Las Vegas Sands Is Leaving Las Vegas. Here’s Why.

“Our long-held strategy of reinvesting in our Asian operations and returning capital to our shareholders will be enhanced through this transaction,” said President Patrick Dumont in the company’s news release. Dumont added digital gambling is part of the company’s future.

The market is applauding the company’s decision. Sands shares are up about 3% in premarket trading.

It’s a little jarring to see Las Vegas Sands leave its namesake city. But the deal, while strategic, might have been struck out of necessity too. 2020 was a terrible year for Vegas amid a pandemic. Las Vegas Sands, for instance, lost about $2 billion after making more than $3 billion in 2019.

What’s more, Wall Street wasn’t expecting a return to profitability until the second half of 2021 at the earliest. Covid-19 has to fade before people come back to Vegas in droves.

Why wait for that when the digital casino is always open?

—Al Root

*** MarketWatch’s deputy personal finance editor Leslie Albrecht talks with Quentin Fottrell, creator and writer of MarketWatch’s Moneyist column, about the trials and tribulations impacting readers’ finances in 2021 today at noon. Sign up to join.

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Biden Says U.S. Could Have Enough Vaccine Doses for Every American in May

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that the U.S. will have enough coronavirus vaccine doses for every American by the end of May thanks in part to Merck working with Johnson & Johnson to ramp up vaccine supplies after production delays caused the company to miss its initial target.

• “There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we cannot let our guard down now,” Biden said Tuesday. “We must remain vigilant, act fast and aggressively and look out for one another.”
• Merck, which halted production of its own coronavirus vaccine after disappointing trial results in January, will help J&J produce its vaccine as well as fill vials and prepare them for shipment.
• J&J initially promised to deliver 12 million doses by the end of February. Production delays caused Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci to revise his estimate for when all Americans would become eligible for inoculations from April to “mid- to late-May and early June.”
• The U.S. has a $1 billion contract with J&J for 100 million doses at a price of $10 per dose, about half of what it is paying for the Pfizer drug. J&J now expects to have 20 million doses ready by the end of March and 100 million by June.

What’s Next: As vaccination efforts ramp up, more states are lifting restrictions despite concerns from health officials that doing so may be premature. Texas and Mississippi both announced Tuesday that they were revoking statewide mask mandates and allowing businesses to operate at full capacity.

—Janet H. Cho

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Biden Pulls Neera Tanden’s Nomination as Budget Director

President Biden said Tuesday night in a short statement that he had “accepted Neera Tanden’s request to withdraw her name from nomination for director of the Office of Management and Budget.”

• Tanden’s choice drew controversy after both Republican and Democratic senators took umbrage at some of her past tweets that harshly criticized politicians from both parties.
• The withdrawal comes amid a relatively smooth confirmation process for Biden’s cabinet, The Wall Street Journal noted, with most of the president’s picks being confirmed with bipartisan support.
• Tanden had however lost the support of West Virginia’s Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, making her confirmation by the Senate difficult. Two Senate committees had postponed her nomination hearings.

What’s Next: According to White House officials quoted by the Journal, Shalanda Young, Biden’s choice for deputy director of the budget office, is now in the lead to be nominated as OMB director.

—Pierre Briançon

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Biden’s SEC Nominee Discusses Market Volatility, Bitcoin, Diversity in Congressional Hearing

During a Senate Banking Committee nomination hearing on Tuesday, Gary Gensler, President Joe Biden’s pick to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, raised concerns about recent market volatility driven by retail investors on social media using commission-free trading apps like Robinhood.

• Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs partner and Treasury Department official during the Obama administration, said “technology has provided greater access but also raises interesting questions.”
• “What does it mean when balloons and confetti are dropping and you have behavioral prompts to get investors to do more transactions on what appears to be a free trading app, but there’s also this payment behind the scenes?” Gensler asked.
• Gensler also addressed blockchain and other cryptocurrencies, saying he is a believer in the technology but would seek to ensure these markets are free of fraud and manipulation.
• Pressed on whether the SEC should require companies to disclose information on workforce diversity, Gensler appeared eager to look at ways to force companies to disclose information on workforces more generally. “I think human capital is a very important part of the value proposition in so many companies,” Gensler said.

What’s Next: Gensler and Rohit Chopra, Biden’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, are expected to be confirmed.

—Barron’s staff, Chris Matthews

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Britain to Ease IPO Rules to Burnish City of London’s Attractiveness

A review commissioned by the U.K. government suggests an overhaul of the London Stock Exchange’s listing rules, in order to enable the City to better compete with New York or European bourses such as Amsterdam.

• The listing review, led by former European Commissioner for financial services Jonathan Hill, proposes to shrink the mandatory float in an IPO from 25% to 15%, allowing founders to keep a greater control of their companies.
• It also proposes to allow dual-class share structures in order to attract tech companies to London.
• In a bid to attract special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, listing in London, the review also suggests no longer suspending trading on their shares when they announce that they have found a target.
• “The review has more than delivered and I’m keen we move quickly to consult on its recommendations,” Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said in a statement.
• The U.K. government is concerned that big chunks of share and derivatives trading have moved to New York and Europe since Britain left the European single market on Jan 1.

What’s Next: Hill says the aim is to modernize London listing rules more than deregulate. Two months after Brexit, the U.K. government is citing Amsterdam as a model to emulate.

—Pierre Briançon

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A Busy Retail Earnings Week Starts Off With Big Beats

Investors are looking to retail earnings this week as one measure of how consumer spending is recovering. In a busy week with everyone from Urban Outfitters to Costco reporting, Kohl’s and Target both came in well ahead of analyst expectations thanks to strong holiday sales and stimulus check spending.

• While Target handily beat analysts’ expectations, earning $1.38 billion, or $2.73 per share, on revenue of $28.3 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter ending Feb. 1, its shares fell nearly 7% Tuesday. Management didn’t provide guidance for 2021 due to uncertainty over the pandemic.
• Despite a 10% drop in revenue, Kohl’s earned $343 million, or $2.20 per share, on revenue of $6.14 billion for its quarter ending Jan. 30. It also gained 2 million customers in 2020 thanks to a partnership with Amazon.com that lets people return products from the online retailer at Kohl’s stores.
• Costco reports on Thursday. Analysts expect strong results showing the wholesale club benefited from shoppers spending their stimulus checks there. Earnings per share are estimated at $2.45 per share, up 17% from the same period in 2020. The company’s new $16 minimum wage went into effect this week.

What’s Next: Other major retailers reporting this week include Dollar Tree on Wednesday, BJ’s Wholesale, Gap and Kroger on Thursday, and Big Lots on Friday.

—Janet H. Cho

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Democrats Are Already Looking Ahead to More Economic Relief

A group of Democratic senators sent a letter to President Joe Biden Tuesday asking him to include recurring direct payments and automatically-extended unemployment benefits in an economic development package the president will propose later this year.

• While the Senate is set to introduce its version of Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package today, the senators’ letter targets a separate infrastructure plan called Build Back Better. First introduced by Biden last summer, the plan also aims to increase manufacturing and related jobs.
• Senate Finance chair Ron Wyden, Budget chair Bernie Sanders, and Banking chair Sherrod Brown were among those who signed the Tuesday letter proposing that specific economic indicators trigger additional funds. They did not specify the exact amounts of the payments or their frequency.
• “Families should not be at the mercy of constantly-shifting legislative timelines and ad hoc solutions,” the senators wrote, adding, “automatic stabilizers will give families certainty that more relief is coming, allowing them to make the best decisions about how to spend their relief payments as they receive them.”

What’s Next: As with the current stimulus package, Biden’s Build Back Better could be fast-tracked with a simple majority vote and pass without Republican support in the divided Senate since Vice President Kamala Harris can cast the tiebreaker in favor of the measure.

—Anita Hamilton

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Dear Moneyist,

My husband and his brother inherited their family home. When they were able to take possession our son and his family needed a place to live. The brother was quite willing to let them move in and, in lieu of paying him rent for his 50%, my husband and I would be responsible for all upkeep, repairs, taxes, etc.

The house is probably 90 years old, and needed quite a lot of work before they could move in. We spent approximately $20,000 to make it livable. After 4 years the house caught fire and, with the help of a crooked contractor, it took another $30,000 of our money to repair all the damage.

Now, comes my concern. If my husband and brother had sold the house when they first inherited it they would split proceeds 50/50. It would definitely have been sold because we didn’t want to be landlords to anyone other than son. But now 6 years later, we have paid well over $60,000 in repairs and taxes. This amount is well over what we had planned on, but it was a chance we took.

According to old tax records the house was probably worth $45,000, and now is worth over $100,000, and growing. The future sale and split of the house proceeds was never discussed. My husband is all for splitting it evenly. I’m the one with the issue because of all the money we spent in improvements.

I understand his brother took nothing at beginning, and I’m all for his getting 50% of the original value plus some extra, but I just don’t feel like he should get half of the current value. The house would certainly never be worth what it’s worth now if we hadn’t done all the work on it. Unless the house continues to increase in value, we will never recoup our investment.

May I have your opinion on this problem? On paper, this makes me look petty but my mind is unsettled over this.

—Upset Wife

Read The Moneyist’s response here.

—Quentin Fottrell

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—Newsletter edited by Anita Hamilton, Stacy Ozol, Ben Levisohn, Matt Bemer