Evergrande shares halted; AT&T, Verizon refuse 5G delay; Twitter suspends Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
China's Evergrande suspends shares, AT&T and Verizon turn down a FAA proposal to delay the 5G launch, Twitter bans Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's personal account over misinformation regarding COVID-19 vaccines, and Turkish inflation surges. Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman discusses trending stories.
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- Shares of Evergrande, the struggling Chinese property developer, were halted ahead of the release of, quote, "inside information." That's according to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing. Meanwhile, Bloomberg, citing local media reports, says Evergrande was ordered to tear down apartment blocks in a Hainan province development. Evergrande was reportedly ordered to demolish 39 buildings within ten days because the building permit was illegally obtained. Other Chinese developer stocks also fell.
AT&T and Verizon are rejecting the US government request to delay new 5G service over concerns it could interfere with aircraft electronics. The Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration have requested a postponement to the expanded service, which is set to begin January 5th.
The Airlines for America trade group said that, at worst, 350,000 commercial flights could be affected annually. That's because the new 5G signals use frequencies also used by radar altimeters, which sense altitude and aid in aircraft landings. AT&T and Verizon said they might pause the new 5G for six months near some airports.
And Twitter has permanently blocked the personal account of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Republican representative from Georgia has repeatedly tweeted false information about the COVID vaccine. Green's official account is unaffected. Twitter said her fifth and final strike was a lie about deaths resulting from COVID vaccines.
And another story that we continue to track has to do with Turkey. Turkish inflation surging to a 19 year high last month. Now, we talk about high single digit inflation here in the United States. The annual consumer inflation rate in December in Turkey, 36.08%. That's up from 21% in November. Now, Jared, as you know, Turkey and President Erdogan there have been somewhat controversial for their approach to how they use rates to try to combat inflation.
- Yes, controversial. So the more inflation they have, the way they tame it is by printing more money. And if that sounds completely backwards to you, just about every economist in the world thinks the same thing. But I want to check out what's happened here on the YFi interactive because I said hyperinflation. I didn't say the word before the break. I think it's thrown around, bandied about just a little bit too much because in most cases, it is not hyperinflation.
But that is-- this country, if it's not experienced it already, that is what's happening. This is a one year look at their currency, Turkish lira. As the price goes up, this is the US dollar getting stronger against the lira. So the US dollar getting stronger, the lira getting weaker. And just look at this incredible volatility within the last few weeks.
Currencies typically are very sleepy. The US dollar might move half a percent. That's a decent day. That's kind of a big move for the US dollar. This thing is trading like a penny stock, which is just incredible. And given the fact that they have-- the country has to raise their debt and also pay off debt in terms of US dollars, this is a particular problem for Turkey right now.
So you take a look at year to date-- well, actually, year to date would be today, right? So if you take a look at the trailing year, 76% is just out of sight. And I just want to show the Argentine peso as well because that has been devalued against the dollar by 22%. I don't think a hyperinflation scenario going on there. But just to recap the definition, hyperinflation is when there's a crisis of confidence in the underlying currency. Not just high inflation.
Certainly not something that we're seeing in the US right now. But I would not want to be repaying anything in US dollars in Turkey right now. I'd prefer to shop there with mine, but no international travel for me just yet, Julie.
- Yeah, for many of us. Yeah, I think it was Chris Vecchio last week, FX strategist who said it is a full blown currency crisis in Turkey. So we continue to watch that situation.