Daily Pulse

Canada

The first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Canada. Some of the country's initial 30,000¸ doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines touched down on Sunday night, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Twitter, sharing a photo of a plane being unloaded. The plane touched down at Mirabel International Airport in Montreal, the local airport authority said, adding that it wouldn't share any further details. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are bound for 14 distribution sites across the country, across all 10 provinces, and more doses are expected to cross the border on Monday. Quebec is expected to be the first province to administer the vaccine, saying it's prepared to start inoculating residents of two long-term care homes as early as Monday.

United-States

This link will open in a new tab. Electronic Arts reached an agreement on Monday to buy U.K. racing game developer Codemasters in a deal worth $1.2 billion. The deal upstaged a previous transaction agreed between rival publisher This link will open in a new tab. Take-Two Interactive and Codemasters. The firm had agreed to acquire Codemasters for £726 million ($971 million) only last month. EA said Codemasters’ shareholders would receive £6.04 in cash for each ordinary share of Codemasters. The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2021, EA added. The acquisition of Codemasters marks the biggest deal in EA’s history, and comes amid increasing consolidation in the video game industry This link will open in a new tab. as the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated demand for gaming.

In U.S. coronavirus developments, CDC Director Robert Redfield signed off on This link will open in a new tab. Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, allowing inoculations to This link will open in a new tab. officially move forward on Monday for people ages 16 or older. That came following the FDA emergency authorization of Pfizer’s vaccine last week. The U.S. has begun to ship the doses to hundreds of distribution centers across the country.

Europe

British grocery stores are stockpiling food amid the possibility of a no-deal scenario as Brexit trade deal negotiations between the EU and U.K. go down to the wire. The supermarkets have reportedly been told by government ministers to hoard non-perishable goods, according to the Sunday Times newspapers, with lawmakers saying a “no-deal Brexit is on the cards.” A spokesperson for the U.K. government was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. There have already been widespread warnings from business leaders about possible fresh food shortages, possible delays to deliveries from the continent and price rises in the event of a no-deal scenario – where the U.K. and EU fail to agree a post-Brexit trade deal. Both sides have until December 31 to agree a deal, and although talks are continuing at this late stage, they have warned that a no-deal is the likelier outcome.

Asia

China’s market regulator has fined This link will open in a new tab. Alibaba and a This link will open in a new tab. Tencent-backed company for not making the proper declarations to authorities about past acquisitions, in another sign Beijing is taking a tougher stance on the country’s tech giants. Alibaba, Tencent-backed China Literature, and Shenzhen Hive Box Technology were each fined 500,000 yuan ($76,463) by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). While the fines are small, SAMR’s move signals further intent from Chinese regulators to punish and regulate technology firms, many of which have grown largely unencumbered over the past few years, transforming themselves into key parts of everyday life in China.