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Science

China’s Tianwen-1 Mars probe shares first photo of red planet

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China’s first interplanetary probe is now so close to Mars that its camera can make out craters across the red planet’s surface.

The Tianwen-1 spacecraft, a suite of robots launched by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in July, has spent the last six months speeding through space. At just 2.2 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from its destination, the probe beamed back its very first photo: a black-and-white snapshot of Mars.

The CNSA released the picture on Friday. In a press release, the agency said that the probe had fired an engine as part of its fourth “orbital correction,” or adjustment of its path through space. Now Martian gravity should pull the mission into just the right orbit around the planet.

The five-ton probe is set to carry out a braking operation to slow its high-speed spaceflight and slip into orbit around Mars on February 10. Following that, the spacecraft will spend a couple months surveying a landing site at Utopia Planitia, a vast field of ancient volcanic rock.

The orbiter is supposed to drop a lander-rover combo to the planet’s surface in May, the CNSA said. If the rocket-powered descent goes smoothly, the lander will deploy a two-track ramp  for the rover to roll onto Martian soil. The rover’s radar system will help Chinese researchers seek out underground pockets of liquid water. (The orbiter, meanwhile, will continue circling the red planet and relaying data to Earth.)

Such ancient water reservoirs could be remnants of a time billions of years ago when Mars flowed with rivers, courtesy of a much thicker and protective atmosphere than exists today. During this era, Mars somewhat resembled Earth, and scientists think it may have hosted alien microbial life. Any underground pockets of water, shielded from the sun’s unfiltered radiation and the vacuum of space, might still harbor such species, if they exist.

If successful, Tianwen-1 will be the first Mars mission to send a spacecraft into orbit, drop a landing platform, and deploy a rover all in one expedition. It will also mark China’s first landing on another planet and help the nation prepare a future mission that might return a Martian rock or dirt sample to Earth in the late 2020s.

An illustration of China’s planned Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover mission, or HX-1. Here a rover is shown leaving a lander to explore the Martian surface.

Chinese State Administration of Science/Xinhua



As of Friday, the CNSA said Tianwen-1 is just about 1.1 million kilometers (680,000 miles) from its destination.

Two other missions which launched around the same time as Tianwen-1 — NASA’s Perseverance rover and the United Arab Emirates’ Hope probe — are also arriving at Mars in the next two weeks. All three missions are taking advantage of a window when Mars passes close to Earth, decreasing travel time and cost.

China attempted to send an orbiter to Mars in 2011, but the Russian spacecraft that was meant to carry it there stalled in Earth’s orbit and never left.

Tianwen-1 is the closest China has ever gotten to another planet. With luck — and the right engineering to weather a harrowing “seven minutes of terror” as it plunges toward Mars — it will reach the surface.

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Business

Barstool’s Portnoy puts $700K into AMC shares following squeeze trade losses

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Barstool Sports president and founder Dave Portnoy on investing in AMC after losing $700,000 following squeeze trades, Jeff Bezos stepping down as Amazon CEO and whether or not he’ll be attending the Super Bowl.

Dave Portnoy bought back shares of AMC after losing $700,000 following squeeze trades.

The Barstool Sports president and founder told FOX Business on Wednesday that he got out of all heavily shorted stocks on Tuesday, but bought back some of the movie theater company stock on because he “saw AMC going back out.”

“I put in $700,000 into AMC this morning,” he told Stuart Varney on “Varney and Co.” and he added that he is already “up” $60,000 on his investment.

When Varney asked when he would “get out” of the stock he responded: “That’s all feel… I think it could have another run.”

ROBINHOOD RESTRICTING GAMESTOP TRADING IS ‘FLAT OUT CRIMINAL,’ BARSTOOL’S DAVE PORTNOY SAYS

“The big question with it obviously is that stock has been restricted. Today I don’t think it is so it’s a little bit of a guessing game what’s going to happen,” he added. “This is not fundamentals. This is just watching the ball bounce… black, red or green in a roulette wheel.”

Portnoy said he also invested a “little bit” in Nokia and Naked Brand stocks.

Ticker Security Last Change Change %
GME GAMESTOP CORP 97.87 +7.53 +8.34%
AMC AMC ENTERTAINMENT HOLDINGS INC 8.68 +0.84 +10.72%
NOK NOKIA CORP. 4.64 +0.12 +2.54%
NAKD NAKED BRAND GROUP 1.28 +0.37 +40.76%

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Meanwhile, Robinhood on Wednesday announced that it would allow fractional share investing in GameStop and AMC.

Portnoy said the move would bring the little guy back, but also stressed that the app could halt trading if these names start “going nuts again like they did before.”

“The main issue I had is I didn’t know they could pause trading like they did and crater the price… I was jumping on the train trying to make quick money… I’ll still do that if the opportunity presents itself,” he said. “But it certainly opened my eyes to what can be done when the little guy starts getting the hammer.”

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Business

GameStop shares slide below $90 as Reddit rout continues and investors lose billions

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GameStop’s stock price gyrated in early trading on Wednesday, briefly sliding below $90 as shares in the video game retailer continued to lose altitude after a spectacular rally over the last week. The dip suggests that the popular WallStreetBets Reddit stock market discussion board that has helped drive the run-up may be losing its magic to move the market.

The GameStop tumble followed a large reduction in short interest on the stock, which measures how many of the company’s shares have been borrowed to sell. Many had pointed to that previously high level of short interest, and the fact that hedge funds and others betting against the video game retailer had been squeezed, as a reason GameStop’s shares had soared.

GameStop shares were trading at $93.12, up 3%, as of 10:25 a.m. Eastern time. The stock price had been as high as $483 only last Thursday — a plunge of more than 80% in less than a week.

“These things can last longer than people expect, but when they unwind they can unwind pretty fast,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird. “When it’s complete speculation mania and gambling, someone is going to be left holding the bag.”


GameStop, Reddit and the Battle of Wall Stree…

04:22

The drop in GameStop shares, which fell 60% on Tuesday alone, could result in significant losses for some of the individual investors who had ridden the positive stock market suggestions posted on WallStreetBets. The forum has soared in popularity in the past week, swelling to 8 million members. GameStop’s shares hit an all-time high of $483 on Thursday amid social media chants of buy, buy, buy. 

Since then, GameStop’s 81% stock-price dive has erased nearly $29 billion in the company’s stock-market value, which at its height last week was $35 billion. On Tuesday that stock market value, or market capitalization, sank to $6.3 billion.

The share prices of other companies that have gotten boosterish mentions in WallStreetBets have suffered steep drops as well. Shares of movie theater chain AMC Entertainment fell 40% on Tuesday to just under $8 each. That stock had been as high as $20 last week. BlackBerry’s shares, which had climbed to $28 last week, tumbled 21% on Tuesday to $11.50, while Koss slid 43%.

The acting chairwoman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Allison Herren Lee, told NPR on Monday that the stock market regulator is looking into different aspects of the sudden rise in GameStop shares, including whether brokers acted appropriately and whether there had been any market manipulation. She also warned against companies trying to raise money by selling shares at prices that seemed to be inflated by social media driven traders and were not sustainable.

CBS MoneyWatch reported on Monday that the moderators of the WallStreetBets discussion board had recently detected a “large amount” of bot activity in the stock-recommendation content being posted to its group.


Robinhood resumes limited trading of GameStop…

15:02

Naked Brand Group, which sells intimate apparel for both men and woman, on Monday announced it had sold more than 29 million shares in a follow-on offering at $1.70 each, raising $50 million for the company. The company, which is based in Auckland, New Zealand, is in the process of closing all of its stores in favor of online sales.

Naked Brand’s shares had traded for as little as 7 cents each as recently as November. In its offering document, filed with the SEC, the company said its stock price had experienced “extreme volatility” in recent weeks. It said the price swings appeared to be driven by social media chatter as well as “short interest” in the company, as well as other factors.

On Tuesday, shares of Naked Brand fell to 91 cents each, a 45% drop from Monday’s offering price. A spokesman for Naked Brand did not return a request from CBS MoneyWatch for comment.

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Business

GameStop shares are flat in volatile premarket trading after falling 72% in 2 days

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Tiffany Hagler-Geard | Bloomberg | Getty Images

GameStop shares were flat in premarket trading on Wednesday as traders waited to see if the short squeeze fueled by retail investors on Reddit could be revived.

The stock had been down by more than 11% earlier on Wednesday morning but swung into the black shortly after 5 a.m. ET. The stock was last trading around the flatline at $91.44.

Shares of the bricks-and-mortar video game retailer surged 1,625% in January and 400% just last week, as traders led by Reddit thread WallStreetBets piled into the stock.

But the momentum collapsed earlier this week. Gamestop stock dropped 60% on Tuesday and it has lost more than 70% of its value since Friday.

Keith Gill, AKA Reddit’s DeepF——Value, posted on Tuesday that he is still not selling despite suffering a $13 million loss that day.

AMC Entertainment, another heavily shorted stock that was also targeted by Reddit traders, was up by around 6% in premarket trading.

Robinhood and other retail trading apps continue to limit some buying of a collection of stocks pursued by the Reddit thread. Many Wall Street hedge funds began short-covering toward the end of last week after taking significant losses in the squeeze.

Short selling is a strategy in which investors borrow shares of a stock at a certain price on expectations that the market value will fall below that level when it’s time to pay for the borrowed shares. Buying back borrowed shares to close out a short position, whether for a profit or loss, is known as short-covering.

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Business

Retail investors turn attention to silver as GameStop shares retreat

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) — A social media-driven buying spree lifted silver to an eight-year high on Monday but the rally cooled on doubts about the ability of retail traders who are normally focused on stocks to move prices in a bigger, more liquid commodities market.

Video game retailer GameStop, at the center of last week’s “Reddit rally,” slid 30.8% to $225, but other shares caught up in the frenzy that has battered short-sellers extended their advance, including BlackBerry.

Silver prices climbed to an eight-year peak of just over $30 an ounce before paring gains to trade up 6.3% at $28.70.

A lot of people who were anticipating a GameStop-like rally in silver “now realize there is not as much buying pressure pushing it up like some had thought,” said Michael Matousek, head trader at U.S. Global Investors.

It was not clear how long the Reddit-fueled rally in stocks shorted by hedge funds would last. It could mean more losses in the wider market this week if funds have to keep selling to meet redemptions or right their portfolios. Longer-term, they may have to shift strategies.

Share prices swung wildly last week when small-time traders, who organised in online forums and traded with fee-free brokers such as the Robinhood online brokerage, saddled several powerful hedge funds with losses on their short positions.

The effect of the struggle on the wider U.S. market abated on Monday, with stocks ending sharply higher after last week’s steep market sell-off. AMC was flat, having risen more than 500% this year. BlackBerry shares were higher in New York and Toronto trading.

The showdown has drawn scrutiny from financial regulators, lawmakers and the White House, concerned about possible market manipulation.

Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad Tenev is expected to testify before a U.S. House of Representatives committee on Feb. 18, Politico reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Robinhood raised another $2.4 billion from shareholders just days after existing investors pumped in $1 billion, it said in a blog post. The company, which faced anger last week for curbing the purchase of some stocks, raised trading limits on GameStop, AMC, Koss Corp and Express.

The firm is preparing for an initial public offering but it was not clear if it will push forward with those plans.

Cold water

Traders and analysts poured cold water on the chances of a prolonged rally in silver, saying unlike in GameStop, there is no excessive short positioning and that the options market is fairly well balanced.

Speculative financial investors were already positioned fairly bullishly, dealers said. Net long positions in COMEX Silver futures and options rose to about 44,320 lots as of Jan. 26, data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed.

“Unlike single stocks, the market for silver is much larger and more complex and therefore more difficult to manipulate,” said Raffi Boyadjian, senior investment analyst at XM, in a note.

Traders were growing concerned that the Reddit effect could extend to less liquid commodities markets. However, traders said exchange-traded funds that focus on commodities were more likely to be targets.

The iShares Silver Trust ETF, the largest silver-backed ETF, jumped 7.1% on Monday. Data showed its holdings rose by a record 37 million shares from Thursday to Friday alone, each representing an ounce of silver.

Mining behemoths BHP Group, Glencore and Anglo American were the top six gainers on the FTSE 100 in London. Miner Fresnillo rose 8.95%, and U.S. small-cap miners Hecla Mining and Coeur Mining surged 28.3% and 23.1%, respectively.

Natural gas rose about 10% on Monday, in part due to expectations for colder weather, though such moves are not out of the norm for that market.

Retail investors on the popular Reddit online forum WallStreetBets expressed concerns on Monday that bets on silver were undercutting their focus.

“By buying silver … you would be directly putting money into the pockets of the EXACT HEDGE FUNDS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF $GME,” wrote one user who urged investors to continue to buy GameStop. “It will put you on the sidelines from this righteous and glorious war we are in.”

Shorting shares of GameStop cost hedge funds a total $12.5 billion over January, data from financial analytics firm Ortex showed on Monday.

Photo: Reuters

Hurting short-sellers

The silver furor began on Thursday after posts on WallStreetBets urged investors to buy physical silver.

“Get out there and buy at least 4 ounces of silver as soon as you can,” one forum participant posted.

Retail traders poured a record A$40 million ($30.6 million) into Australian ETF Securities’ Physical Silver fund by the afternoon. A silver ETF in Japan surged 11%.

Global short interest in silver, or the cumulative value of bets it falls in price, is equivalent to about 900 million ounces, just short of annual global production.

Banks and brokers hold most of that but it is not clear whether they are net short on the metal or whether their bets offset very big physical holdings.

JPMorgan analysts said fundamentals did not justify a sustained decoupling of silver from gold. Gold prices rose less than 1% on Monday.

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook and Thyagaraju Adinarayan in London and Jeff Lewis in Toronto; Additional reporting by Gavin Maguire in Singapore, Luoyan Liu in Shanghai and Abhinav Ramnarayan, Sujata Rao and Karin Strohecker in London, Lewis Krauskopf, Devika Krishna Kumar and Marcelo Teixeira in New York; Writing by Sonya Hepinstall; Editing by Jan Harvey and Matthew Lewis)

© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021

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Entertainment

Olivia Newton John WON’T take the coronavirus vaccine as Chloe Lattanzi shares anti-vaxxer rant

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Martha Stewart, Joan Collins and Sir David Attenborough are among the growing list of A-list celebrities to have received the COVID-19 vaccination.

But for ‘natural’ medicine advocate Olivia Newton-John, 72, getting a jab isn’t on the cards.   

Speaking to The Herald Sun with her daughter Chloe Lattanzi, 34, on Sunday, the pop icon said she has no plans to get vaccinated against the deadly virus.  

‘Not at this point, no’: Olivia Newton-John, 72, (pictured) revealed she WON’T take the coronavirus vaccine in an interview with The Herald Sun on Sunday 

‘Not at this point, no,’ said Olivia, who is suffering from stage-four breast cancer.  

While the Grease star provided no further explanation, Chloe was more than happy to share her bizarre and unscientific beliefs about vaccines with the publication.  

‘I’m not an anti-vaxxer, I’m anti putting mercury and pesticides in my body, which are in a lot of vaccines,’ proclaimed Chloe, who runs a medicinal cannabis farm in Oregon with her beau James Driskill. 

Anti-vaxxer: In the same interview, Olivia’s daughter  Chloe Lattanzi, 34, (right), shared her bizarre beliefs about vaccinations and ‘natural’ medicine  

She went on: ‘To me real medicine is what comes from the earth. I think people trust vaccines because the doctor says it is safe, I used to.’ 

Chloe, who has no medical nor scientific qualifications, claimed that she’s ‘done research’ and now believes vaccines aren’t safe.    

‘If I had a chance to take herbs and plants as a baby rather than have toxins injected into me I would have done that,’ she insisted.  

‘If I had a chance to take herbs and plants as a baby rather than have toxins injected into me I would have done that’: Chloe, who has no medical nor scientific qualifications, claimed that she’s ‘done research’ and now believes vaccines aren’t safe 

Vaccinations are vital to reducing the spread of preventable diseases, and any suggestion otherwise flies in the face of science and the advice of medical experts around the globe. 

It comes after Chloe shared her outrageous and unscientific views about vaccines and the COVID-19 pandemic in a bizarre Instagram rant last month.

In a now-deleted post, Chloe outed herself as an anti-vaxxer and claimed that face masks can cause ‘health problems’. 

Controversial: The post comes after Chloe shared her outrageous and unscientific views about vaccines and the COVID-19 pandemic in a bizarre Instagram rant last month 

‘Natural medicine saved my mum’s life,’ Chloe, who has no medical training, began, referring to Olivia’s long-term battle with breast cancer and well-publicised use of medical marijuana.

‘So natural medicine is the party I belong to. Not Republican!!! Not Democrat!’ continued Chloe, who runs a cannabis farm in Oregon with her partner, James. 

‘What do you do when you don’t fit in a box!? When you are a vegan, cannabis growing, LGBTQ supporting Buddhist that doesn’t agree with vaccines? Anyone relate?’ she added. 

Discussing face masks, Chloe clarified that while she does wear a face mask inside public places, she still believes that masks are ‘causing harm to little ones, and poor people that aren’t sick that have to suffocate 9 hour days’.

She even claimed that people have ‘cried to her’ because ‘they can’t breathe and are now having health problems’ after wearing masks. 

Unscientific: Discussing face masks, Chloe clarified that while she does wear a face mask inside public places, she still believes that masks are ‘causing harm to little ones, and poor people that aren’t sick that have to suffocate 9 hour days’ 

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Business

Robinhood denies claims that it sold GameStop shares out from under its traders

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No, Robinhood tells The Verge, it didn’t sell off full shares of GameStop, AMC, and other buzzy stocks without permission from its traders.

That contradicts the stories of twelve people who spoke with The Verge, saying that the app unexpectedly sold off their holdings in some of these companies. Quite a number of Robinhood users expressed their surprise on social media today that the app was selling off their stakes, and we tracked down a dozen of them. These traders didn’t believe they had prompted the sales, and they said they weren’t aware of anything on their account that would have automatically triggered them.

“I didn’t have any triggers to sell the stock whether it went up or down. I certainly wouldn’t have put it at $197 when it had just been almost $500,” Jett Flores, who said he was holding stock in GameStop and AMC through Robinhood, told The Verge.

A spokesperson for Robinhood said these small sellers are wrong about how their shares were sold. “I can confirm that claims that Robinhood proactively sold customers’ shares outside of our standard margin-related sellouts or options assignment procedures are false,” the spokesperson told The Verge.

On Wednesday, Robinhood warned some investors with options in GameStop and AMC that it may automatically sell off their stakes to reduce risk, the spokesperson said. But these investors told The Verge they didn’t have options in GameStop or AMC and hadn’t purchased the stocks on margin. They had purchased the shares outright, they said, and were planning to hold onto them.

Margin orders occur when an investor borrows money from the broker (in this case Robinhood) to complete a sale, and brokers can call in those shares if they’re worried the investor can’t pay up. According to Robinhood, most of its actions have been calling in options to purchase shares — a more aggressive move, but not unprecedented. But if users fully owned their shares, as these traders claim they did, selling the holdings would be far more unusual.

The Verge saw screenshots from six traders indicating that their purchase of GameStop or AMC stock had been filled within Robinhood. Six traders sent screenshots showing that their stock in these companies had been sold, with four clearly indicating that they had been sold today. Another trader sent screenshots showing a purchase of Naked Brand stock being filled and then sold within the app. The screenshots don’t indicate how the purchases were funded or how the sales were initiated, but in several of them the app displays a message saying, “We’ve received your order to sell [#] shares of [stock] at the best available price.”

Traders who spoke with The Verge said they were disappointed to lose their stake in these companies. The traders had been planning to keep the stock for longer, and several said they certainly wouldn’t have sold it at the point that they believe Robinhood pushed through the transaction, as GameStop’s stock was faltering from a nearly $500 high.

“It’s extremely dishonest trade on their part and unacceptable,” Ian Q., who said Robinhood unexpectedly sold his shares in GameStop this morning, told The Verge.

The surprise selloff isn’t happening to everyone — plenty of people on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit (and one person I know, who told me they purchased GameStop stock days ago) say they weren’t impacted. And though traders may be outraged by the surprise, Robinhood’s terms of service grant it permission to close a trader’s position under a number of circumstances.

While r/WallStreetBets has been at the center of the frenzy around GameStop and AMC stocks, Robinhood has been the tool of choice for many of the small-time and brand new traders jumping in to take part. But this morning, Robinhood blocked new purchases of stock from GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, Nokia, and others that were spiking in large part because of purchases coming through the app. The company is now facing widespread backlash from users, celebrities, and politicians, and it’s announced plans to re-open purchases on a “limited” basis on Friday.

It’s still not clear what happened to cause these users’ stakes to be sold off today. But at the very least, it means Robinhood has even more unhappy customers.

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Business

Beyond Meat Agrees Joint Venture With PepsiCo, Shares Surge

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Beyond Meat  (BYND) – Get Report shares surged to a six-month high Tuesday after the plant-based food group reached a partnership deal with PepsiCo.  (PEP) – Get Report to produce and market a new line of snacks.

The two companies agreed to form the PLANeT Partnership LLC, a joint venture that will leverage PepsiCo’s marketing with Beyond Meat’s plant-based food production technology. Financial terms for the arrangement were not disclosed.

“We are thrilled to formally join forces with PepsiCo in The PLANeT Partnership, a joint venture that unites the tremendous depth and breadth of their distribution and marketing capabilities with our leading innovation in plant-based protein. We look forward to together unlocking new categories and product lines that will inspire positive choices for both people and planet,” said Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown. “PepsiCo represents the ideal partner for us in this exciting endeavor, one of global reach and importance.”  

Beyond Meat shares were marked 30.3% higher in early trading Tuesday to change hands at $207.65 each, the highest since July 31. PepsiCo shares, meanwhile, rose 0.2% to $140.45 each.

Earlier this month, Yum! Brands  (YUM) – Get Report said its Taco Bell division is exploring a partnership with Beyond Meat for a new plant-based product that will be tested next year. Late last year, Pizza Hut said it partnered with Beyond Meat to offer two plant-based-meat pizzas for a limited time.

“Plant-based proteins represent an exciting growth opportunity for us, a new frontier in our efforts to build a more sustainable food system and be a positive force for people and the planet, while meeting consumer demand for an expanded portfolio of more nutritious products,” said PepsiCo’s chief commercial officer Ram Krishnan. 

“Beyond Meat is a cutting-edge innovator in this rapidly growing category, and we look forward to combining their unparalleled expertise with our world-class capabilities in brand-building, consumer insights and distribution to deliver exciting new options,” he added.  



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Sports

Vanessa Bryant shares poignant letter from daughter Gianna’s best friend a year after death

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Vanessa Bryant has admitted losing her daughter Gianna and husband Kobe in a tragic helicopter crash ‘still doesn’t feel real’ one year on. 

Heartbroken Vanessa, 38, took to Instagram on Tuesday to reveal she had received a beautifully written letter from one of 13-year-old Gigi’s best friends, Aubrey, and wrote in the caption: ‘My Gigi is INCREDIBLE and I truly appreciate your thoughtful letter.

‘She loves you so much. I miss my baby girl and Kob-Kob so much, too. [heart emoji] I will never understand why/how this tragedy could’ve happened to such beautiful, kind and amazing human beings. It still doesn’t seem real.

‘It doesn’t seem real: Vanessa Bryant shared a poignant letter from her late daughter Gianna’s friend as she discussed losing her and husband Kobe in crash a year on (Kobe and Gianna pictured in November 2019)

‘It still doesn’t seem real. Kob, we did it right. Gigi, you still make mommy proud. I love you!’

Sharing the letter on the anniversary of her daughter and husband’s death, Vanessa wrote: ‘Today I received this sweet letter from one of Gianna’s best friends, Aubrey.

‘I love you Aubz (as my Gigi would call you). Thank you so much for beautifully sharing some of your memories of my Gigi with me and allowing me to share them here on my ig.’ 

In her letter, Aubrey wrote about Vanessa as a mother. She penned: ‘You did it right Mrs. Bryant, and we are all eternally grateful to you.’

Strength: Vanessa has been keeping Gigi and Kobe’s memory alive with her loving posts as she navigates her way through unbelievable grief 

Love: Vanessa posted Aubrey’s letter with permission after she wrote that Gi had changed her life for the better 

Kob, we did it right: Vanessa captioned the letter post with these moving words 

She added: ‘My mind constantly thinks of your beautiful daughter. Her smile and attitude push me to be better. You have probably heard this, but if I ever become a mom, I hope my daughter turns out exactly as yours did.’ 

She also wrote: ‘She cared. She knew when I was having a bad day and knew just how to make it better. She was generous with her snacks when I forgot mine. She left notes in my notebook which I cherish. She was incredible.’ 

Aubrey also wrote: ‘On behalf of everyone who met her, I can say she changed our lives. Her simple actions made all of us a better person, and I believe the results of this will never stop appearing.’  

Her latest post comes a week after Vanessa shared a collection of touching throwback snaps on Tuesday to mark her eldest daughter Natalia’s 18th birthday.

Taking to Instagram, she posted two different pictures of herself with late husband Kobe and Natalia as a young child.

It comes after Vanessa bravely shared her struggle with grief ahead of the one year anniversary of the crash which took place on January 26 in California.

Heartbreaking: Last week, Vanessa shared a collection of touching throwback snaps with late husband Kobe on Tuesday to mark their daughter Natalia’s 18th birthday 

In the throwback photos shared on Tuesday, it saw Vanessa and Kobe sweetly pose with Natalia at the Lakers Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, in the early 2000s. 

She captioned it with: ‘We love you so much! Happy birthday Natalia!!!! Our first born @nataliabryant.’

While a different touching snap saw Kobe hold a young Natalia in his arms, which Vanessa penned: ‘Daddy’s little princess, Natalia. ❤️ #18 #BirthdayGirl.’

Vanessa also shared a sweet photo of Natalia recently as she commented on how proud she is of her daughter after the ‘most difficult year of our lives’. 

‘Daddy’s little princess’: Taking to Instagram, she also posted a sweet snap of Kobe holding a young Natalia in his arms, which she captioned: ‘Daddy’s little princess, Natalia. ❤️ #18 #BirthdayGirl.’

She penned: ‘Dear Natalia, Happy Birthday! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of the young lady that you are. You have displayed so much strength and grace throughout the most difficult year of our lives. 

‘Thank you for stepping in to help me with your little sisters. You’re such an incredible big sister and a beautiful role model to so many people. Thank you for being kind, polite and gracious in everything that you do. 

‘You have no idea how happy and proud mommy and daddy are that you’re our daughter. We love you always and forever, forever and always. 

‘Happy 18th birthday to our first born, Natalia, our principessa! Love always, Mommy, Daddy, Gigi, BB and Koko❤️.’

Proud: Vanessa also shared a photo of Natalia recently as she commented on how proud she is of her daughter after the ‘most difficult year of our lives’ 

Tragic: It comes after Vanessa bravely shared her struggle with grief ahead of the anniversary of losing Kobe and their other daughter Gianna, who both tragically died in a helicopter crash last year on January 26 in California (pictured together in 2016)  

It comes after Vanessa bravely shared her struggle with grief ahead of the anniversary of losing Kobe and their other daughter Gianna, who both tragically died in a helicopter crash last year on January 26 in California.    

‘Let me be real – Grief is a messed up cluster of emotions. One day you’re in the moment laughing and the next day you don’t feel like being alive.’

She continued: ‘I want to say this for people struggling with grief and heartbreaking loss. Find your reason to live. I know it’s hard. 

‘I look at my daughters and I try to push through that feeling for them. Death is guaranteed but living the rest of the day isn’t. Find your reason.’ 

Emotional: ‘Let me be real – Grief is a messed up cluster of emotions,’ Vanessa wrote in an Instagram Story last week

The post came after Vanessa spent her first Christmas since the passing of her husband and daughter

At the time, she posted a touching message on Instagram, writing: ‘Always Together, Never Apart Together Forever In Our Hearts’ alongside a touching picture of her family. 

Vanessa also shared a black-and-white family portrait which included daughters Natalia, Bianka, four, and 19-month-old Capri, posing on a sofa. 

Prior to his tragic death, Kobe had called Vanessa his ‘Queen’ and their daughters ‘princesses’ in a touching Instagram post to mark 20 years since they first met in November 2019.

Upsetting: The post came after Vanessa spent her first Christmas since the passing of her husband and daughter (pictured in 2018)  

He wrote: ‘On this day 20 years ago I met my best friend, my Queen @vanessabryant I decided to take her on a date to Disneyland tonight to celebrate old school style (pre 4princesses).  I love you my mamacita per sempre.’  

Kobe adored his family and in a previous post after he retired in 2016 he wrote: ‘I’m so excited to see what God has in store for us as a family now that one chapter is closing and new ones are opening.’ 

Kobe met Vanessa in 1999 when she 17 and was working as a background model on a music video. The couple got engaged six months later and married in 2001.  

They welcomed daughters Natalia in 2003, Gianna in 2006, Bianka in 2016 and Capri in 2019.      

Kobe and daughter Gianna, a keen basketball player herself, had been on their way to the Mamba Academy for basketball practice when their helicopter crashed at around 10am. The seven other people on board were also tragically killed.

The pilot – named locally as Ara Zobayan – was trying to turn the aircraft when it smashed into hills of Las Virgenes Canyon, which is home to celebrities including the Kardashians.

Orange Coast College baseball coach John Altobelli, his wife Kerry, and their daughter Alyssa were also among dead.

So sad: Prior to his tragic death, Kobe had called Vanessa his ‘Queen’ and their daughters ‘princesses’ in a touching Instagram post to mark 20 years since they first met in November 2019  

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Business

Tencent Shares Drop After Approaching $1 Trillion Valuation

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(Bloomberg) — Tencent Holdings Ltd. fell Tuesday, after a world-beating surge in the stock pushed its market value to the cusp of $1 trillion for the first time.

The Chinese Internet behemoth lost as much as 5.1% in Hong Kong, its biggest decline in a month, putting its market capitalization at $900 billion. Its shares surged 11% Monday, Tencent’s best gain since 2011. There were few obvious catalysts for a rally of that size, although traders cited an ambitious listing plan from video startup Kuaishou Technology, in which Tencent holds a stake, as well as a bullish note from Citigroup Inc. analysts. The options market went wild, with one contract expiring Thursday soaring 118,300%.

Tencent was the most recent mega-cap company to benefit from investor enthusiasm for the tech sector, with its looming milestone a marker for the euphoria sweeping the stocks globally. Before Tuesday, the stock had added $251 billion in January alone — by far the biggest creation of shareholder wealth worldwide. Warnings are rising that easy monetary policy is fueling bubbles in global equities, especially in the U.S., where gains have been led by the Nasdaq.

As investors seek cheaper alternatives, they’ve piled into Hong Kong equities. That’s helped make the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index the best performing among the world’s major benchmarks in the past month. Adding fuel to the rally has been record inflows by mainland Chinese investors into the city’s equities. Tencent, whose WeChat social-media platform boasts more than a billion users, is the prime target, accounting for about a quarter of total cash coming in through the stock links.

“Stocks are overshooting,” said Jackson Wong, asset management director at Amber Hill Capital Ltd. “Obviously this has been driven by liquidity. Beijing wants to drive money into Hong Kong, and it’s encouraging lots of new ETFs and mutual funds to buy the city’s stocks.”

On Tuesday, 10-year government bonds slumped to fall by the most in four months after China’s central bank drained funds from the system, raising concerns about how much further Hong Kong’s stocks could rally given tightening liquidity.

While Tencent has long been an investor favorite in Asia, returning more than 100,000% since its 2004 initial public offering, the stock is not without risk.

In 2018, a government crackdown on China’s online gaming industry squeezed Tencent’s most profitable business, which at the time accounted for about 40% of its revenue. Coupled with a slowing Chinese economy and a weakening yuan, Beijing’s nine-month halt on approvals for new games contributed to a 22% slump in the shares.

A campaign against monopolistic practices since late last year has targeted many of the industries in which Tencent and rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. operate, including the online payments industry. But while increasing regulatory risk has left Alibaba’s shares about 16% lower than their October peak, Tencent has closed at seven fresh records in the past eight sessions. One factor contributing to the divergence: Alibaba’s Hong Kong stock is not included in trading links with mainland exchanges.

Tencent would be the second Chinese firm to join the trillion-dollar club after PetroChina Co., which was briefly worth more than that in late 2007 before collapsing in value. U.S. tech giants Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are also worth more than $1 trillion each, as is Saudi Arabian Oil Co.

Tencent was founded in 1998 by four college classmates and a friend from Shenzhen who devised a Chinese version of the instant messaging service ICQ. Led by “Pony” Ma Huateng — ma is Chinese for “horse” — the company’s chat software became the primary communication tool for a generation of young Chinese.

Tencent reported net income of 38.5 billion yuan ($5.9 billion) in the three months ended September, boosted by a gain of 11.6 billion yuan from rising valuations for its investments in other companies. The rally in tech shares is likely to lift its earnings further, given its ownership of some of the industry’s largest players from JD.com Inc. and Meituan to electric vehicle maker NIO Inc.

Still, Tencent’s surge has outpaced all but the most bullish analysts’ forecasts. The stock’s closing level of HK$766.50 on Monday was almost 10% higher than the consensus 12-month price target compiled by Bloomberg, the widest gap since 2014.

(Updates market price in paragraph 2)

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