves higher. For New Zealand, the moves have been prompted by a decision to change the RBNZ’s remit to support more sustainable house prices and improve affordability for first time buyers, which has led to expectations that the central bank could tighten more quickly than previously expected. On top of this, the Bank of Korea left their main interest rate unchanged at 0.5% as expected, though they raised their CPI forecast for 2021 by three-tenths to +1.3%.

Staying on central banks, a number of other Fed speakers gave remarks yesterday, though the overall tone didn’t add much to what we already knew. Vice Chair Clarida gave a speech on the economic outlook and monetary policy, where he made the point others have about “the true unemployment rate” being closer to 10% when you factor in declines in the labour force and misclassification. However, he remains “bullish on the economic rebound in the US” and sees inflation reaching around 2% by end of 2021. Separately Governor Brainard noted that transitory inflation was “not the kind of inflation that monetary policy would react to”.

Here in the UK, multiple newspapers have reported that the government are potentially planning for a rise in corporation tax at next week’s budget on Wednesday, with the FT saying that Chancellor Sunak would announce “a sharp rise” in the tax from its current 19%, and that the similar proposed increase in the US from 21% to 28% would offer some cover in terms of competitiveness. Other proposals reported have been a six-month extension to the uplift in Universal Credit mentioned in the Telegraph, as well as a Times report that the holiday on stamp duty (the home purchase tax) would be extended until the end of June. For those wanting more info, our UK economists released their preview of the budget yesterday (link here).

Turning to the pandemic, we got some very positive news yesterday as a large-scale study of almost 1.2m people in Israel showed that 2 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine prevented 94% of infections. On top of this, staff at the FDA in the US wrote that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was safe and effective, which comes ahead of an FDA committee meeting tomorrow where they’ll be discussing whether to give it an emergency use authorization. Unlike the other vaccines authorised in the US (Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna), the Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires a single dose, and the company have said that they’ll initially be able to provide 4m shots. Elsewhere, Ghana received the first delivery from the Covax vaccine-sharing initiative, which is seeking to support vaccine distribution in lower-income countries, with 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. When it comes to global restrictions there was a divergent picture however, with France announcing that Dunkirk would go into lockdown over the weekend, while in Switzerland, it was confirmed that shops, museums and outdoor sports and leisure facilities would be open from Monday. Meanwhile Moderna announced plans to study various approaches to vaccine boosters to protect against the variant strains, at the same time as they’re taking steps to ramp up production in the next year. The company has already completed manufacturing and sending doses to researchers for a clinical study around the South African strain.

As we mentioned in yesterday’s edition, it’s now been over a year since the first big pandemic-related selloff for markets as the virus started to hit Western nations. In Jim’s chart of the day yesterday (link here) ), we showed the performance of a number of global assets since this point, and also include the low point over the last 12 months. Commodities have been among the strongest performers, with copper leading the way as it hit its highest level in nearly a decade yesterday, whilst gold, silver and oil have also seen major gains. European equities have been the worst hit however, falling behind other regions as a number of indices still haven’t recovered to their pre-Covid levels.

In terms of yesterday’s data releases, the final German GDP reading for Q4 was revised up to show +0.3% growth quarter-on-quarter (vs. +0.1% initial estimate). Looking at the breakdown, private consumption saw the biggest hit (-3.3% qoq), though the savings rate rose again to 17.7%, which supports the argument from our German economists (link here) that pent-up demand will support the economy in the summer half and potentially add to emerging inflationary pressures. With the more positive end to last year, they’re maintaining their 4% GDP forecast for 2021. The other main data release were the new home sales figures from the US, which rose to a stronger-than-expected annualised rate of 923k in January (vs. 856k expected).

To the day ahead now, and data releases from the US include the second estimate of Q4 GDP, weekly initial jobless claims and the preliminary January durable goods orders reading. Over in Europe, there’s also the final Euro Area consumer confidence reading for February, and the January M3 money supply figure. From central banks, we’ll hear from the Fed’s Quarles, Bostic, Bullard and Williams, and the ECB’s De Guindos, Lane and Hernandez de Cos. Earnings releases include Salesforce, American Tower, Moderna and HP, and this afternoon EU leaders will be gathering via videoconference for a European Council meeting.

Tyler Durden Thu, 02/25/2021 - 07:55

Read More

Continue Reading

Government

Rand Paul Teases Senate GOP Leader Run – Musk Says “I Would Support”

Rand Paul Teases Senate GOP Leader Run – Musk Says "I Would Support"

Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul on Friday hinted that he may jump…

Published

on

Rand Paul Teases Senate GOP Leader Run - Musk Says "I Would Support"

Republican Kentucky Senator Rand Paul on Friday hinted that he may jump into the race to become the next Senate GOP leader, and Elon Musk was quick to support the idea. Republicans must find a successor for periodically malfunctioning Mitch McConnell, who recently announced he'll step down in November, though intending to keep his Senate seat until his term ends in January 2027, when he'd be within weeks of turning 86. 

So far, the announced field consists of two quintessential establishment types: John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota. While John Barrasso's name had been thrown around as one of "The Three Johns" considered top contenders, the Wyoming senator on Tuesday said he'll instead seek the number two slot as party whip. 

Paul used X to tease his potential bid for the position which -- if the GOP takes back the upper chamber in November -- could graduate from Minority Leader to Majority Leader. He started by telling his 5.1 million followers he'd had lots of people asking him about his interest in running...

...then followed up with a poll in which he predictably annihilated Cornyn and Thune, taking a 96% share as of Friday night, with the other two below 2% each. 

Elon Musk was quick to back the idea of Paul as GOP leader, while daring Cornyn and Thune to follow Paul's lead by throwing their names out for consideration by the Twitter-verse X-verse. 

Paul has been a stalwart opponent of security-state mass surveillance, foreign interventionism -- to include shoveling billions of dollars into the proxy war in Ukraine -- and out-of-control spending in general. He demonstrated the latter passion on the Senate floor this week as he ridiculed the latest kick-the-can spending package:   

In February, Paul used Senate rules to force his colleagues into a grueling Super Bowl weekend of votes, as he worked to derail a $95 billion foreign aid bill. "I think we should stay here as long as it takes,” said Paul. “If it takes a week or a month, I’ll force them to stay here to discuss why they think the border of Ukraine is more important than the US border.”

Don't expect a Majority Leader Paul to ditch the filibuster -- he's been a hardy user of the legislative delay tactic. In 2013, he spoke for 13 hours to fight the nomination of John Brennan as CIA director. In 2015, he orated for 10-and-a-half-hours to oppose extension of the Patriot Act

Rand Paul amid his 10 1/2 hour filibuster in 2015

Among the general public, Paul is probably best known as Capitol Hill's chief tormentor of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease during the Covid-19 pandemic. Paul says the evidence indicates the virus emerged from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology. He's accused Fauci and other members of the US government public health apparatus of evading questions about their funding of the Chinese lab's "gain of function" research, which takes natural viruses and morphs them into something more dangerous. Paul has pointedly said that Fauci committed perjury in congressional hearings and that he belongs in jail "without question."   

Musk is neither the only nor the first noteworthy figure to back Paul for party leader. Just hours after McConnell announced his upcoming step-down from leadership, independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr voiced his support: 

In a testament to the extent to which the establishment recoils at the libertarian-minded Paul, mainstream media outlets -- which have been quick to report on other developments in the majority leader race -- pretended not to notice that Paul had signaled his interest in the job. More than 24 hours after Paul's test-the-waters tweet-fest began, not a single major outlet had brought it to the attention of their audience. 

That may be his strongest endorsement yet. 

Tyler Durden Sun, 03/10/2024 - 20:25

Read More

Continue Reading

Spread & Containment

‘I couldn’t stand the pain’: the Turkish holiday resort that’s become an emergency dental centre for Britons who can’t get treated at home

The crisis in NHS dentistry is driving increasing numbers abroad for treatment. Here are some of their stories.

This clinic in the Turkish resort of Antalya is the official 'dental sponsor' of the Miss England competition. Diana Ibanez-Tirado, Author provided

It’s a hot summer day in the Turkish city of Antalya, a Mediterranean resort with golden beaches, deep blue sea and vibrant nightlife. The pool area of the all-inclusive resort is crammed with British people on sun loungers – but they aren’t here for a holiday. This hotel is linked to a dental clinic that organises treatment packages, and most of these guests are here to see a dentist.

From Norwich, two women talk about gums and injections. A man from Wales holds a tissue close to his mouth and spits blood – he has just had two molars extracted.

The dental clinic organises everything for these dental “tourists” throughout their treatment, which typically lasts from three to 15 days. The stories I hear of what has caused them to travel to Turkey are strikingly similar: all have struggled to secure dental treatment at home on the NHS.

“The hotel is nice and some days I go to the beach,” says Susan*, a hairdresser in her mid-30s from Norwich. “But really, we aren’t tourists like in a proper holiday. We come here because we have no choice. I couldn’t stand the pain.”

Seaside beach resort with mountains in the distance
The Turkish Mediterranean resort of Antalya. Akimov Konstantin/Shutterstock

This is Susan’s second visit to Antalya. She explains that her ordeal started two years earlier:

I went to an NHS dentist who told me I had gum disease … She did some cleaning to my teeth and gums but it got worse. When I ate, my teeth were moving … the gums were bleeding and it was very painful. I called to say I was in pain but the clinic was not accepting NHS patients any more.

The only option the dentist offered Susan was to register as a private patient:

I asked how much. They said £50 for x-rays and then if the gum disease got worse, £300 or so for extraction. Four of them were moving – imagine: £1,200 for losing your teeth! Without teeth I’d lose my clients, but I didn’t have the money. I’m a single mum. I called my mum and cried.

Susan’s mother told her about a friend of hers who had been to Turkey for treatment, then together they found a suitable clinic:

The prices are so much cheaper! Tooth extraction, x-rays, consultations – it all comes included. The flight and hotel for seven days cost the same as losing four teeth in Norwich … I had my lower teeth removed here six months ago, now I’ve got implants … £2,800 for everything – hotel, transfer, treatments. I only paid the flights separately.

In the UK, roughly half the adult population suffers from periodontitis – inflammation of the gums caused by plaque bacteria that can lead to irreversible loss of gums, teeth, and bone. Regular reviews by a dentist or hygienist are required to manage this condition. But nine out of ten dental practices cannot offer NHS appointments to new adult patients, while eight in ten are not accepting new child patients.

Some UK dentists argue that Britons who travel abroad for treatment do so mainly for cosmetic procedures. They warn that dental tourism is dangerous, and that if their treatment goes wrong, dentists in the UK will be unable to help because they don’t want to be responsible for further damage. Susan shrugs this off:

Dentists in England say: ‘If you go to Turkey, we won’t touch you [afterwards].’ But I don’t worry because there are no appointments at home anyway. They couldn’t help in the first place, and this is why we are in Turkey.

‘How can we pay all this money?’

As a social anthropologist, I travelled to Turkey a number of times in 2023 to investigate the crisis of NHS dentistry, and the journeys abroad that UK patients are increasingly making as a result. I have relatives in Istanbul and have been researching migration and trading patterns in Turkey’s largest city since 2016.

In August 2023, I visited the resort in Antalya, nearly 400 miles south of Istanbul. As well as Susan, I met a group from a village in Wales who said there was no provision of NHS dentistry back home. They had organised a two-week trip to Turkey: the 12-strong group included a middle-aged couple with two sons in their early 20s, and two couples who were pensioners. By going together, Anya tells me, they could support each other through their different treatments:

I’ve had many cavities since I was little … Before, you could see a dentist regularly – you didn’t even think about it. If you had pain or wanted a regular visit, you phoned and you went … That was in the 1990s, when I went to the dentist maybe every year.

Anya says that once she had children, her family and work commitments meant she had no time to go to the dentist. Then, years later, she started having serious toothache:

Every time I chewed something, it hurt. I ate soups and soft food, and I also lost weight … Even drinking was painful – tea: pain, cold water: pain. I was taking paracetamol all the time! I went to the dentist to fix all this, but there were no appointments.

Anya was told she would have to wait months, or find a dentist elsewhere:

A private clinic gave me a list of things I needed done. Oh my God, almost £6,000. My husband went too – same story. How can we pay all this money? So we decided to come to Turkey. Some people we know had been here, and others in the village wanted to come too. We’ve brought our sons too – they also need to be checked and fixed. Our whole family could be fixed for less than £6,000.

By the time they travelled, Anya’s dental problems had turned into a dental emergency. She says she could not live with the pain anymore, and was relying on paracetamol.

In 2023, about 6 million adults in the UK experienced protracted pain (lasting more than two weeks) caused by toothache. Unintentional paracetamol overdose due to dental pain is a significant cause of admissions to acute medical units. If left untreated, tooth infections can spread to other parts of the body and cause life-threatening complications – and on rare occasions, death.

In February 2024, police were called to manage hundreds of people queuing outside a newly opened dental clinic in Bristol, all hoping to be registered or seen by an NHS dentist. One in ten Britons have admitted to performing “DIY dentistry”, of which 20% did so because they could not find a timely appointment. This includes people pulling out their teeth with pliers and using superglue to repair their teeth.

In the 1990s, dentistry was almost entirely provided through NHS services, with only around 500 solely private dentists registered. Today, NHS dentist numbers in England are at their lowest level in a decade, with 23,577 dentists registered to perform NHS work in 2022-23, down 695 on the previous year. Furthermore, the precise division of NHS and private work that each dentist provides is not measured.

The COVID pandemic created longer waiting lists for NHS treatment in an already stretched public service. In Bridlington, Yorkshire, people are now reportedly having to wait eight-to-nine years to get an NHS dental appointment with the only remaining NHS dentist in the town.

In his book Patients of the State (2012), Argentine sociologist Javier Auyero describes the “indignities of waiting”. It is the poor who are mostly forced to wait, he writes. Queues for state benefits and public services constitute a tangible form of power over the marginalised. There is an ethnic dimension to this story, too. Data suggests that in the UK, patients less likely to be effective in booking an NHS dental appointment are non-white ethnic groups and Gypsy or Irish travellers, and that it is particularly challenging for refugees and asylum-seekers to access dental care.


This article is part of Conversation Insights
The Insights team generates long-form journalism derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.


In 2022, I experienced my own dental emergency. An infected tooth was causing me debilitating pain, and needed root canal treatment. I was advised this would cost £71 on the NHS, plus £307 for a follow-up crown – but that I would have to wait months for an appointment. The pain became excruciating – I could not sleep, let alone wait for months. In the same clinic, privately, I was quoted £1,300 for the treatment (more than half my monthly income at the time), or £295 for a tooth extraction.

I did not want to lose my tooth because of lack of money. So I bought a flight to Istanbul immediately for the price of the extraction in the UK, and my tooth was treated with root canal therapy by a private dentist there for £80. Including the costs of travelling, the total was a third of what I was quoted to be treated privately in the UK. Two years on, my treated tooth hasn’t given me any more problems.

A better quality of life

Not everyone is in Antalya for emergency procedures. The pensioners from Wales had contacted numerous clinics they found on the internet, comparing prices, treatments and hotel packages at least a year in advance, in a carefully planned trip to get dental implants – artificial replacements for tooth roots that help support dentures, crowns and bridges.

Street view of a dental clinic in Antalya, Turkey
Dental clinic in Antalya, Turkey. Diana Ibanez-Tirado, CC BY-NC-ND

In Turkey, all the dentists I speak to (most of whom cater mainly for foreigners, including UK nationals) consider implants not a cosmetic or luxurious treatment, but a development in dentistry that gives patients who are able to have the procedure a much better quality of life. This procedure is not available on the NHS for most of the UK population, and the patients I meet in Turkey could not afford implants in private clinics back home.

Paul is in Antalya to replace his dentures, which have become uncomfortable and irritating to his gums, with implants. He says he couldn’t find an appointment to see an NHS dentist. His wife Sonia went through a similar procedure the year before and is very satisfied with the results, telling me: “Why have dentures that you need to put in a glass overnight, in the old style? If you can have implants, I say, you’re better off having them.”

Most of the dental tourists I meet in Antalya are white British: this city, known as the Turkish Riviera, has developed an entire economy catering to English-speaking tourists. In 2023, more than 1.3 million people visited the city from the UK, up almost 15% on the previous year.


Read more: NHS dentistry is in crisis – are overseas dentists the answer?


In contrast, the Britons I meet in Istanbul are predominantly from a non-white ethnic background. Omar, a pensioner of Pakistani origin in his early 70s, has come here after waiting “half a year” for an NHS appointment to fix the dental bridge that is causing him pain. Omar’s son had been previously for a hair transplant, and was offered a free dental checkup by the same clinic, so he suggested it to his father. Having worked as a driver for a manufacturing company for two decades in Birmingham, Omar says he feels disappointed to have contributed to the British economy for so long, only to be “let down” by the NHS:

At home, I must wait and wait and wait to get a bridge – and then I had many problems with it. I couldn’t eat because the bridge was uncomfortable and I was in pain, but there were no appointments on the NHS. I asked a private dentist and they recommended implants, but they are far too expensive [in the UK]. I started losing weight, which is not a bad thing at the beginning, but then I was worrying because I couldn’t chew and eat well and was losing more weight … Here in Istanbul, I got dental implants – US$500 each, problem solved! In England, each implant is maybe £2,000 or £3,000.

In the waiting area of another clinic in Istanbul, I meet Mariam, a British woman of Iraqi background in her late 40s, who is making her second visit to the dentist here. Initially, she needed root canal therapy after experiencing severe pain for weeks. Having been quoted £1,200 in a private clinic in outer London, Mariam decided to fly to Istanbul instead, where she was quoted £150 by a dentist she knew through her large family. Even considering the cost of the flight, Mariam says the decision was obvious:

Dentists in England are so expensive and NHS appointments so difficult to find. It’s awful there, isn’t it? Dentists there blamed me for my rotten teeth. They say it’s my fault: I don’t clean or I ate sugar, or this or that. I grew up in a village in Iraq and didn’t go to the dentist – we were very poor. Then we left because of war, so we didn’t go to a dentist … When I arrived in London more than 20 years ago, I didn’t speak English, so I still didn’t go to the dentist … I think when you move from one place to another, you don’t go to the dentist unless you are in real, real pain.

In Istanbul, Mariam has opted not only for the urgent root canal treatment but also a longer and more complex treatment suggested by her consultant, who she says is a renowned doctor from Syria. This will include several extractions and implants of back and front teeth, and when I ask what she thinks of achieving a “Hollywood smile”, Mariam says:

Who doesn’t want a nice smile? I didn’t come here to be a model. I came because I was in pain, but I know this doctor is the best for implants, and my front teeth were rotten anyway.

Dentists in the UK warn about the risks of “overtreatment” abroad, but Mariam appears confident that this is her opportunity to solve all her oral health problems. Two of her sisters have already been through a similar treatment, so they all trust this doctor.

Alt text
An Istanbul clinic founded by Afghan dentists has a message for its UK customers. Diana Ibanez-Tirado, CC BY-NC-ND

The UK’s ‘dental deserts’

To get a fuller understanding of the NHS dental crisis, I’ve also conducted 20 interviews in the UK with people who have travelled or were considering travelling abroad for dental treatment.

Joan, a 50-year-old woman from Exeter, tells me she considered going to Turkey and could have afforded it, but that her back and knee problems meant she could not brave the trip. She has lost all her lower front teeth due to gum disease and, when I meet her, has been waiting 13 months for an NHS dental appointment. Joan tells me she is living in “shame”, unable to smile.

In the UK, areas with extremely limited provision of NHS dental services – known as as “dental deserts” – include densely populated urban areas such as Portsmouth and Greater Manchester, as well as many rural and coastal areas.

In Felixstowe, the last dentist taking NHS patients went private in 2023, despite the efforts of the activist group Toothless in Suffolk to secure better access to NHS dentists in the area. It’s a similar story in Ripon, Yorkshire, and in Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, where nearly 25,000 patients have been de-registered from NHS dentists since 2021.

Data shows that 2 million adults must travel at least 40 miles within the UK to access dental care. Branding travel for dental care as “tourism” carries the risk of disguising the elements of duress under which patients move to restore their oral health – nationally and internationally. It also hides the immobility of those who cannot undertake such journeys.

The 90-year-old woman in Dumfries & Galloway who now faces travelling for hours by bus to see an NHS dentist can hardly be considered “tourism” – nor the Ukrainian war refugees who travelled back from West Sussex and Norwich to Ukraine, rather than face the long wait to see an NHS dentist.

Many people I have spoken to cannot afford the cost of transport to attend dental appointments two hours away – or they have care responsibilities that make it impossible. Instead, they are forced to wait in pain, in the hope of one day securing an appointment closer to home.

Billboard advertising a dental clinic in Turkey
Dental clinics have mushroomed in recent years in Turkey, thanks to the influx of foreign patients seeking a wide range of treatments. Diana Ibanez-Tirado, CC BY-NC-ND

‘Your crisis is our business’

The indignities of waiting in the UK are having a big impact on the lives of some local and foreign dentists in Turkey. Some neighbourhoods are rapidly changing as dental and other health clinics, usually in luxurious multi-storey glass buildings, mushroom. In the office of one large Istanbul medical complex with sections for hair transplants and dentistry (plus one linked to a hospital for more extensive cosmetic surgery), its Turkish owner and main investor tells me:

Your crisis is our business, but this is a bazaar. There are good clinics and bad clinics, and unfortunately sometimes foreign patients do not know which one to choose. But for us, the business is very good.

This clinic only caters to foreign patients. The owner, an architect by profession who also developed medical clinics in Brazil, describes how COVID had a major impact on his business:

When in Europe you had COVID lockdowns, Turkey allowed foreigners to come. Many people came for ‘medical tourism’ – we had many patients for cosmetic surgery and hair transplants. And that was when the dental business started, because our patients couldn’t see a dentist in Germany or England. Then more and more patients started to come for dental treatments, especially from the UK and Ireland. For them, it’s very, very cheap here.

The reasons include the value of the Turkish lira relative to the British pound, the low cost of labour, the increasing competition among Turkish clinics, and the sheer motivation of dentists here. While most dentists catering to foreign patients are from Turkey, others have arrived seeking refuge from war and violence in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and beyond. They work diligently to rebuild their lives, careers and lost wealth.

Regardless of their origin, all dentists in Turkey must be registered and certified. Hamed, a Syrian dentist and co-owner of a new clinic in Istanbul catering to European and North American patients, tells me:

I know that you say ‘Syrian’ and people think ‘migrant’, ‘refugee’, and maybe think ‘how can this dentist be good?’ – but Syria, before the war, had very good doctors and dentists. Many of us came to Turkey and now I have a Turkish passport. I had to pass the exams to practise dentistry here – I study hard. The exams are in Turkish and they are difficult, so you cannot say that Syrian doctors are stupid.

Hamed talks excitedly about the latest technology that is coming to his profession: “There are always new materials and techniques, and we cannot stop learning.” He is about to travel to Paris to an international conference:

I can say my techniques are very advanced … I bet I put more implants and do more bone grafting and surgeries every week than any dentist you know in England. A good dentist is about practice and hand skills and experience. I work hard, very hard, because more and more patients are arriving to my clinic, because in England they don’t find dentists.

Dental equipment in a Turkish treatment room
Dentists in Turkey boast of using the latest technology. Diana Ibanez-Tirado, CC BY-NC-ND

While there is no official data about the number of people travelling from the UK to Turkey for dental treatment, investors and dentists I speak to consider that numbers are rocketing. From all over the world, Turkey received 1.2 million visitors for “medical tourism” in 2022, an increase of 308% on the previous year. Of these, about 250,000 patients went for dentistry. One of the most renowned dental clinics in Istanbul had only 15 British patients in 2019, but that number increased to 2,200 in 2023 and is expected to reach 5,500 in 2024.

Like all forms of medical care, dental treatments carry risks. Most clinics in Turkey offer a ten-year guarantee for treatments and a printed clinical history of procedures carried out, so patients can show this to their local dentists and continue their regular annual care in the UK. Dental treatments, checkups and maintaining a good oral health is a life-time process, not a one-off event.

Many UK patients, however, are caught between a rock and a hard place – criticised for going abroad, yet unable to get affordable dental care in the UK before and after their return. The British Dental Association has called for more action to inform these patients about the risks of getting treated overseas – and has warned UK dentists about the legal implications of treating these patients on their return. But this does not address the difficulties faced by British patients who are being forced to go abroad in search of affordable, often urgent dental care.

A global emergency

The World Health Organization states that the explosion of oral disease around the world is a result of the “negligent attitude” that governments, policymakers and insurance companies have towards including oral healthcare under the umbrella of universal healthcare. It as if the health of our teeth and mouth is optional; somehow less important than treatment to the rest of our body. Yet complications from untreated tooth decay can lead to hospitalisation.

The main causes of oral health diseases are untreated tooth decay, severe gum disease, toothlessness, and cancers of the lip and oral cavity. Cases grew during the pandemic, when little or no attention was paid to oral health. Meanwhile, the global cosmetic dentistry market is predicted to continue growing at an annual rate of 13% for the rest of this decade, confirming the strong relationship between socioeconomic status and access to oral healthcare.

In the UK since 2018, there have been more than 218,000 admissions to hospital for rotting teeth, of which more than 100,000 were children. Some 40% of children in the UK have not seen a dentist in the past 12 months. The role of dentists in prevention of tooth decay and its complications, and in the early detection of mouth cancer, is vital. While there is a 90% survival rate for mouth cancer if spotted early, the lack of access to dental appointments is causing cases to go undetected.

The reasons for the crisis in NHS dentistry are complex, but include: the real-term cuts in funding to NHS dentistry; the challenges of recruitment and retention of dentists in rural and coastal areas; pay inequalities facing dental nurses, most of them women, who are being badly hit by the cost of living crisis; and, in England, the 2006 Dental Contract that does not remunerate dentists in a way that encourages them to continue seeing NHS patients.

The UK is suffering a mass exodus of the public dentistry workforce, with workers leaving the profession entirely or shifting to the private sector, where payments and life-work balance are better, bureaucracy is reduced, and prospects for career development look much better. A survey of general dental practitioners found that around half have reduced their NHS work since the pandemic – with 43% saying they were likely to go fully private, and 42% considering a career change or taking early retirement.

Reversing the UK’s dental crisis requires more commitment to substantial reform and funding than the “recovery plan” announced by Victoria Atkins, the secretary of state for health and social care, on February 7.

The stories I have gathered show that people travelling abroad for dental treatment don’t see themselves as “tourists” or vanity-driven consumers of the “Hollywood smile”. Rather, they have been forced by the crisis in NHS dentistry to seek out a service 1,500 miles away in Turkey that should be a basic, affordable right for all, on their own doorstep.

*Names in this article have been changed to protect the anonymity of the interviewees.


For you: more from our Insights series:

To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. Subscribe to our newsletter.

Diana Ibanez Tirado receives funding from the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex.

Read More

Continue Reading

International

Beloved mall retailer files Chapter 7 bankruptcy, will liquidate

The struggling chain has given up the fight and will close hundreds of stores around the world.

Published

on

It has been a brutal period for several popular retailers. The fallout from the covid pandemic and a challenging economic environment have pushed numerous chains into bankruptcy with Tuesday Morning, Christmas Tree Shops, and Bed Bath & Beyond all moving from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

In all three of those cases, the companies faced clear financial pressures that led to inventory problems and vendors demanding faster, or even upfront payment. That creates a sort of inevitability.

Related: Beloved retailer finds life after bankruptcy, new famous owner

When a retailer faces financial pressure it sets off a cycle where vendors become wary of selling them items. That leads to barren shelves and no ability for the chain to sell its way out of its financial problems. 

Once that happens bankruptcy generally becomes the only option. Sometimes that means a Chapter 11 filing which gives the company a chance to negotiate with its creditors. In some cases, deals can be worked out where vendors extend longer terms or even forgive some debts, and banks offer an extension of loan terms.

In other cases, new funding can be secured which assuages vendor concerns or the company might be taken over by its vendors. Sometimes, as was the case with David's Bridal, a new owner steps in, adds new money, and makes deals with creditors in order to give the company a new lease on life.

It's rare that a retailer moves directly into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and decides to liquidate without trying to find a new source of funding.

Mall traffic has varied depending upon the type of mall.

Image source: Getty Images

The Body Shop has bad news for customers  

The Body Shop has been in a very public fight for survival. Fears began when the company closed half of its locations in the United Kingdom. That was followed by a bankruptcy-style filing in Canada and an abrupt closure of its U.S. stores on March 4.

"The Canadian subsidiary of the global beauty and cosmetics brand announced it has started restructuring proceedings by filing a Notice of Intention (NOI) to Make a Proposal pursuant to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (Canada). In the same release, the company said that, as of March 1, 2024, The Body Shop US Limited has ceased operations," Chain Store Age reported.

A message on the company's U.S. website shared a simple message that does not appear to be the entire story.

"We're currently undergoing planned maintenance, but don't worry we're due to be back online soon."

That same message is still on the company's website, but a new filing makes it clear that the site is not down for maintenance, it's down for good.

The Body Shop files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

While the future appeared bleak for The Body Shop, fans of the brand held out hope that a savior would step in. That's not going to be the case. 

The Body Shop filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the United States.

"The US arm of the ethical cosmetics group has ceased trading at its 50 outlets. On Saturday (March 9), it filed for Chapter 7 insolvency, under which assets are sold off to clear debts, putting about 400 jobs at risk including those in a distribution center that still holds millions of dollars worth of stock," The Guardian reported.

After its closure in the United States, the survival of the brand remains very much in doubt. About half of the chain's stores in the United Kingdom remain open along with its Australian stores. 

The future of those stores remains very much in doubt and the chain has shared that it needs new funding in order for them to continue operating.

The Body Shop did not respond to a request for comment from TheStreet.   

Read More

Continue Reading

Trending