Listen up retards. Do you happen to feel regret because you always think “ohhh if I yoloed my savings on TSLA/AMD/NVDA 🚀 leaps years ago I could be rich by now!!!”
Well if you didn't know already, it doesn’t really matter what happened in the past. Hindsight will always be 20/20. You shouldn’t be harsh on yourself on your past self that your past self wasn’t retarded enough to yolo their savings into AMD/TSLA/.... Your past self doesn’t have the same knowledge that your current self has. It’s fine. If you judged those stocks with the best DD you could do at the time and didn’t think they were worth it, then you did a good job.
If you always think about what you could/should have done in the past, then you don't have the right attitude to play the stock market casino imho.
The single most important thing is to be able to look ahead. There are always plenty of opportunities around. There are thousands of rockets that are still on earth right now. Some may depart this year, others will stay a little longer on earth. The true strength lies in being able to identify those rockets with the knowledge you have right now. And if you still miss most rockets that will take-off this year that's fine, maybe you'll learn, get better and you'll do better next year.
Now, what if I told you there’s a big rocket that’s parked right right here on earth and it has decent chance for take-off this year? Maybe it won't quite reach the moon this year yet, but hey leaving the exosphere should already be a cool milestone.
It has rock-solid fundamentals and will see lots of growth in the following years/decade.
It’s a company that has the fundamental technology to power all the computer vision tech, which is bound to boom this decade.
The company we’re talking about is of course Sony, and it is extremely undervalued right now.
Its P/E is only 14. They have a P/S of 1.65, a PEG of 0.92 (< 2 is already somewhat exceptional for a company/conglomerate of Sony’s size, under 1 is a steal)
Much lower than all of its same-sector peers. This indicates significant undervaluation.
Next up Sony has a P/CF 13.2, ROE of 20% (S&P 500 average is 14% which would already be considered pretty good. 20% ROE is excellent), PEGY of 0.89, P/B of 2.65 and finally Sony has $41.6B in cash on hand. This makes Sony one of the cheapest tech/entertainment/EV/semiconductor growth stocks you will find on the market.
(ROE of 20% + PEGY of 0.89 + PEG of 0.92 means this company is a growth stock based on the numbers alone, but we’ll dig into the actual company and overall outlook in a moment)
I challenge all retards to find a company with similar benchmarks in one of the mentioned sectors, seriously.
Quite frankly doing this DD honestly blew my mind. I kept looking everywhere for reasons why the company could be so undervalued and why they may struggle in the future. Very important to look at all the challenges the company faces to make sure I’m not just doing confirmation bias DD. But all I could find was the opposite. After several weeks and months of working on this DD, I can only conclude that it is overall a very solid company for a bargain price. The new CEO is taking the company in a great direction imho and I'm begin to think he could be Sony's Satya Nadella.
So if you want some easy tendies, maybe consider $SNE while it is still cheap, I’d say.
For the autists out there who care about analyst ratings, SONY ($SNE) currently has 18 BUY ratings, 2 OVERWEIGHT, 4 HOLD and 0 SELL. (= analyst consensus is a STRONG BUY). Very little analysts cover this stock compared to other entertainment/tech companies, so this adds to my assertion that the stock is very much under the radar. Which means you have time to get in before it gets noticed by the larger investing world and before it starts to get a more fair valuation (P/E of around 30 would be more fair for this company I think, but still cheaper than many same sector peers). But, anyway the few analysts who do happen to cover this company are basically all saying it’s an instant-buy at its current price.
Most boomer investors still think big Japanese tech companies are dinosaurs that have long been surpassed by China, South Korea and Apple etc ages ago. Young boomers may think Sony = PlayStation and that it's it. But the truth is that PlayStation, while very important (about 24% of Sony's total revenue last year), is a part of a larger story.
Lots of investors in general associate Sony with the passé Japanese electronics companies from the 80’s and the 90’s. Just like a lot people may think BlackBerry is a struggling phone company.
While Sony may not be the powerhouse in consumer electronics it was in the 80’s and the 90’s, in a lot of ways they are more relevant than ever before. Despite being a well-known brand and being known as the company behind PlayStation, for some reason its stock still seems to be under the radar among both retail and institutional investors. And boy, are they mind-blowingly undervalued. Even if a big part of its business would collapse tomorrow, they would still be slightly undervalued. And I am about to tell you why.
(& btw compared to Japanese tech/entertainment stocks $SNE is still super cheap (Canon, Nikon, Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, Square Enix, Capcom, Nintendo, Fujitsu all have P/E ratios ranging from 18 to 77 and none of them have the combination of global clout, fundamentals & growth prospects that Sony has))
2021 Sony as a corparation is not the fucking Sony from 2005-2015’s, just like BlackBerry in 2021 is not the fucking Blackberry from 2012. Just like Garmin in 2021 is not Garmin from 2011. Just like AMD in 2021 is not AMD from 2012.
No, in 2021, Sony is the global leader in imaging technology and people do not fucking realize it. Sony has 50% marketshare in the CMOS image sensor market. There’s a very good chance the smartphone in your pocket has Sony image sensors (unless it’s a Samsung phone). Sony image sensors are powering a big part of today's vision/camera technology. And they will power even more of tomorrow's computer vision tech.
In 2021, Sony is a behemoth in video games, music, anime, movies and TV show production. Sony is present in every segment of entertainment. Sony’s entertainment branches have been doing great business over the past 5 years, especially music and PlayStation. Additionally, Sony Pictures has completely turned around.
In 2021, Sony is the world’s biggest music publisher (and second biggest music company overall). Music streaming has been a boon for Sony Music and will continue to be.
In 2021, Sony is among the biggest mobile gaming companies in the world (yes, you read that right). And it’s mainly thanks to one game (Fate/Grand Order) that nets them over $1B revenue each year. One of the biggest mobile gaming companies + arguably biggest gaming brand in the world (PlayStation).
In 2021, Sony is an EV company. They surprised the world when they revealed their “Vision-S” at CES 2020. At the reception was fantastic. It is seriously one of the best looking EV’s. They already sell sensors to Toyota. Sony will most like sell the Vision-S's tech to other car manufacturers (sensors for driving assistence / autonomous driving, LiDAR tech, infotainment system).

40 sensors in the Sony Vision-S
Considering the overwhelmingly good reception of the Vision-S so far, I suspect the Vision-S could be another catalyst that will put Sony as a company on the radar of investors and consumers.
We've seen insane investment hype for anything even remotely related to EV over the past year. We've seen a company that barely had a few EV design concepts (oh wait, they had a gravity-powered truck though) even get a $30B market cap at some point lmao.
But somehow a profitable company ($SNE) that has an EV that you can actually drive, doesn't even have a fair valuation?
In 2020’s Sony’s brand value is at their highest point since 12 years. In 2021, it is projected to be a its highest point since 2001 assuming same growth as average yearly growth from 2015 to 2020. Keep in mind brand valuation is a bit bullshitty as there’s no standardization to compare brands from different sectors, let alone non-consumer-facing brands with consumer-facing brands. But one thing we can note is that Sony both as B2C brand and as a B2B company is on a big upwards trend.
https://interbrand.com/best-global-brands/sony/
https://careers.uw.edu/blog/2020/03/17/these-are-the-10-biggest-video-game-companies-in-north-america-shared-article-from-zippia/
In 2021, Sony is an entertainment behemoth. They have grown their entertainment branches by a huge amount over the past 5 to 10 years (they made some big acquisitions in the music space especially and they’re now also all-in in anime). I don’t think people realize how big Sony is as an entertainment company. I dug up the numbers and as of Q3 2020, PlayStation is the second biggest video game company in the world (Tencent is #1) in revenue (I suspect Sony might dethrone Tencent after Sony’s FY Q3 2020 is released). But Sony already comes very close to Tencent especially if you add Fate/Grand Order (which is under Sony Music and not under PlayStation) under PlayStation.
There’s no single other company that has this unique combination of a dominant/important position in all entertainment segments. (video games + music + movies + TV series + anime + TV networks). I guess Tencent maybe?
In 2021, Sony has amazing momentum in the camera space. If you’re familiar with the enthusiast photography space, you should know this. Basically, the market is slowly shifting from SLR to mirrorless cameras. This is because mirrorless cameras tend to smallelighter, have faster AF, better low light performance, better battery life and better video performance. Sony is the company that has been specializing in the development for mirrorless cameras for over a decade while Canon’s bread and butter has always been SLR cameras. Sony is in the lead when it comes to mirrorless cameras and that’s where the market is shifting towards. Because the advantages of mirrorless have become more and more apparent and Sony’s cameras have become technically superior, Sony has gained quite a bit of market share over Canon and Nikon in the last few years. In 2019, Sony overtook Nikon as the #2 camera manufacturer. Sony is in an upwards trend here. (they have the ambition to become the world’s #1 camera brand) Sony also has very good marketing for their cameras. (Sony has a lot of YouTubers / influencers / brand ambassadors for their cameras despite being a smaller brand than Canon)
(just search on YouTube and/or Google “switching to Sony from Canon” just to give you an idea that they do have amazing brand momentum in the camera space. You won’t get as many hits for the opposite)
A huge portion of Sony’s profit comes from image sensors in addition to music and video games. This is in addition to their highly profitable financial holdings division & their more moderately profitable electronics division.
Sony’s electronics division, unlike other Japanese brands, has shown great resilience against the very strong competition from China & South Korea. They have been able to maintain their position in the audio space and as of 2020 are still the global market leader in high-end TV’s (a position they have been holding for decades) and it seems they will continue to be able to maintain that.
But seriously this company is dirt-cheap compared to any of its peers in any segment and there’s various huge growth prospects for Sony:

CMOS image sensors & Sony’s overall imaging prowess will boom due to increased demand from automotive sector, security & surveillance industry, manufacturing industry, medical sector and finally from the aerospace & defence industry. On the longer term, image sensors will continue to boom due to increased demand for computer vision & AI + robotics. And for consumer electronics demand will remain very high obviously.
Sony is aiming for 60% market share in the CMOS image sensor market by 2026. Biggest threat here is Samsung here who have recently started to aggressively invest in image sensors and are challenging Sony. Sony has technological lead + higher production capacity (and Sony will soon open a new plant in Nagasaki), so Sony should be able to hold off Samsung.
The iPhone 12 Pro has 3 cameras + a lidar sensor. Apple now buys 3 image sensors (from Sony) + LiDAR sensor (from Sony) per iPhone 12 Pro they manufacture. Remember the iPhone X and iPhone XS? That one had “only” 2 rear cameras (with image sensos from Sony of course). Basically, Sony will be selling exponentially more image sensors as more smartphones get equipped with more and more cameras.
Now think about how many image sensors Sony can sell to Apple if the iPhone 13 will have 5 cameras + LiDAR sensor (I mean the number of cameras on smartphones certainly won’t decrease)
Gaming (PS5 hype, PSN game sales are booming, add-on content is booming, PS+ subscribers count is booming and finally PSNow & first-party games sales are trending upwards as well). Very consistent year-on-year profit & revenue growth here. They have a history of beating earnings expectations here. The number of PS+ subscribers went from 4M to 48M in just 6-7 years. Investors love to hype up recurring revenue and subscription services such as Disney+ and Netflix. Let’s apply the same logic to PS+? PS+ already has more subscribers than HBO Max in the USA.
PlayStation (video games in general) has not even scratched the fucking surface. Most people who play video games now are millennials and kids. Do you think those millennials will stop playing video games when they grow older? No, of course not. Boomers today also still watch movies and TV. Those millennials have kids and those kids are now also playing video games. The kids of those kids will also play video games etc. Basically the total addressable audience for video games will by HUGE by the end of the decade (and the decades after that) because video games will have penetrated all age ranges of the population. Gaming is the fastest growing segment of the whole entertainment business. By a large margin. PlayStation is obviously in a great position here as you can guess from the PS5 hype, but more importantly imho, the growth of PS+ subscribers (currently a bit under 50 million) and PSN users (>100 million MAU) over the past 5 years shows that PlayStation is primed to profit from the audience growth.
On top of that you have huge video game growth in the China where Sony & PlayStation is already much better established than Xbox (but still super small compared to mobile games and PC gaming in China). Within the console market, Xbox only competes with PlayStation in North America. In the rest of the world, PlayStation has an enormous lead over Xbox. Xbox is simply a lesser known and lesser desirable brand in the rest of the world
Anime streaming (basically they have a monopoly already + vertical integration, it might still be somewhat niche right now, but it will be big within 5 years. Acquiring Crunchyroll was a very good move)
Music streaming (no, they don’t have a music streaming service, but as music streaming grows, Sony Music also gets a piece of the growing pie through licensing/royalties, and they also still have a little 2.8% stake in Spotify)
Apple, Amazon, Netflix, AT&T and Disney are currently battling it out in the streaming wars. When there’s a war you have little chances of winning, you shouldn’t be the one waging the war. You should be the one selling the ammo. Basically Sony Pictures (tv shows + movies) is in that position. Sony Pictures can negotiate good prices for their content because Apple, Amazon, Netflix, AT&T are thirsty for content and they all want their own exclusive content. Sony Pictures does not need to prop up their own streaming service just like Sony Music doesn’t need their own music streaming service when they can just license out their content and turn a profit. There will always be demand for TV & movies content, so Sony Pictures is well positioned is as an independent content provider. And while Apple, Amazon, Netflix, AT&T and Disney are battling it out on the forefront, Sony is quietly building their anime empire in the background. Genius business move from Sony here, seriously. They now have anime production & distribution.
Netflix has 200M subscribers and they currently have a 250M market cap. Think about what Sony will have in 5 years? >30M Crunchyroll subscribers (assuming all anime will be consolidated into Crunhyroll) & >100M PS+ & PSNow subscribers? Anime and gaming is growing faster than movies and TV shows. (9% CAGR for anime, 12% CAGR for gaming vs. 5% CAGR for the whole movies & TV show entertainment segment which includes PVOD, SVOD, box office, TV etc etc). And gaming as a whole is MUCH bigger than SVOD streaming. Netflix gets 99% of their revenue & profit through subscriptions. For the whole Sony Group Corporation, their subscription services (games + anime) it’s currently only 4.5% of their total revenue. And somehow Sony currently has a meagre $128B market cap?
PlayStation alone is bigger than Netflix in terms of operating profit. PlayStation has a MUCH higher profit margin than Netflix. For Q3 2020 Netflix posted $790M operating profit and PlayStation posted $988M operating profit. Revenue was was $6.44B for Netflix vs. $4.77B for PlayStation. (and btw Sony’s mobile gaming revenue (~$1B / year) is under Sony Music, it is not even in those PlayStation numbers!!!)
Think about it. PlayStation alone posts bigger operating profit than Netflix (yes revenue is bit smaller, but it’s the operating profit that matters most). And gaming is growing faster than movies. And PlayStation is about 24% of Sony’s total revenue. And yet Netflix has a market cap that is equal to the double of Sony's market cap? Basically If you apply Netflix’ valuation to PlayStation then PlayStation alone should have a bigger market cap than Netflix' market cap.

PS+ growth and software digital ratio growth

Sony Vision-S & autonomous driving tech (selling sensors + infotainment system to other car manufacturers). Sony surprised everyone when they revealed their Sony Vision-S electric vehicle last year at CES 2020 (in-house design and made in cooperation with Magna Steyr). And it’s currently being tested on public roads. Over the past year we have seen absurdly big investment hype into anything even remotely related to EV’s (including a few questionable companies). We’ve even seen an EV company with a gravity-powered truck get a $30B market cap in June last year. Meanwhile Sony, out of nowhere, revealed what is arguably (subjectively) one of the best looking EV’s. It got very positive reception at CES 2020. An EV that you can actually drive. But somehow their stock is still dirt-cheap based on their current fundamentals alone? Yet some companies that had pretty much nothing but some EV design concepts got insane valuations purely due to hype?
LTE chips for IoT & Industry 4.0 (Altair Semiconductors)
Cross-media IP (The Last of Us show on HBO, Uncharted movie etc). Huge unrealized potential synergy here (it’s about to change). We have seen that it can turn out super well when you look at The Witcher, Sonic the Hedgehog and Detective Pikachu. When The Witcher released on Netflix, sales of The Witcher 3 significantly increased again. Imagine the same thing, but with Sony IP’s. Sony Pictures is currently working on 7 video game IP based TV shows and 3 movies. We know The Last of Us tv series is currently in production for HBO. And then the Uncharted is currently in post-production and scheduled to be released in July this year currently. If Uncharted turns out to be successful, it will mark a big, new milestone for Sony as an entertainment company imho.
Aniplex (Sony Music Entertainment Japan subsidiary for anime production, distribution & mobile games) had a fantastic year in 2020. (more on this later) There is a lot of room for mobile games growth with Aniplex. Thanks to Aniplex, Sony might beat their earnings forecast.
Drones. DJI just got put on Entity List in USA and Sony started developing drones for prosumer / professional a few years ago. Big opportunity for Sony here to take a bit from DJI’s dominance. It only makes sense for Sony to enter the drone market targeting the professional & prosumer video market, considering Sony’s established position in the professional audio/video/photography space
Currently Sony also has several ventures & investments in AI & robotics
Over the past decade, Sony has also carefully expanded into medical equipment tech & biotechnology. Worth noting that Sony also has an important 33% stake in M3 inc (a medical services through-the-internet company with a market cap of $65.5B) (= just their stake in M3 Inc is worth $22B alone, remember Sony, with their large, diversified revenue streams & assets only has a market cap of $128B?)
Sony Pictures has a great upcoming movie slate (MCU Spider-Man, Uncharted, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Venom 2, Morbius, Spider-Verse sequel, Hotel Transylvania 4, Peter Rabbit 2, Vivo, The Nightingale). They will profit from the theatre reopening and covid recovery. They may even become more favourable among movie theatre chains because they won’t release their movies on the same day on streaming services like Warner (and yeah movie theatres are here to stay, at least for a while imho)
All the above comes on top of established, mature markets (Financial Holdings & Electronic Products)
Oh yeah, btw though TV’s are a cyclical and mature market and are not that important for Sony Group Corporation’s bottomline*, Sony TV’s will continue to do well for the following successive years: o 2020: continued pandemic boost

2020-2021: PS5 / Xbox Series X/S
2021 Summer Olympics (tv sales ALWAYS spike during the olympics) (& the effect is more pronounced for high-end TV’s, = good for Sony because Sony’s market share is concentrated in the high-end range (they are market leader in the high-end range)
2022 FIFA world cup (exact same thing as for the olympics)
You could say it’s already priced in, but the stock is already ridiculously undervalued so idk…

You would think this company somehow has a bad outlook, but that could not be further from the true, let me explain and go over some of the different divisions and explain why they will moon:
Sony Entertainment
While Netflix, Disney, AT&T, Amazon, and Apple are waging the great streaming war, Sony has been quietly building its anime streaming empire over the past years.

Sony recently acquired Crunchyroll for $1.175B (it is a great deal for Sony imho and will immediately be more valuable under Sony. Considering the growing appetite for anime I honestly do not even understand why AT&T sold it, they could have integrated it with their other streaming service (HBO Max) but ok)
With Crunchyroll Sony now has the following anime empire:
Aniplex (anime production & distribution, subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan) F
Funimation
Manga Entertainment UK (production, licensing, and distribution, UK)
Wakanam (licensing and distribution in Europe)
AnimeLab (licensing and distribution in Australia & New Zealand)
Crunchyroll (3 million paying subcribers, 90 million registered users and 50 million social media followers)

* Why anime matters:

Anime growth
“The global size is expected to reach USD 36.26 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 8.8% over the forecast period, according to a study conducted by Grand View Research, Inc. Growing popularity and sales of Japanese anime content across the globe apart from Japan is driving the growth”
(tl;dr anime 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀, Sony is all in on anime and they have pretty much no competition)
Anime is the fastest growing subsegment of movies/video entertainment worldwide.

Sony also has a partnership with Bilibili for anime distribution in China:

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201903/26/WS5c990d93a3104842260b2737.html

Bilibili already partnered with Sony Music Entertainment Japan to bring Aniplex’s hugely successful Aniplex’s Fate/Grand Order mobile game in China.
Sony acquired a 5% stake in Bilibili for $400M in March 2020 (that 5% stake is now already worth $2.33B at Bilibili’s current share price ($BILI) and imho $BILI still has lots of upside potential considering it is the de facto video creation/sharing/viewing à la YouTube/Twitch for GenZ in China)

https://ir.bilibili.com/news-releases/news-release-details/bilibili-announces-equity-investment-sony

Sony Music Entertainment Japan
Aniplex

Sony Music (mobile games) generated $400M revenue from its mobile games in Q2 FY2020, published through Aniplex (Sony Music Entertainment Japan, “SMEJ”) subsidiary
They are the publisher of Fate/Grand Order, one of the most profitable mobile video games of the past 5 years (has generated $4B in revenue (!!) by the end of 2019 and is still as popular as ever). Fate/Grand order is the 7th most profitable mobile game in revenue worldwide as of 2020 (!)

Fate/Grand Order #9 game by revenue last year as of Q3 2020

Aniplex launched Disney: Twisted Wonderland in March this year. In Q3, it was the #10 most downloaded mobile game in Japan. (Aniplex now has two top ten games in Japan)
Fate/Grand Order was the #2 most tweeted game in 2020 and #3 was Disney: Twisted Wonderland. You can see that Aniplex has two hugely successful mobile games. (we are talking close to $1B of revenue a year here). It is the #2 game in Japan by total revenue from Q1 2016 to Q3 2020 and the #9 game in worldwide revenue from Q1 2020 to Q3 2020.

Aniplex has two very popular mobile games

SMEJ earns about > $1B from mobile games in revenue from mobile games and there is still a lot of future growth potential here considering Japan’s mobile game market grew a whopping 32% yoy from Q3 2019 to Q3 2020.
Aniplex recently co-distrubuted the movie Demon Slayer: Mugen Train in Japan in October 2020. It became the highest grossing film of all time in Japan with a total gross box office revenue of $380M. In the middle of a pandemic. It still needs to release in South Korea, China and USA where it will most likely do great as well.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) (Game & Netwerk Services business unit):

We all know 2020 was a huge year for video games with the stay-at-home pandemic boost. The whole video game sector brought in $180B of revenue in 2020, a whopping 20% increase yoy.
But 2020 will not be just a one-off temporary exceptional year for video games. The video game market has a CAGR of 13% which means it will be worth $291B in 2027. Video games is by far the segment with the highest growth rate in the whole entertainment industry.

US video game market growth (worldwide growth has a 13% CAGR)

PlayStation revenue and operating profit growth

PlayStation obviously has a huge piece of this pie and over the past years has seen consistent yoy revenue and profit growth. Think about it, for every FIFA/Call of Duty/Assassin’s Creed sold on PS4/PS5, Sony gets a 30% cut. There have been sold a billion PS4 games so far.
5 years ago 20 to 30% of PS4 games were purchased digitally. Flashforward to 2020 and it’s 60-75% and the digital ratio looks set to still increase a bit. This means higher profit margin for game publishers and for Sony at the expense of retailers
SIE has seen huge success in its first-party games over the past 5 years. Spider-Man, God of War, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Part 2, Uncharted 4, Ghost of Tsushima, Days Gone, Ratchet & Clank have all been huge successes. This is really big and represents a big change compared to the previous generations where Sony never really hit it big as a games publisher even though most of their games were considered quality games.
SIE is now not only a powerful platform holdeprovider, but also a very successful games publisher with popular IP’s (Uncharted, God of War, The Last of Us, Horizon, Ghost of Tsushima, Ratchet & Clank). This is an enormous asset, because firstly it increases the chances of success for cross-media opportunities (Sony Pictures can make TV shows and movies out of it to expand the popularity of those IP’s even more). And secondly, it is an obvious selling point for PS5. The more popular and bigger their exclusive content, the more they can draw people to their platform/service. This should increases PS5 total marketshare over its competitor.
The hype for God of War: Ragnarok will be absolutely through the roof. Hype for Horizon: Forbidden West is also very good already (10 million yt views, 273K likes which is very good). Gran Turismo 7 and Ratchet & Clank will also do very well in 2021. (I suspect that GoW oand Horizon might be delayed to 2022)
PS5 reception has been extremely good. Demand is through the roof as well all know. The only problem is that they cannot quite capitalize on the demand due to lack of supply, but overall, it is a very good thing that demand is very high, and that reception has been very positive. The challenge will primarily supply and production-related for the following 6 months and to be able to maintain brand momentum. Hopefully, they won’t push disappointed/inpatient customers to competitors.
Considering there’s backwards compatibility from PS4 to PS5, users will want all their PSN content to transition with them as well, so I expect them to lose very little marketshare to Xbox. Also, I do not know if Americans realize it, but Xbox is not nearly as big as PlayStation in the rest of the world as it is in the USA. PlayStation just has global brand power that Xbox just doesn’t have, so Xbox isn’t much of threat at all I’d say. Where I live, in Belgium, In Europe everyone is talking about the PS5, nobody really seems to care about Xbox Series S/X that much. Comparing PlayStation to Xbox in terms of mindshare is like comparing Apple to Motorola (not meant to be a diss to Motorola, I have a Motorola phone myself, just saying that Xbox has significantly less mindshare / brand power in Europe).
SIE is likely working on PSVR 2, this could be big.
Sony has a small stake in Epic Games (1.4%) and they have a good business relationship with them, so this might also make them open to release first-party games on Epic Games Store after exclusivity period on PS5.
Remember the Travis Scott concert in Fortnite? I believe that was one of the reasons why Sony invested in Epic Games. It serves as an example how music can sometimes converge with video games, and this can play to Sony’s strengths.
PlayStation also has way superior presence in Asia compared to Xbox. Have been expanding into China as well. Another great opportunity for revenue growth.
PS+ subscribers grew from 5.7 million by the end of 2013 to 46 million by October 30th, 2020. This is an average growth rate of 28% over the past 5 years. Considering most of the growth was early on, it will slow down, but I predict that they will have about 70 million PS+ subscribers by the end of 2023. This is huge and represents a stable, recurring source of income. Investors who keep hyping Netflix/Disney+ will love this, but it seems they have yet to discover $SNE.
There is a reason why Amazon, Google, Nvidia have been aggressively investing in video games & games streaming. They know the business is huge and is about to get even bigger. But considering the established, loyal PlayStation userbase, the established global brand of PlayStation and the exclusive games, PlayStation should be able to easily standoff competition from Amazon, Google and Nvidia (GeForce Now) in the next few years. So far, Amazon’s venture into game development, publishing & streaming has completely failed. Stadia and GeForceNow seem to have a bit more success, but still relatively niche. Therefore, I think PlayStation is well-positioned to remain one of the leaders in the industry for the following decade.

I'll get to the other divisions later, I figured this is a good first step.
But so far the tl;dr
Image sensors: 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
IoT/Industry 4.0 chipsets: 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
PS5/PSN/PS+: 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
Online medical services (M3 inc.): 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
Anime: 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
Fate/Grand Order: 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
Sony Music / music streaming (the performance of Sony Music’s in Sony’s business is seriously understated. The numbers speak for themselves): 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀
Sony Electronics 🚀
Sony Financial Holdings (very stable & profitable business, even managed to grow slightly during pandemic when most insurance companies performed more poorly): 🚀🚀🚀
Still have to cover Sony Pictures, but their upcoming movie slate looks pretty good honestly (Spider-Man sequel, Venom: Let There Be Darkness, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Uncharted, Morbius, Hotel Transylvania 4 so that's worth one rocket as well imho 🚀
tl;dr of tl;dr:
🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. I am an idiot that's trying to understand why $SNE stock is so cheap.
Positions: SNE 105C 21st January 22

WARNING: It is up to you to judge the accuracy and veracity of the below before trading. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this thread.

Your Pre Market Brief for Tuesday December 15th 2020

Brought to you by MoonGangCapital
You can subscribe to the daily 4:00 AM Pre Market Brief on The Twitter Link Here . Alerts in the tweets will direct you to the daily 4:00 AM Pre Market Brief in this sub.
Other Useful Resources: The Ultimate Quick Resource For the Amateur Trader.
Published 2:33 AM EST / Updated as of 4:00 AM EST
-----------------------------------------------

Stock Futures:

Pre-Market Trading
Asian Stocks Set for Muted Start; Dollar Retreats: Markets Wrap

Monday 12/14/2020 News and Markets Recap:

AN AWESOME MARKET RECAP FROM u/psychotrader00 ( RedditTickers )
Benzinga's Bulls And Bears Of The Week: Boeing, Netflix, Nike, Starbucks And More

Tuesday December 15th 2020 Economic Calendar (All times are Eastern)

01:30 PM Import Prices YoY NOV
01:30 PM Export Prices YoY NOV
01:30 PM Export Prices MoM NOV
01:30 PM Import Prices MoM NOV
01:30 PM NY Empire State Manufacturing Index DEC
01:55 PM Redbook YoY 12/DEC
01:55 PM Redbook MoM 12/DEC
02:15 PM Industrial Production YoY NOV
02:15 PM Industrial Production MoM NOV
02:15 PM Manufacturing Production MoM NOV
02:15 PM Capacity Utilization NOV
02:15 PM Manufacturing Production YoY NOV
03:00 PM IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism DEC
09:00 PM Foreign Bond Investment OCT
09:00 PM Net Long-Term Tic Flows OCT
09:00 PM Overall Net Capital Flows OCT
09:30 PM API Crude Oil Stock Change 11/DEC

Overnight News Heading into Tuesday December 15th 2020

(News Yet to be Traded 8:00 PM - 4:00 AM EST)
^{It is up to you to judge the accuracy and veracity of the below before trading. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this thread.}

TSLA Tesla To See $1.1B In 'Deferred Software Revenue' In 2021, Munster Estimates
TSLA Elon Musk's SpaceX Seeks To Double Valuation At $92B In New Funding Round: Report
TSEM Tower Semiconductor and OPIX Announce the Successful Development of a World Class iToF Technology Platform for 3D Imaging and Face Recognition Applications
AAPL Apple Supplier's iPhone Factory Suffers $7M In Damages During Violent Worker Protests
EAF GrafTech Announces Upsizing and Pricing of Secondary Offering of Common Stock by Existing Stockholders
ATA.U Americas Technology Acquisition CORP. Announces Pricing of $100 M IPO
UBER Uber Fined $59M In California Over Refusal To Share Information On Sexual Assaults
BNR Burning Rock Announces an Exclusive in-Licensing of a Risk Stratification Test for Early Stage Lung-Cancer Patients from Oncocyte in China
BCDA ($4.48) BioCardia, Inc. Announces $8.5 Million Registered Direct Offering Priced At-The-Market Under Nasdaq Rules [Revised]
UBER DASH LYFT GRUB Uber and DoorDash are hiking food delivery and rideshare prices for Californians to pay for new driver benefits
WBA CVS COST RAD KR COVID-19 vaccines expected by spring 2021 at drugstore/grocery store
GOOG GOOGL Google Kills Its Google Home Max Smart Speaker Line
J Jacobs Secures Place on Irish Water's Engineering Design Services Framework

End of Day and After Hours News Heading into Monday December 15th 2020

(News Traded 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM EST)
^{It is up to you to judge the accuracy and veracity of the below before trading. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this thread.}

WM Waste Management Announces Plan to Increase its Quarterly Dividend Rate and a Refreshed Share Repurchase Authorization
CAH Ohio Chooses Cardinal Health for COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
PTON Spinning creator files patent infringement lawsuit accusing Peloton of stealing its technology for their stationary bikes
EYRP ERYTECH Completes Enrollment in TRYbeCA-1 Phase 3 Trial in Second-Line Pancreatic Cancer
XOM North Dakota Sees Its One-Time Oil Gushers Stalled Until 2022
DIS The Walt Disney Company Schedules Annual Meeting of Shareholders for March 9, 2021
BSX NVRO Boston Scientific Announces Stipulation Of Dismissal Of Nevro Corporation's Patent Infringement Case In California
HON Honeywell Acquires Sine Group To Create A Mobile Platform For Honeywell Forge Offerings And To Enhance Connected Buildings Solutions
NOC Northrop Grumman secures two Air Force contracts worth $185.7M and ~$163.65M
WD Walker & Dunlop Structures $86 Million in Financing for Seniors Housing Properties
MMP Kherkher Garcia, LLP Files Suit on Behalf of Burn Victims in Magellan Oil Tank Explosion
PRIM Primoris Services acquires Future Infrastructure Holdings for $620M
PEO ADX Adams Natural Resources Fund Initiates Share Repurchases Pursuant To Enhanced Discount Management And Liquidity Program
TBI PeopleReady’s JobStack App Recognized for Tech Excellence in Staffing During Pandemic
XOM Engine No. 1 Comments on ExxonMobil’s New Emissions Targets
NHS Neuberger Berman High Yield Strategies Fund Announces Final Results of Its Tender Offer and Reduction in Leverage
SAIC NOC US Department of Defense awards new contracts to NOC / SAIC
GDYN Grid Dynamics Acquires Netherlands-based Daxx, Expands Footprint in Western Europe
MTN Vail Resorts, Inc. Announces Commencement of $500,000,000 Convertible Senior Notes Offering
DCI Donaldson Company Makes Strategic Investment With Key Appointment to Accelerate Growth in Life Sciences
VGC ($0.98) Vista Gold Drilling Confirms Adjacent Mineralized Zone at the Mt Todd Gold Project
ARMS ($3.26) On July 24, 2020, Amyris and the members of our board of directors were named as defendants in a putative stockholder class action filed in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delawa..
PQG PQG +9.4%, materials segment acquired by The Jordan Company affiliate
HWKN Hawkins Named One of America’s Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek
NXPI NXP Semiconductors shares fall after Goldman downgrade on lack of upside
VEEV Samsung Biologics Adopts Veeva Vault QMS to Unify Quality Management
SAFM The Rising Cost to Feed Animals Is Squeezing Meat Producers
IIPR Innovative Industrial Properties Expands Real Estate Partnership with PharmaCann at New York Property
PINS Pinterest Pays $20 Million to End Discrimination Suit by Ex-COO
NEPT Virtual Conference Marks Launch of Mood Ring™ Cannabis Products in British Columbia
KAI Kadant Awarded $10 Million Order for Fiber Processing Systems
LZB La-Z-Boy to resume buybacks
UTZ Utz Brands Completes Acquisition of ON THE BORDER® Tortilla Chips
INFU InfuSystem to Present at 13th Annual LD Micro Main Event Tuesday, December 15, 2020
UNH UnitedHealthcare Introduces Enhancements for Wearable Device Well-being Program, Including Access to Apple Fitness+ at No Additional Cost
CIO City Office renews 10-year lease with Dallas tenant; includes 3 months abatement
MDWD MediWound Continues Global Expansion with Distribution Agreement for NexoBrid in United Arab Emirates with Ghassan Aboud Group
TA TravelCenters of America Closes New $200 Million Term Loan
WRN Western Copper and Gold Initiates a Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Casino Project
OPNT Opiant Pharma secures additional BARDA grant of $3.5M for OPNT003
LLY Lilly Announces 15 Percent Dividend Increase

Possible Dip Buying Opportunities in the near future (Other suggestions appreciated):

Suggested Dip Trading Strategy

TOL: Poor guidance and headwinds in the real estate market (Reliable company though)
LEN: Dipping as a result of TOLL's guidance. Posturing for earnings on the 16th
SPWH: Dropping as analysts expect a decrease in revenue earned next year.
ITB: Real estate expected to cool off in the winter before popping again in the Spring
LMT: Typical post dividend dip
CRM: Dipping because investors assess they paid too much for the Slack purchase
KMX: Been trading sideways for nearly 6 months. Earnings on 12/22
BGFV: Post earnings/dividend dip
VIVO: Volatile growth stock
WM: Dumping after dividend. News Above: Resuming share repurchase program and upping dividend
WERN Missed in Revenue last ER. Looks oversold.

Offering News:

MIRM Mirum Pharmaceuticals Announces Pricing of Public Offering of Common Stock
CTAQ Carney Technology Acquisition Corp. II Announces Closing of $402,500,000 Initial Public Offering
TGTX TG Therapeutics Announces Pricing of Upsized Public Offering of Common Stock
MUDS Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corporation II Announces Closing of Underwriter’s Option to Purchase Additional Units in Connection with its Initial Public Offering
TPVG TriplePoint Venture Growth BDC Corp. Announces Extension and Expansion of Its Revolving Credit Facility
AROC Archrock Announces Upsizing and Pricing of $300 Million of Senior Notes
CSTL Castle Biosciences Announces Commencement of Proposed Public Offering of Common Stock
LEAF Leaf Group Announces Closing of Public Offering of Common Stock
OCUL Ocular Therapeutix to raise $75M in stock offering
ENLC EnLink Midstream Announces Pricing of $500 Million of Senior Notes Due 2028
PXLW Pixelworks Announces Closing of $12.0 Million Public Offering of Common Stock
HYFM Hydrofarm Holdings Group Announces Closing of Initial Public Offering and Full Exercise of Underwriters’ Option to Purchase Additional Shares

Commodities:

Oil Edges Toward $47 Ahead of U.S. Coronavirus Vaccine Rollout

Other News & Analysis:

A Stock Trader’s Guide to the Global Covid Vaccine Rollout
FEYE SWI AONE FireEye Stumbled Across SolarWinds Breach While Probing Own Hack
SNE MSFT GME AMZN WMT PlayStation 5, Xbox Units Unexpectedly Arrived At GameStop Stores. Of Course, Chaos Ensued
MRNA PFE BNTX After Pfizer, Moderna's COVID-19 Vaccine Data Accessed In Cyberattack
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter Face Multi-Billion Fines In UK Under Online Safety Legislation

Upcoming Earnings:

COVID-19 Stats and News:

Macro Considerations:

Other

-----------------------------------------------
Subscribe to This Brief and the daily 4:00 AM Pre Market Brief on The Twitter Link Here . Alerts in the tweets will direct you to the daily brief in this sub
Other Useful Resources: Stock Market Tools, Resources, Advice, & Tutorials
WARNING: It is up to you to judge the accuracy and veracity of the above before trading. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in this thread.

This post is updated daily.
You can also follow the Reddit Live thread here.

COVID-19 has now infected more than 215,956 people. There have been 8,757 confirmed deaths and 84,080 confirmed recoveries attributed to the virus.

Recent Updates
Note: These are the updates from the last 48-72 hours.
MARCH 18 -

United States: President Trump signed into law a coronavirus relief package, which provides free coronavirus testing and ensures paid emergency leave for those who are infected or caring for a family member with the illness. The bill also provides additional Medicaid funding, food assistance and unemployment benefits. The "third phase" coronavirus response bill is expected to pass later this week. Read more here.
United States: President Trump announced that home foreclosures and evictions will be suspended “until the end of April.” Read more here. He also invoked the Defense Production Act, which gives the government the authority to control the production and distribution of scarce materials deemed "essential to the national defense." In his executive order, Trump specifically cites protective equipment (presumably face masks) and ventilators as meeting the criteria in this provision. Read more here.
United States: Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Ben McAdams become first members of Congress to test positive for coronavirus. Read more here.
United States: King County in Washington State is building a 200-bed field hospital on Shoreline soccer field amid coronavirus outbreak. Read more here.
United States: The New York Stock Exchange said starting March 23, it will temporarily close its historic trading floor and move fully to electronic trading. This is the first time the physical trading floor of the Big Board has ever shut independently while electronic trading continues. Read more here.
United States and Canada: US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have agreed to close the US-Canada border to all non-essential travel in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus. Trade will not be affected. Read more here.
Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced a massive $82-billion aid package to help Canadians and businesses cope with the global COVID-19 pandemic, including income supports, wage subsidies and tax deferrals. The package includes $27 billion in direct supports and another $55 billion to help business liquidity through tax deferrals. Read more here.
Japan’s Hokkaido, the nation’s prefecture with the highest number of coronavirus infections, will end its state of emergency over the epidemic on Thursday. Read more here.
Europe: The European Central Bank launched an extra emergency bond-buying program worth 750 billion euros ($820 billion) in the latest attempt to calm markets and protect a euro-area economy struggling to cope with the coronavirus epidemic. Read more here.
France: French police handed out over 4,000 fines Wednesday to people found violating an order to stay at home, on the first full day of a lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus in the country. Read more here.
Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declared a state of emergency to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The new measures allow Prime Minister António Costa's government to restrict movement of people, temporarily suspend the right of workers in vital sectors — such as health, civil protection, security and defense — to strike, and ban protests and social or religious meetings Read more here.
Brazil: Davi Alcolumbre, the head of Brazil's Senate, became the latest high-level political figure to test positive for coronavirus on Wednesday. Read more here.
Chilean president Sebastian Pinera declared a 90-day state of catastrophe Wednesday to address the spread of COVID-19 in the country, which has 238 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. By law, a state of catastrophe puts the armed forces in charge of public order and security and enables military control of the movement of people and goods. Military officials will be able to issue direct instructions to public employees and local governments and establish measures deemed necessary to maintain public order, including curfews. Read more here.
Africa: Sub-Saharan Africa records first coronavirus death. Read more here.
Both the United States and the United Kingdom have confirmed cases of coronavirus within their jails.
Europe: This year's Eurovision Song Contest has been canceled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, organizers confirmed on Wednesday, marking the first time that the much-loved competition has ever been scrapped. Read more here.
Australian airline Qantas and its subsidiary Jetstar will suspend scheduled international flights from late March until at least the end of May due to the coronavirus crisis. In a statement posted on its website Thursday, Qantas Group announced that 60% of its domestic flights would also be cut, and two-thirds of its 30,000 employees would be temporarily stood down. Read the announcement here.
RyanAir, Europe’s biggest low-cost carrier, said it expected “most if not all” flights to be grounded, apart from a small number to maintain connections between the UK and Ireland. Read more here.

MARCH 17 -

United States: A plan developed by the federal government to combat the coronavirus reportedly projects the pandemic will last 18 months or more and could feature multiple “waves.” Read more here.
United States: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin raised the possibility with Republican senators that U.S. unemployment could rise to 20% without government intervention because of the impact of the coronavirus. Mnuchin discussed the scenario with the lawmakers on Tuesday as he proposed an economic stimulus of $1 trillion or more. Read more here.
United States: Treasury and IRS to delay tax payment deadline by 90 days. Read more here.
United States: The U.S. military is preparing Naval hospital ships for deployment, and is looking to open its labs to help test civilians for coronavirus. The Pentagon also plans to distribute equipment. Read more here.
United States: White House requests and additional $45.8 billion in emergency funding due to coronavirus. The request comes on top of the $8.3 billion in emergency funding passed by Congress just two weeks ago and underscores just how dramatically financial demands at federal agencies have grown in a matter of days. Read more here.
United States: Schools are likely to be closed for the rest of this school year according to Governor Newsom of California. Ohio's governor has made similar statements. Read more here.
United States: Are Hospitals Near Me Ready for Coronavirus? Here Are Nine Different Scenarios. | There is a tool in the article that allows you to see your area's hospital capacity. See the interactive tool here.
EU: Leaders of European Union countries have agreed to close the EU’s external borders to most people from other countries for 30 days in a new effort to slow the coronavirus pandemic. Movement within European Union member nations will be still be allowed. Read more here.
Spain: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a package of measures worth a total 200 billion euros ($219 billion), between loans, credit guarantees, benefits and direct aid, to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on the economy. The package represents about 20% of the country’s gross domestic product; 117 billion euros for the package will come from the government, with the rest to come from private companies. Read more here.
Scotland: No new jury trials will take place in Scotland for the foreseeable future due to coronavirus. Read more here.
Bolivia will close its borders to non-residents and suspend all international flights to combat the spread of coronavirus. The measure will remain in place until March 31. Read more here.
Australia declares emergency, warns coronavirus crisis could last six months. Read more here.
Euro 2020 has been postponed by one year until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Read more here.

MARCH 16 -

A Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating an investigational vaccine designed to protect against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) in Seattle. Read more here.
The European Union will ban all nonessential travel into the bloc for at least 30 days. Read more here.
France has instituted a lockdown and will deploy 100,000 police to enforce the lockdown and fixed checkpoints will be set up across the country. Under the new measures, soldiers would help transport the sick to hospitals with spare capacity and a military hospital with 30 intensive care beds would be set up in the eastern region of Alsace, where one of the largest infection clusters has broken out. Macron also announced he was postponing the second round of local elections on Sunday. Read more here.
United States: President Trump held a press conference today, where he said that the U.S. may be able to get the new coronavirus outbreak under control by July or August at the earliest. He also said his administration may look at lockdowns for “certain areas” or “hot spots” in the nation, but said he wasn’t considering a full national lockdown. Watch the press conference here and/or read about it here.
United States: The Department of Health and Human Services experienced suspicious cyberactivity Sunday night related to its coronavirus response. The suspicious activity HHS was not a hack but it may have been a distributed denial of service -- or DDOS -- attack. Read more here.
United States: Six Bay Area counties announced “shelter in place” orders for all residents on Monday — the strictest measure of its kind yet in the continental United States — directing everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks. The directive begins at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and involves San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties — a combined population of more than 6.7 million. Read more here.
United States: New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut institute regional rules that ban gatherings of over 50, and close casinos, gyms, and theaters. Read more here.
United States: The Ohio primary has been postponed. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced late Monday that his administration will order that polls be closed on Tuesday due to a health emergency. Read more here.
United States: Dow Plummets Nearly 3,000 Points as Virus Fears Spread. Read more here.
Canada is closing its borders to noncitizens because of the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. citizens are exempt from the ban “for the moment." Read more here.
Israel is preparing to open four hotels across the country as quarantines sites for confirmed cases of coronavirus, Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett announced Monday night. The hotels will be used to treat people exhibiting mild symptoms of the virus. Read more here.
Finland closes schools, declares state of emergency over coronavirus. Daycare centres are to stay open but parents were asked to keep their kids home if possible. Read more here.
Sudan’s ruling sovereign council closed all airports, ports and land crossings and declared a public health emergency on Monday over fears about the spread of coronavirus. Read more here.
Idris Elba has tested positive for coronavirus along with several other celebrities. See Idris' tweet here.
Amazon will hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers in the United States to deal with a surge in online orders, as many consumers have turned to the web to meet their needs during the coronavirus outbreak. Read more here.
The Peace Corps is telling its volunteers around the world that it is suspending all operations globally and evacuating all volunteers in light of the spread of the new coronavirus. Read more here.
United States: The College Board has cancelled the May SATs. Read more here.

Tracking COVID-19

Vox is keeping track of COVID-19 infections for each U.S. state here.
John Hopkins University has a live trackemap of the global spread of COVID-19 here.
Today's situation report from the WHO.
The CDC's COVID-19 Situation Summary.
There are tons of travel bans globally right now. CNN has put together a full list here.

Reputable Sources for Information:

Winners Magic Casino Gratis Spins and Free Bonus
As soon as you create your account with Winners Magic Casino, you will get free spins and free money bonus. Enjoy 100 gratis spins on Starburst or Gemix plus 100% up to 200 EUR or USD. All new players welcome. No download needed! You can also play on mobile!
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CASINO REVIEW

Welcomes you with €200 and 100 Free Spins!
The Sorting Hat has changed his occupation from determining which Hogwarts student fits into which Hogwarts house, to determining who will win the big jackpot at this fantastic new online casino. Winner’s Magic is a brand-new online casino which first saw the light of day in May 2019. The online casino is owned by VitaMediaLabs ApS and operated by the well-known White-label-provider Aspire Global.
The website is available in an array of languages ranging from English to German, and also including Norwegian and Finnish. The availability of the casino in different languages means that more people can access the website in their native tongue making it more attractive to players from different corners of the world. Despite the internet reaching everywhere and the casino’s hard work to make it available in several different tongues, Winner’s Magic is restricted to players from Australia, France, Italy, and the United States as well as all countries where online gambling is prohibited by national and/or local law.
In another measure to make their casino available, safe, and trustworthy, Winner’s Magic Casino has acquired remote gambling licenses. This means that with the licenses their customers have an authority to turn to in case they are feeling mistreated. The gambling authorities set up rules and regulations which the online casino must follow to be licensed, the seriousness of such rules depends on the authority. The Malta Gaming Authority and the UK Gambling Commission are two of the toughest gambling authorities and Winner’s Magic is licensed with both, meaning that customers can feel safe when using this online casino.
The online casino also implements an encryption key (128Bit-SSL) to ensure that all private data, handed by the customer to the casino, is kept safe and far away from unauthorized eyes. Additionally, Winner’s Magic is also audited by an independent auditor iTech Labs. They ensure that the games available to play on the casino are random and fair.
Winner’s Magic does not only set out to be a fair and honest online casino experience, but they also want to offer their customers entertainment and fantastic bonuses and promotions. All new players are therefore greeted to the casino with a Welcome Bonus consisting of up to €200 and 100 Free Spins. The Free Spins are allocated to the beloved slot machine from NetEnt – Starburst.
If you want to learn more about this casino, this online casino review will explore all of its parts, starting with taking a closer look into the welcome bonus and other promotions available at the online casino. The review will also look into the online casinos game library, their payment methods, the design of the website as well as the customer support. When concluding, we will reward Winner’s Magic with a score on our Barometer. A high score on that barometer means that we recommend the casino while a lower score means that there are other casinos which we prefer before the mentioned casino.
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Winners Magic Casino Bonus and Loyalty Program

As a new player at Winner’s Magic Casino you are welcomed with a match-up bonus and a total of 100 Free Spins. To receive this the player must make a first deposit of a minimum of €10. The casino matches your first deposit on up to €200 and at this time the first 20 Free spins are allocated to the popular slot machine Starburst. The match-up bonus, as well as the Free Spin winnings, must be wagered a minimum of 35x within 21 days of receiving the bonus.

We have broken down the bonus below for interested players:

• 1st deposit: 100% Match-up bonus on up to €200 + 20 Free Spins to Starburst.
• 2nd deposit: if on the second day a deposit of minimum €20 is made, 40 Free Spins to Starburst are received.
• 3rd deposit: if on the third day a deposit of minimum €20 is made, 40 Free Spins to Starburst are received.
No players from Sweden are available to take part in the bonus. The Free Spins must be used on the day they are received. Players can withdraw their deposited money before the wagering requirements are met but in doing so the bonus will expire. There are a lot of terms and conditions associated with the bonus, this is standard practice. It is also worth noting that not all games contribute to the wagering requirements the same. To learn more about which games contribute what to the wagering requirements players can read so here: https://download.gamesrv1.com/Resources/External/bonusterms/tc\_eng\_EUR.html The bonus might not give players a lot in terms of winnings, but it does allow the player to experience the casino and what it has to offer without depositing too many of their funds.
In addition to the bonus, Winner’s Magic is intent on offering promotions to customers as the website has a promotion tab, currently only the welcome bonus is available there. As this casino is an Aspire Global operated casino, we are sure that more promotions will be available soon. We always recommend our readers to take a look at each promotion’s terms and conditions as these may vary.
The online casino offers an exciting loyalty program to all players. The best part about this program is that the more you play the bigger the rewards you can reap are. There are 7 levels in the VIP-program. Each level gives the player something special. For example, as a “Silver Member” the player will get 10 Free Games on Sunday, be able to take part in VIP Live Tournaments and receive a birthday bonus. All but two levels are achievable by just wagering money on the casino. Each €16 wagered reward 1 point, to achieve the highest available level 1000 points are needed. The two top levels “Premium VIP” and “Prestige VIP” can only be reached through exclusive invitation, these members will receive Personal Account Managers as well as higher Deposit and Cash Out Limits.
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Winners Magic Casino Games

To keep players engaged to the online casino there must be a big variation of games for players to be entertained and thrilled. A casino’s game library can often make or break it. Being an Aspire Global operated online casino means that Winner’s Magic can offer their customers plenty of options not only when it comes to the number of games but also the number of different categories. Winner’s Magic offers seven categories where players can find games “Featured Games”, “New”, “Video Slots”, “Classic”, “Casino Games”, “Scratch Cards”, and “All Games”.
The biggest category (if you disregard the “All Games” category) is the “Video Slot” category which includes over 400 games. These games are supplied to the casino by some of the most well-known and highly regarded game suppliers in the industry. Some of the most popular slot machine games include “Book of Dead”, “Fruity Friends”, “Wolf Riches” and “Aztec Gold”. These games are supplied by greats within the game supplier industry such as NetEnt, Microgaming, Play’N Go, PariPlay, and BetSoft. The “Video Slots” category also includes jackpot games such as “Bonanza”, “Aztec Gold – MEGAWAYS”, and “Royal Seven XXL”. When a winner hits a jackpot, other players will be able to see their success as Winner’s Magic has a banner with the latest winners on the side of the page that shows the games.
Slot machines can also be found under the category “Classic”, which include titles considered classic slot machines. Some of the titles include “Royal Seven”, “Wild Elements” and “Hot Spin - Deluxe”.
It is more and more popular today for game suppliers to create games inspired by the popular culture. There are games such as “Mission Cash” or “John Hunter and the Aztec treasure” who are reminiscent of character that exist in today’s popular culture (in this case they remind us of James Bond and Indiana Jones). Other games are not just inspired by popular culture but are a part of the franchise such as “Game of Thrones – online slot” or “Jumanji – Video slot”. For players interested in these types of games Winner’s Magic will not be a disappointment as these games and many more are available.
Under the category “Casino games” players will be able to find a selection of top-rated table games with titles such as “Sapphire Roulette”, “Blackjack – Multihand VIP”, and “Baccarat”. This category also includes “Casino Patience” and “Football Studio”. The category includes close to 70 games and it is also under this category that players can find Live Casino games. The Live Casino Games transport the players from wherever in the world they are to a real casino with professional dealers and tables with plenty of other players. The Live Casino games are supplied by one of the most well-known Live Casino game suppliers on the market – Evolution Gaming. Evolution Gaming set themselves apart by not only offering top-quality games, but they also offer many of their games in different languages. Play Roulette in Finnish, German or Norwegian if you dare!
The final category of games available at Winner’s Magic is “Scratch Cards”. This category includes over 60 games. Some of the most popular titles include “Hit The Bank”, “Wizard of all”, “Bingo”, and “Scratch N’ Roll”. The games in this category are all a bit different but what they have in common is that some scratching is required to reveal a win.
We find it incredibly encouraging and exciting that a new casino such as Winner’s Magic offers their customer so many different options when it comes to games. We are also pleased to be able to inform our readers that this casino’s games are independently audited by iTech Labs to ensure that the results are random and fair, yet another point which we find to be very positive.
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Winners Magic Casino Depositing and Withdrawing

One of the most important points, when a customer is looking for a new casino, is what payment methods are available for depositing and withdrawing. The online casino must offer their customer methods which are both more local like (Zimpler) and international like Credit/Debit Card.
Winner’s Magic has taken this into account and therefore offer payment methods from the most well-known banking methods as well as some local banking methods. The minimum deposit is €10, and several currencies are accepted. For example, players can deposit Euros, Krona (Norwegian), as well as Canadian dollars and Pounds. The deposits almost exclusively take place instantly.
Once the wagering requirements have been met and the player is ready to withdraw their winnings, there are several methods which can be used. The most common thing is that the method used to deposit is used to withdraw, the only exception to this is when the deposit method is not available to withdraw then the player can choose to for example have the money transferred via Bank Transfer. There is a pending time of 24 hours on all withdrawals. The maximum withdrawal is €7.000/month and the minimum withdrawal for most methods is €10. The limit is in our opinion slightly low but understandable due to the newness of this online casino. There are no fees on withdrawal which is something we appreciate.
We believe that any casino that tries to make their banking methods as wide and accepting as possible have their customer’s best at heart, as can be seen by Winner’s Magic. Unfortunately, we do find that the withdrawal times are slightly slow as the fastest way to withdraw funds still requires three business days. This is not a problem limited to this casino but with most and is something we would love to see the industry change.
Another point which we find great about this online casino is that it implements a 128-bit SSL encryption key on all sensitive data. This means that whatever private information is sent by the customer to the casino is protected and safeguarded from unauthorized eyes. The casino also works hard to prevent fraud and therefore can demand additional verification of identity from the customer. In the case of Sweden, all customers must verify having reached the legal gambling age of 18. The customer will then have up to 30 days to verify their age if this is not done within the time limit the customer’s account will be shut down. In our opinion, any casino that goes the length to abide by the rules and regulations set up by different countries to safeguard the players, are good casinos.
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An Overview of the Rizk Casino Online Game Selection

An online casino is only ever as good as its game selection, and to get ahead in today’s competitive market it’s crucial to have a healthy mix of new titles, golden classics, and live offerings. I was pleased while reviewing Rizk Casino online that it managed to strike a strong balance between genres and formats, while boasting an ever-expanding library of recent additions. In this section, I’ll be breaking down the operator’s games library and getting into the nitty gritty of its payouts, betting limits, and more.

Slots, Blackjack, and New Favourites

Slots remain one of the most popular game categories in online casinos, so it should come as no surprise that the operator has scores of slots on show. Rizk Casino games run the gamut from classic slot titles to newer variants, like the frightfully Hitchcockian Psycho, themed around the classic horror film of the same name. One of the site’s current rising stars is the Phantom’s Curse, another property of Universal’s, featuring the iconic Phantom of the Opera. If you’re not keen on a side of spookiness with your slots, you can always opt for the more light-hearted Secret Romance. All in all, players can expect to find over 500 slots to choose from, catering to every conceivable taste.
Though there’s a wealth of options to be found in the Rizk Casino online slots library, its table and card game selection is decidedly more limited. When it comes to its roulette and blackjack offerings, the site steers clear of flashy novelties and sticks with clear-cut, classic variations. Deal Or No Deal Blackjack is the lone themed game, with the rest strictly emulating the casino favourites we all know and love faithfully. All the games can be played for free, meaning you can try your hand at a number of different titles before putting any money on the line.
Disappointingly, Rizk doesn’t yet offer scratch cards or arcade games, though given the increasing popularity of both in the past few years it’s likely that they’ll be added to the roster in good time. If the lack of scratch cards is a deal breaker for you, you might be more interested in checking out BetVictor. What the site does offer, however, is its novel Wheel of Rizk. The Wheel of Rizk has proven to be one of the casino’s biggest draws, and a feature that sets Rizk apart from its many competitors. Players can steadily fill their power bar while playing games, and once it’s full they can spin the wheel for the chance to win a variety of exciting prizes. The more you fill the power bar, the more you level up, resulting in greater jackpots and superwheels being added to the wheel. Basically, the more you play, the greater your chance of winning big at the wheel.
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Live Gaming with Rizk

If you visit Rizk Casino online, you’ll find its live games are powered by not one, but two industry heavyweights – NetEnt and Evolution Gaming. Both developers pride themselves in providing crystal-clear streams and charming dealers, giving you the best online casino experience possible. In Rizk’s live casino lobbies you can take your pick from a host of different tables, game variations, and dealers, ensuring that every player can find a game that suits their needs. Play against other players, or against the casino itself in games like Caribbean Stud Poker.

Gaming on the Go

Let’s face it, most of us do everything from our phones nowadays. Thankfully, the Rizk Casino site is fully optimized for mobile, so you can enjoy a wide selection of its games no matter where you are. You can play Rizk Casino games straight from the mobile browser or download the Rizk app for free for both iOS and Android. Though not all of Rizk’s games are available on the casino’s mobile version, you can still enjoy 446 different slot games and the full scope of the live casino.

Limits to Suit Every Player

Now that I’ve given you the low-down on the game selection, it’s time to take a look at Rizk Casino’s betting limits. After all, what good is a game selection if you can’t place bets based on your budget? Whether you’re a high-roller or looking to take fewer rizks with your bank balance, you’re likely to be satisfied with Rizk’s limits. As you might expect, limits differ from game to game. Minimum bets on the slot games range from 1p to £1.50. Maximum slot bets range anywhere from 25p to a whopping £1,500.
Rizk’s live table games come with similarly broad limits. You can play a hand of blackjack for a mere £1 or, if you’re feeling lucky, take your chances at a VIP table for £300. Maximum limits for blackjack start at £40 and go as high as £2,500. If you’re hoping to strike big at roulette, however, be aware that the upper limit is capped at £1,500. Though the maximum bets don’t hit quite as high as some competitors, there’s still plenty of room at Rizk for players of all budgets.
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Examining the RTPs

If you’re a seasoned player, you’re probably already well-versed in the importance of RTPs, or “return to player” rates. For those of you just starting out, this refers to the percentage of money paid out by the casino to players over time. In the simplest terms, the higher the RTP percentage, the higher your chances of winning. For example, slot games usually have an RTP of 90-98%. That’s why it’s always a good idea to get a feel of a game’s RTP to get the most out of your gaming experience. Due to the volume of games in certain categories, RTPs are typically presented in averages ranging between different percentages. If you want to check the individual RTP of any particular game, you can do so in the “How to Play” instructions.
Like any other casino review, this review simply wouldn’t be complete without an overview of Rizk Casino payout rates. Thanks to the fact that the establishment is still fairly young, its RTPs are pretty competitive. This helps it to attract new players, and is ultimately good news for you, the player.
Generally, the payout rates for games like roulette and blackjack are better than those for slots, though Rizk Casino payout rates differ slightly from the norm. The casino’s video slots boast an RTP range of between 96.5% and 99.6%. Rizk’s roulette games, on the other hand, offer an RTP range of 94.5% to 97.3%, meaning that in this rare instance video slots could give you a better payout than a game of roulette. The best payout rates at Rizk, however, are in its blackjack games with a payout range of 99.4% to 99.5%.

What You Need to Know About Rizk Casino’s Software

In the interests of leaving no stone unturned in this review, I made sure to give the website a thorough look. With that in mind, I wanted to spare a moment to discuss Rizk Casino software. At first glance, the site is laid out super cleanly. Super being the operative word, as it’s here that you’re likely to become quickly acquainted with the operator’s mascot, the spandex-clad superhero Captain Rizk. The superhero theme continues throughout the descriptions of all Rizk Casino games, which often include fun references to the Captain and his faithful sidekick, Lucky the Superdog. This attention to detail, paired with the easy-to-navigate layout of the casino, makes a welcome change from other online casinos that can often present their games in a way that’s confusing and overwhelming to new players.
All titles are grouped neatly into categories on the homepage. This includes a category for recent arrivals, so you never have to look far for fresh new games to play. Sadly, Rizk Casino is restricted in a long list of countries, most notably the United States and Australia. If you’re lucky enough to be living in the UK, you have the option to play in any of the following languages: German, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish.
As mentioned previously in this review, Rizk Casino’s live games are powered by NetEnt and Evolution Gaming, and this commitment to high calibre developers is evident throughout the casino. Its other games come courtesy of such big names as Play’n GO, Scientific Games, and Microgaming, all of whom have made their marks as some of the best developers in online gaming today. Though it may be young, Rizk Casino’s software is on par with that of older, more established casinos online, marking it as a true contender.
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An Overview of Rizk Casino’s History

As I’ve already mentioned in this Rizk Casino review, Rizk are a fairly recent addition to the world of online casinos. Since its founding in 2016, it has been operated by MT SecureTrade Ltd, part of the Gaming Innovation Group. The Gaming Innovation Group holds the honour of being one of the largest iGaming product suppliers in Northern Europe and has offices across 35 different countries.

Notable Facts About the Casino

As part of the MT SecureTrade family, Rizk Casino is a sister company of Guts Casino and Betspin. Not bad company to be in, considering Guts took home the 2014 award for Best Casino at the Casinomeister awards. Success obviously runs in the family, as Rizk nabbed both the Best New Casino and Best Player Experience awards at the 2016 Casinomeister awards. It followed this success by racking up nominations at 2017’s EGR Nordic Awards, including Best Casino Operator and Socially Responsible Operator. Its rapid rise to popularity and critical claim stands as testament to the quality of the products and services it provides to its user base.

How Does Rizk’s Customer Support Measure Up?

No casino is ever totally perfect, so if ever you have complaints or queries it’s important that you can contact customer support quickly and effectively. For the most part, the site’s customer support is pretty strong. You can contact Rizk Casino online via a live chat option, which can be found alongside the casino’s main categories. You also have the option to contact customer support via email. Support is offered through all of the languages currently available on Rizk too, so nothing is likely to be lost in translation. One area where Rizk’s customer service could stand to improve, however, is through the addition of a customer service phone number. For those of you who prefer to solve issues over the phone, or simply desire the reassurance of a human voice to guide you through your query, Rizk’s lack of phone support might come as a bit of a disappointment.

Security and Safety

In this Rizk Casino review I’ve touched on the game selection, RTPs, and customer support, all of which are important elements to consider when looking at a casino. However, arguably the most important aspect of any operator is its safety and security measures. Ensuring that the casinos you visit hold valid licences should always be your highest priority. All information on a casino’s licences should be readily available on its website. The company holds licences from both the Malta Gaming Authority and the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. Both regulatory bodies are known for their strict standards, and a licence from the UKGC is a requisite for any casino operating in the UK.
Rizk has made every effort to ensure the safety and protection of its customers’ data. It utilizes Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption in handling sensitive data, so players can enjoy complete peace of mind. That said, there’s more to player safety than just data protection, which Rizk knows all too well. There’s a reason why it was nominated as a socially responsible operator, and a great deal of that is down to its commitment to responsible gaming. This commitment includes a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to criminal activities like money laundering, as well as providing players with resources for help and support. If, at any point, players become concerned about their own gaming habits, they can set financial limits, and opt for time out periods or self-exclusion. Players can also avail of a reality check, where the casino will send them a reminder of how much time they’ve spent playing.
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Bonuses and Benefits

Winning a best player experience award in your first year of operation is no easy feat, yet Rizk confidently established itself as the hero players need and deserve. Its overall popularity has been helped in large part by its attractive bonuses. As a welcome bonus, players can avail of a free spin of the Wheel of Rizk after registration. You’ll also get 50 extra spins on Second Strike, which are distributed over the course of five days at ten spins a day. Once you’ve got things rolling, you can also enjoy an additional 100% welcome bonus on deposits between £10 and £100. Just be aware that you have to wager this bonus amount 40 times before you can withdraw your money.
When it comes to special games, the site earns full marks thanks to its comprehensive array of slots and frequent new additions. Beyond welcome bonuses, Rizk is a casino that really rewards loyalty. Rather than relying on a VIP club which charges for exclusive membership, Rizk Casino rewards its returning players with more chances at the Wheel of Rizk. The wheel effectively gamifies the entire site, allowing the player to rack up more opportunities to win big the more they play.

Bottom Line – A Worthwhile Up-And-Coming Casino

Ultimately, Rizk Casino is definitely not a casino you want to miss out on. I had a lot of fun looking playing through its games for this Rizk Casino review, and it’s clear that it has what it takes to become a popular destination for newbies and seasoned players alike. Its straight-forward, no-nonsense site layout echoes its “Real Rewards, No Bullshit” mantra, marking it as a refreshingly accessible and frank online casino.
Rizk’s mobile capabilities are also worthy of praise. It’s obvious that the operator understands the current market and the needs of players really well, and it shows in its dedication to mobile flexibility. Being able to choose between the mobile browser or the official app is a huge advantage for players, especially those who might want to give the casino a test spin before sacrificing some precious RAM by downloading the app.
As it currently stands, Rizk’s biggest weakness is probably its lack of customer support phone call. While not a huge mark against it, Rizk could probably benefit from adding a phone number. Its live chat is a top-notch service, but to truly satisfy the needs of customers it could do with diversifying its customer service options a bit more. Like I said, it’s just a small quibble with an otherwise innovative and interesting casino that’s sure to continue to attract fans. If you’re interested in finding more highly-rated online casinos, you can check out my page for casino reviews.
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Welcome to Lost in the Sauce, keeping you caught up on political and legal news that often gets buried in distractions and theater… or a global health crisis.
Title refers to: The Trump admin is blocking IGs from getting info on over $1 trillion in relief spending, including corporation bailouts. The admin is also withholding PPP info from Congress, meaning we don't know if Trump or his family took taxpayer money. Additionally, we learned that at least 4 members of Congress have benefited from PPP money, but aren't required to disclose it.
Housekeeping:

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Coronavirus

Inspectors general warned Congress last week that the Trump administration is blocking scrutiny of more than $1 trillion in spending related to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the previously undisclosed letter, Department of Treasury attorneys concluded that the administration is not required to provide the watchdogs with information about the beneficiaries of programs like the $500 billion in loans for corporations.
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin refused to provide Congress with the names of recipients of the taxpayer-funded coronavirus business loans. After criticism, Mnuchin began to walk back his denial, saying he will talk to lawmakers on a bipartisan basis “to strike the appropriate balance for proper oversight” of PPP loans “and appropriate protection of small business information.”
At least 4 lawmakers have benefited in some way from the Paycheck Protection program they helped create. Politico has been told there are almost certainly more -- but there are zero disclosure rules, even for members of Congress.

Republicans on the list include Rep. Roger Williams of Texas, a wealthy businessman who owns auto dealerships, body shops and car washes, and Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri, whose family owns multiple farms and equipment suppliers across the Midwest. The Democrats count Rep. Susie Lee of Nevada, whose husband is CEO of a regional casino developer, and Rep. Debbie Mucarsel Powell of Florida, whose husband is a senior executive at a restaurant chain that has since returned the loan.

Mick Mulvaney dumped as much as $550,000 in stocks the same day Trump assured the public the US economy was 'doing fantastically' amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Mulvaney unloaded his holdings in three different mutual funds, each of which is primarily made up of US stocks. The next day, the value of the mutual funds tanked.

Cases rising in many states

Good summary: There was supposed to be a peak. But the stark turning point, when the number of daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S. finally crested and began descending sharply, never happened. Instead, America spent much of April on a disquieting plateau, with every day bringing about 30,000 new cases and about 2,000 new deaths. This pattern exists because different states have experienced the coronavirus pandemic in very different ways…The U.S. is dealing with a patchwork pandemic.
As of Friday, coronavirus cases were significantly climbing in 16 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington.
Oklahoma is experiencing a massive increase in coronavirus cases just days before Trump’s planned rally in Tulsa. In Tulsa county itself, 1 in roughly 390 people have tested positive. Yet Trump plans on cramming 20,000 people in an event with voluntary face mask policy and no social distancing. Attendees must sign a waiver that absolves the president’s campaign of any liability from virus-related illnesses.

On Monday, Pence lied saying that Oklahoma has “flattened the curve.” As you can see at any of the resources immediately below, this is not even close to true. Over the past 14 days, the state has seen a 124% increase in cases and reports 65% of ICU beds are in use.
Tulsa World Editorial Board: This is the wrong time and Tulsa is the wrong place for the Trump rally. "We don't know why he chose Tulsa, but we can’t see any way that his visit will be good for the city...Again, Tulsa will be largely alone in dealing with what happens at a time when the city’s budget resources have already been stretched thin."
Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted that he is a victim of double standards when it comes to perception of his decision to resume campaign rallies in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, declaring that attempts to “covid shame” his campaign “won’t work!”

Resources to track increases: There are many different sites with various methods of visualizing the spread of coronavirus. Here are some that may be particularly useful this summer… Topos COVID-19 compiler homepage and graphs of each state since re-opening. How we reopen Safely has stats on each state’s progress towards meeting benchmarks to reopen safely (hint: almost none have reached all the checkpoints). WaPo has a weekly national map of cases/deaths; the largest regional clusters are in the southeast.
On Monday, Trump twice said that “if we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any,” (video). Aside from the fact that cases exist even if we don’t test for them, we cannot explain the rising number of cases by increased testing capacity: In at least 14 states, the positive case rate is increasing faster than the increase in the average number of tests.

Reminder: In March Trump told Fox News that he didn't want infected patients from a cruise ship to disembark because it would increase the number of reported cases in the US. "I like the numbers being where they are," Trump said at the time. "I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship that wasn't our fault."

Fired scientist Rebekah Jones builds coronavirus dashboard to rival Florida’s… Her site shows thousands more people with the coronavirus, and hundreds of thousands fewer who have been tested, than the site run by the Florida Health Department.

Equipment and supplies

More studies prove wearing masks limits transmission and spread of coronavirus… One study from Britain found that routine face mask use by 50% or more of the population reduced COVID-19 spread to an R of less than 1.0. The R value measures the average number of people that one infected person will pass the disease on to. An R value above 1 can lead to exponential growth. The study found that if people wear masks whenever they are in public it is twice as effective at reducing the R value than if masks are only worn after symptoms appear.
Meanwhile, Trump officials refuse to wear masks and Trump supporters copy his behavior… VP Mike Pence, leader of the coronavirus task force, published a tweet showing himself in a room full of Trump staffers, none wearing masks or practicing social distancing. Pence deleted the tweet shortly after criticism. A poll last week showed that 66% of likely-Biden-voters “always wear a mask,” while 83% of likely-Trump-voters “neverarely wear a mask.”

Trump’s opposition to face masks hasn’t stopped him from selling them to his supporters, though. The online Trump Store is selling $20 cotton American flag-themed face masks.
Yesterday, we learned that South Carolina Republican Rep. Tom Rice and family have tested positive for the coronavirus. Just two weeks ago, Rice was on the House floor and halls of the Capitol without wearing a mask.

Internal FEMA data show that the government’s supply of surgical gowns has not meaningfully increased since March… The slides show FEMA’s plan to ramp up supply into June and July hinges on the reusing of N95 masks and surgical gowns, increasing the risk of contamination. Those are supposed to be disposed of after one use.
Nursing homes with urgent needs for personal protective equipment say they’re receiving defective equipment as part of Trump administration supply initiative. Officials say FEMA is sending them gowns that look more like large tarps -- with no holes for hands -- and surgical masks that are paper-thin.
More than 1,300 Chinese medical-device companies that registered to sell PPE in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic used bogus registration data… These companies listed as their American representative a purported Delaware entity that uses a false address and nonworking phone number.
Florida is sitting on more than 980,000 unused doses of hydroxychloroquine, but hospitals don’t want it… Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered a million doses of the drug to show support for Trump, but very few hospitals have requested it.

Native American communities struggle

The CARES Act money for Native American tribes, meant to assist people during the pandemic, came with restrictions that are impeding efforts to limit the transmission of the virus. For instance, the funds can only be used to cover expenses that are "incurred due to the public health emergency." On the Navajo Nation, the public health emergency is inherently related to some basic infrastructure problems. 30% of Navajo don’t have running water to wash their hands, but the money can’t be used to build water lines.
Federal and state health agencies are refusing to give Native American tribes and organizations representing them access to data showing how the coronavirus is spreading around their lands, potentially widening health disparities and frustrating tribal leaders already ill-equipped to contain the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has turned down tribal epidemiologists’ requests for data that it’s making freely available to states.
A Hospital’s Secret Coronavirus Policy Separated Native American Mothers From Their Newborns… Pregnant Native American women were singled out for COVID-19 testing based on their race and ZIP code, clinicians say. While awaiting results, some mothers were separated from their newborns, depriving them of the immediate contact doctors recommend. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that state officials would investigate the allegations.

Personnel & appointees

Former IG Steve Linick told Congress he was conducting five investigations into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the State Department before he was fired. In addition to investigating Pompeo's potential misuse of taxpayer funds and reviewing his decision to expedite an $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, Linick’s office was conducting an audit of Special Immigrant Visas, a review of the International Women of Courage Award, and another review "involving individuals in the Office of the Protocol."

Pompeo confidant emerges as enforcer in fight over watchdog’s firing: Linick testified that Undersecretary of State for Management Brian Bulatao, a decades-old friend of Pompeo’s, “tried to bully [him]” out of investigating Pompeo.

Trump has empowered John McEntee, director of the Presidential Personnel Office, to make significant staffing changes inside top federal agencies without the consent — and, in at least one case, without even the knowledge — of the agency head. Many senior officials in Trump's government are sounding alarms about the loss of expertise and institutional knowledge.
Trump’s nominee for under secretary of defense for policy, retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, has a history of making Islamophobic and inflammatory remarks against prominent Democratic politicians, including falsely calling former President Barack Obama a Muslim.
Amid racial justice marches, GOP advances Trump court pick hostile to civil rights. Cory Wilson, up for a lifetime seat on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, has denied that restrictive voting laws lead to voter suppression and called same-sex marriage “a pander to liberal interest groups.”
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt has indefinitely extended the terms of the acting directors of the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, sidestepping the typical Senate confirmation process for those posts and violating the Federal Vacancies Reform Act,

Courts and DOJ

The Supreme Court declined on Monday to take a closer look at qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that shields law enforcement and government officials from lawsuits over their conduct. Developed in recent decades by the high court, the qualified immunity doctrine, as applied to police, initially asks two questions: Did police use excessive force, and if they did, should they have known that their conduct was illegal because it violated a "clearly established" prior court ruling that barred such conduct? In practice, however, lower courts have most often dismissed police misconduct lawsuits on grounds that there is no prior court decision with nearly identical facts.
The Supreme Court ruled that federal anti-discrimination laws protect gay and transgender employees. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined the court’s liberals in the 6 to 3 ruling. They said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination “because of sex,” includes LGBTQ employees.

Alito, writing more than 100 pages in dissent for himself and Thomas, accused the court's majority of writing legislation, not law. Kavanaugh wrote separately: "We are judges, not members of Congress...Under the Constitution and laws of the United States, this court is the wrong body to change American law in that way."
Just days before the SCOTUS opinion was released, the Trump administration finalized a rule that would remove nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people when it comes to health care and health insurance. The SCOTUS ruling may make it easier to challenge the changes made by Trump.

The Supreme Court also declined to take up California’s “sanctuary” law, denying the Trump administration’s appeal. This means that the lower court opinion upholding one of California's sanctuary laws is valid, limiting cooperation between law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, two of the Court's conservative members, supported taking up the case.
A federal appeals court appeared unlikely Friday to stop a judge from examining why the Justice Department sought to walk away from its prosecution of Michael Flynn. "I don't see why we don't observe regular order," said Judge Karen Henderson. "Why not hold this in abeyance and see what happens?" Judge Robert Wilkins told Flynn's lawyer that if Sullivan doesn't let the government drop the case, "then you can come back here on appeal."

Other

Good read: Fiona Hill on being mistaken as a secretary by Trump, her efforts to make sure he was not left alone with Putin, and what the US, UK and Russia have in common. “It’s spitting in Merkel’s face,” said Vladimir Frolov, a former Russian diplomat who’s now a foreign-policy analyst. “But it’s in our interests.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry welcomed Trump’s plan to withdraw more than a quarter of U.S. troops from Germany.
Op-Ed: Why cutting American forces in Germany will harm this alliance

According to a new book, the Secret Service had to seek more funding to cover the cost of protecting Melania Trump while she stayed in NYC to renegotiate her prenup - taxpayers paid tens of millions of dollars to allow her to get better terms. Additionally, NYPD estimated its own costs conservatively at $125,000 a day.
Georgia election 'catastrophe' in largely minority areas sparks investigation. Long lines, lack of voting machines, and shortages of primary ballots plagued voters. As of Monday night, there were still over 200,000 uncounted votes.
Fox News runs digitally altered images in coverage of Seattle’s protests, Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone
Fox News Mocked After Mistaking Monty Python Joke for Seattle Protest Infighting
In addition to holding a rally on the day after Juneteenth (originally scheduled the day of), Trump will be accepting the GOP nomination in Jacksonville on the 60th anniversary of “Ax Handle Saturday,” a KKK attack on African Americans.
Environmental news:

Ruling against environmentalists, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the federal government has the authority to allow a proposed $7.5 billion natural gas pipeline to cross under the popular Appalachian Trail in rural Virginia.
Trump administration has issued a new rule blocking tribes from protecting their waters from projects like pipelines, dams, and coal terminals.
The EPA published a proposal in the Federal Register that critics described as an assault on minority communities coping with the public health legacy of structural racism. The rule would bar EPA from giving special consideration to individual communities that bear the brunt of environmental risks — frequently populations of color.
The Trump administration is preparing to drill off Florida’s coast, but says it will wait until after the November election to avoid any backlash from Florida state leaders.

Immigration news

U.S. Customs and Border Protection used emergency funding meant for migrant families and children to pay for dirt bikes, canine supplies, computer equipment and other enforcement related-expenditures… The money was meant to be spent on “consumables and medical care” for migrants at the border.
ACLU files lawsuit against stringent border restrictions related to coronavirus that largely bar migrants from entering the United States.
Under Trump’s leadership, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has mismanaged its finances so badly that it has sought an emergency $1.2 billion infusion from taxpayers. When Trump took office, USCIS inherited a budget surplus. A large amount of funding is drained by its deliberate creation of more busy work for immigrants and their lawyers — as well as thousands of USCIS employees. These changes are designed to make it harder for people to apply for, receive or retain lawful immigration status.
Asylum-seeking migrants locked up inside an Arizona ICE detention center with one of the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases say they were forced to clean the facility and are 'begging' for protection from the virus
ICE plans to spend $18 million on thousands of new tasers and the training to use them

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Your Pre Market Brief for 12/15/2020

Your Pre Market Brief for Tuesday December 15th 2020

Stock Futures:

Monday 12/14/2020 News and Markets Recap:

Tuesday December 15th 2020 Economic Calendar (All times are Eastern)

Overnight News Heading into Tuesday December 15th 2020

End of Day and After Hours News Heading into Monday December 15th 2020

Possible Dip Buying Opportunities in the near future (Other suggestions appreciated):

Offering News:

Commodities:

Other News & Analysis:

Upcoming Earnings:

COVID-19 Stats and News:

Macro Considerations:

Other

COVID-19 Megathread #6

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