Good morning all.

1. There were four new cases of COVID-19 reported in Victoria overnight. The health department said that all the cases are from the same household and “investigations into acquisition source are underway”.

2. Melbourne’s two weeks of lockdown will ease tonight, but the 50-person indoor limit means some large venues won’t be reopening. A few operators spoke to The Age, saying the rules were “ludicrous” and made reopening even after the lockdown unviable.

3. Australian fund manager BetaShares has removed Tesla from its sustainability ETF, citing ethical concerns. Chief investment officer Louis Crous told Business Insider Australia that the EV maker failed its screening due to a number of reputation issues and controversies. The issues include the environmental impact of its German Gigafactory and links to forced labour in Xinjiang.

4. Australia’s housing market experienced its greatest quarterly growth in a decade through the first months of 2021, the Real Estate Institute of Australia states. Separately, the latest Australian Taxation Office data shows the number of landlords whose expenses outweighed their rental incomes dropped over 2018-2019. Taken together, the figures suggest there’s hardly been a better time to own property in Australia.

5. A new survey from cryptocurrency exchange Kraken suggests four million Australians intend to dive into the cryptocurrency market in 2021. Increasingly, millennials see crypto as a valid investment opportunity as they are priced out of Australia’s skyrocketing property market, the survey suggests. “As [housing] affordability continues to be an issue, we’re seeing more young people look for other options to grow wealth,” Kraken Australia managing director Jonathon Miller said.

6. Australian universities have managed to climb higher up the global ranks once more during the pandemic. ANU topped Australia’s foray into the QS World University Rankings, coming in at 27th globally. But as the country’s borders remain shut, QS head of research Ben Sowter warned the country’s standing is in jeopardy.

7. President Biden signed an executive order rescinding a ban on TikTok and WeChat. Trump signed executive actions last year targeting the apps, whose parent companies are in China. Biden directed the commerce secretary to investigate apps with ties to foreign adversaries.

8. Sources told The Verge that Facebook has spent $1 billion on a smartwatch since 2019. The product will have two cameras that can detach from the wrist to take photos and videos, the report said. Such a product would put Facebook head-to-head with Apple, which dominates the smartwatch market. I gotta be honest: I don’t know what kind of person would buy a wrist-mounted Facebook ad tracker. But good luck to them.

9. The Biden administration will purchase 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to ship globally. Three sources told the Washington Post about the move, but the White House did not comment. The New York Times also reported that the shots will go out to 100 countries over the next two years. An official announcement will reportedly come at this week’s G-7 summit in the UK.

10. Short sellers have shrunk their positions in heavily shorted stocks by 80% since January. Short-seller losses in that period were largely limited to ‘meme stocks’ like GameStop over the same period, Barclays said. Traders wagering on meme stocks to fail have been “burned very badly” amid the frenzy, said strategist Matt Maley.

BONUS ITEM

Some very funny replies to Gladys B’s State of Origin tweet.

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