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(Adds Pfizer response; paragraphs 6-8)

By Praveen Menon

WELLINGTON, Aug 30 (Reuters) - New Zealand reported its first recorded death linked to U.S. drugmaker Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, the health ministry said on Monday, after a woman suffered a rare side effect leading to inflammation of her heart muscle.

The news of the death comes as the country battles an outbreak of the Delta variant after nearly six months of being virus free. It followed a review by an independent panel monitoring the safety of the vaccines.

"This is the first case in New Zealand where a death in the days following vaccination has been linked to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine," the ministry said in a statement, without giving the woman's age.

The vaccine monitoring panel attributed the death to myocarditis, a rare, but known, side effect of the Pfizer vaccine, the ministry added.

Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that can limit the organ's ability to pump blood and can cause changes in heartbeat rhythms.

In response, Pfizer said it recognised there could be rare reports of myocarditis after vaccinations, but such side effects were extremely rare.

"Pfizer takes adverse events that are potentially associated with our vaccine very seriously," it told Reuters.

"We closely monitor all such events and collect relevant information to share with worldwide regulatory authorities."

The health ministry said other medical issues at the same time could have influenced the outcome after vaccination.

But the vaccine's benefit outstripped risks from side effects, it added.

"The benefits of vaccination with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine continue to greatly outweigh the risk of both COVID-19 infection and vaccine side effects, including myocarditis."

New Zealand has provisionally approved use of the Pfizer/BioNTech, Janssen and AstraZeneca vaccines, but only the Pfizer produced vaccine has been approved for rollout to the public.

Monday's 53 new cases took New Zealand's tally of infections in the current outbreak to 562, amid a nationwide lockdown enforced this month to limit spread of the Delta variant.

(Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Clarence Fernandez)

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UPDATE 2-New Zealand reports first death linked to Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine - Yahoo Finance

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan could make terrorist attacks inside the U.S. and abroad more likely, according to an intelligence report distributed yesterday to government and law enforcement agencies.

We assess domestic and foreign violent extremists probably are attempting to exploit the US withdrawal from and deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan to inspire attacks and recruit like-minded extremists online, reads the Department of Homeland Security report, dated Aug. 27. A copy of the report, written by DHSs Office of Intelligence and Analysis, was obtained exclusively by Yahoo News.

The Department of Homeland Security regularly shares information regarding the heightened threat environment with federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial officials to ensure the safety and security of all communities across the country," a DHS spokesperson wrote in an email to Yahoo News. "DHS encourages the public to stay vigilant and to report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.

DHS Afghanistan by Yahoo News

One of the concerns about the U.S. withdrawal is that it could once again create a safe haven for al-Qaida, the terrorist group that carried out the 9/11 attacks almost 20 years ago. Earlier this month, President Biden defended his decision to withdraw from Afghanistan amid the country's escalating chaos, saying al-Qaida was degraded, and insisted that even without forces present in the country, the U.S. military could conduct counterterrorism operations there if needed.

But the rapid collapse of the U.S.-backed central government in Kabul to the Taliban, and the suicide bombings carried out by a branch of the Islamic State on Thursday at Kabul International Airport, have left the Biden administration struggling to defend its decision.

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The DHS report, however, points to concerns beyond foreign groups operating abroad, like the Islamic State. The withdrawal, it warns, could also drive domestic extremism.

We assess that the Talibans sustained control of Afghanistan could drive a surge in radicalization of US-based violent extremists and probably contribute to increased support for foreign terrorist organizations in the United States, including facilitation activities and attempted travel to Afghanistan, the report says.

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Exclusive: Afghanistan withdrawal could drive a surge in radicalization and terrorist attacks, says leaked government report - Yahoo News

A few months ago, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida, declared his hands-off approach to COVID-19 a tremendous success. Politico announced that he had won the pandemic.

But then came the hypercontagious Delta variant, which continues to hit Florida harder than anywhere else in the country.

The result? DeSantis just added another, less flattering distinction to his rsum. When COVID first surged across the Sun Belt last summer, the average number of Floridians dying of the disease every 24 hours peaked at 185, according to the New York Timess state-by-state COVID database. The same was true over the winter.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Aug. 21 announcing the opening of a monoclonal antibody treatment site for COVID-19 patients in Lakeland, Fla. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

A few days ago, however, Floridas daily death rate cleared 200 for the first time, and today it stands at 228 an all-time high.

This makes DeSantis the first (and so far only) governor in the U.S. whose state is now recording more COVID-19 deaths each day long after free, safe and effective vaccines became widely available to all Americans age 12 or older than during any previous wave of the virus.

So what went wrong? California thinks it has the answer.

Since last spring, Florida and California two of Americas biggest and most influential states have been locked in a pitched battle over which kind of pandemic response makes the most sense: less or more. At times, the Sunshine State seemed to have the upper hand like when Florida avoided the worst of a nationwide winter surge that hit California particularly hard, all while refusing to require masks in public and keeping bars and restaurants fully open.

But Delta may have changed that.

Vaccines are working to prevent deaths in many other countries that have seen post vaccine spike in cases, and most other states in the U.S. as well. Florida is different, Dr. Vincent Rajkumar, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic, recently explained on Twitter. Whats different in Florida is that, relative to the vaccination rate (~50%), the relaxation of distancing and masking was disproportionately high. Leaders expressed disdain for masks and mask mandates. The total number of people unvaccinated is high. And hospitals got overwhelmed.

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To be sure, comparing COVID numbers from two different states is always a fraught proposition; there are many factors the introduction of a new, more devious variant such as Delta; the weather; plain old bad luck that people and policymakers have little control over. And any declaration of victory (or failure) during such an unpredictable pandemic is likely to be premature. In theory, California could suffer more this winter.

But by looking at how California and Florida are doing this summer, post-vaccination, versus how they did last summer, pre-vaccination an approach that minimizes seasonal variables such as weather and indoor gathering you can get a rough sense of what is or isnt working.

The difference is stark.

Last summer, COVID surged in both Florida and California, just as it did across much of the rest of the Southern and Southwestern United States. California fared better. There, new daily cases peaked at 25 per every 100,000 residents; total hospitalizations peaked at 23 per every 100,000 residents; and new daily deaths peaked at 0.35 per every 100,000 residents.

In Florida, those numbers were more than twice as bad: 55 cases/100,000 residents, 56 hospitalizations/100,000 residents and 0.86 deaths/100,000 residents.

So something about Florida tourism? humidity? fewer restrictions, even last year? likely makes it more susceptible to summer spread.

Passengers prepare to board a cruise ship in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on June 26. (Maria Alejandra Cardona/AFP via Getty Images)

The problem, though, is that while California is doing much better this summer than last, Florida, for some reason, is doing much worse.

In California, the current new daily rate case is somewhat higher (35 cases/100,000) than it was during its summer 2020 peak in part because California is now conducting twice as many tests per day (about 250,000). Yet despite that, and despite the fact that Delta is twice as transmissible as the initial strain of SARS-CoV-2 that was circulating in 2020, current hospitalizations in California (21/100,000) are still lower than last summers peak and deaths, the metric that matters most, remain twice as low (0.17/100,000).

Thats the kind of progress youd expect after vaccination.

Florida is the opposite. There, new daily cases appear to have topped out at 138 per every 100,000 residents more than two and a half times last summers peak. As a result, the states current hospitalization rate (80/100,000) is nearly one and a half times last summers peak; new daily deaths (1/100,000) are higher than ever. And theyre both still climbing.

In other words, Florida did roughly twice as badly as California last summer in terms of COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths. This summer, however, Florida is doing roughly four times worse in terms of cases and hospitalizations and nearly six times worse in terms of deaths.

Medics transfer a patient at Coral Gables Hospital in Coral Gables, Fla., on Aug. 16. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

Why has Florida moved in the wrong direction while California has gone the other way? Again, simple misfortune probably plays a part (as do other hard-to-quantify forces). But not every factor is beyond human control. Take vaccination. There are just five counties in California (of 58) where fewer than 35 percent of residents are fully inoculated. In Florida, that number is 23 (of 67). Its easier for Delta to get a foothold and spread in places where the vast majority of people are unprotected.

Still, vaccination doesnt explain everything: Statewide, Floridas full vaccination rate (52 percent) is the same as the national number and just 3 percentage points lower than Californias (55 percent). And Florida has fully vaccinated more of its seniors (82 percent) than California (79 percent).

So as Rajkumar explained, precautions are probably playing a big part as well and here too the difference between California and Florida couldnt be more pronounced.

When Delta took off, Los Angeles became the first county in the country to reinstate its public indoor mask mandate. The San Francisco Bay Area followed suit soon after, and nearly every large county in California that doesnt require masks indoors at least strongly recommends them. No lockdowns, no business closures, no official curbs on indoor drinking or dining just indoor mask requirements and recommendations.

In contrast, DeSantis doubled down on his opposition to mask mandates, prohibiting local governments and even local school districts from implementing such policies. Did we see areas like Los Angeles, with heavy masking, having reduced cases to a trickle? DeSantis once asked, mockingly. Such wisecracks were all part of the governors larger message: Now that vaccines are widely available, he argued, requiring additional precautions is not just unscientific and unnecessary its an infringement on your personal freedom.

Hillcrest Elementary school in Orlando, where masks are required for students unless the parents opt out by writing a note to school officials. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

At this point in the pandemic, its impossible to determine whether mask mandates actually trigger more caution or simply reflect existing attitudes in a particular community. Because the pandemic has become so politicized, people have already sorted themselves into their different camps, Voxs Dylan Scott wrote in June. By now, you are already either a mask-wearer or youre not. A government mandate probably isnt going to affect someones behavior in June 2021 as much as it would have a year ago, especially after enforcement has been nonexistent.

But either way, the behavior associated with mask mandates that is, universal indoor masking has been proved to work. In fact, according to a research summary by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least ten studies have confirmed the benefit of universal masking in community level analyses: in a unified hospital system, a German city, two U.S. states, a panel of 15 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., as well as both Canada and the U.S. nationally.

Each analysis demonstrated that, following directives from organizational and political leadership for universal masking, new infections fell significantly, the summary continues, adding that two of these studies and an additional analysis of data from 200 countries that included the U.S. also demonstrated reductions in mortality.

Meanwhile, another 10-site study showed reductions in hospitalization growth rates following mask mandate implementation, and a separate series of cross-sectional surveys in the U.S. suggested that a 10 percent increase in self-reported mask wearing tripled the likelihood of stopping community transmission.

Critical care workers insert an endotracheal tube into a COVID-19 patient at a hospital in Sarasota, Fla. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

This isnt to say that if DeSantis had pulled a 180 and issued a statewide mask mandate, Florida would have dodged Delta (though it might not have hurt). Mostly, the damage is done. Behavior and thus vulnerability to new variants like Delta, which can transmit via vaccinated people is already baked in.

In mid-July, for instance, both vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans reported regularly wearing masks at exactly the same rate (43 percent), according to the Yahoo News/YouGov poll. But since then, mask wearing by the vaccinated has increased by 22 points (to 65 percent) while mask wearing by the unvaccinated has actually fallen (to 39 percent).

In short, the people who need the most protection from catching and spreading the virus are, paradoxically, masking up even less often now than they were before Delta took off. Instead, its the least vulnerable Americans those who are vaccinated who have been responsible for all of the recent uptick in regular masking.

A recent survey by the University of Southern California also found that unvaccinated Americans are more likely than their vaccinated peers to go to a bar or a friends house and less likely to avoid large gatherings.

Lack of mask measures, lack of worry about it, lack of vaccination are all kind of the syndrome, Kevin Malotte, an emeritus professor of epidemiology at California State University, Long Beach, recently told the New York Times. And I think thats what were seeing correlate with the high rates.

Camila Lapeyre, 12, gets a COVID vaccination shot at a Long Beach, Calif., clinic. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

And yet this divide wasnt preordained. Fate did not decree that Floridians would be more inclined than Californians to view wearing masks indoors for a few more weeks or gathering outdoors more often, or waiting a little longer to drink at the bar as violations of their personal liberty. Leaders have some power to encourage or discourage such attitudes, and some responsibility for the behaviors they help to normalize (or not).

The good news is that cases finally appear to be peaking in Florida; the states seven-day average has fallen by nearly 30 percent over the last week (though testing is down too).

But new cases may be leveling off in California as well, and at a much lower level. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco have registered promising declines over the last 14 days.

In the meantime, 228 people are dying of COVID in Florida each day more than three times the number dying each day in California, a state thats almost twice as populous.

And this time, nearly every one of their deaths was preventable.

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Florida is the only state where more people are dying of COVID now than ever before. What went wrong? - Yahoo News

People may be talking about pumpkin spiced lattes in August, but this year there may actually be a good reason to think about the Holiday Season earlier than usual.

A recent note by Bank of America analysts looked at the state of the current freight backlog at the Port of Los Angeles and found that availability of many goods may be pinched during the biggest shopping season. The takeaway? Buy it early! the bank wrote.

These issues come while previous bottlenecks have already created an inventory slump that is unprecedented outside of a recession.

Currently, goods destined for the U.S. that are in route now (or will be next month) should arrive by November which is good news of a sort.

That said, the bank continued, if a retailer is shipping in November, there is a big risk that product will not arrive on time.

The previous window of six weeks from order to delivery in the U.S. has expanded to as many as 10 weeks given the post-Covid logistical backlogs. Not only is that not ideal, but its also many times more expensive than it was last year.

A container ship makes it way toward the Port of New York and New Jersey in Elizabeth, N.J., June 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Pricing is up to $20k/box (if you can get one) compared to $2.5k/box last year, the bank wrote, referring to the price of a standard shipping container.

According to BofA, the Port of LA believes that prices will continue to be expensive for as much as another six months.

The backlog, which began from demand shock thanks to reopening after supply shock from Covid closures, has worsened since early July because of a handful of factors: the Delta variant, labor shortages, container shortages, shortages of certain products, and a host of transportation issues have disrupted the normal flow of goods. Back-to-school supplies are getting hit by the same supply chain hurdles now.

Even after the end of the holiday season, the bank said the Port of LA expects demand to continue to be strong and supply levels to stay strained.

Already, the Association for Supply Chain Management has warned about rising prices stemming from supply chain complications and the need to start holiday shopping well before Black Friday.

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To deal with these constraints, expert elves are needed, Abe Eshkenazi, the associations CEO, quipped in early August.

As all of this has shown, you cant plan for everything. But we all know what season is coming.

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumer issues, personal finance, retail, airlines, and more. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann.

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'Buy it early!' Bank of America warns of supply issues this holiday season - Yahoo Finance

Yahoo is out with its latest update for its Mail app for iPhone and iPad this week and the release brings the handy addition of M1 Mac support for a seamless and speedy experience.

Yahoo announced the news in a press release detailing version 6.36 of the Yahoo Mail app offering the M1 Mac support. Here are some of the features available with the app landing on Apple Silicon Macs:

The Yahoo Mail app is now available for M1-powered Macs! Its the best way to experience email on Mac, and includes amazing features you love like:

Easy Unsubscribe: See your mailing lists in one place & opt-out with a click Quick Reply: Quickly respond to emails. Get 3 short AI-powered suggestions based on the email you received. Custom Alerts: Only get alerts for emails you care about

Notably, the Yahoo Mail app isnt available on Intel Macs with the update, just M1 machines.

Yahoo Mail for iPhone, iPad, and M1 Macs is available as a free download from the App Store. On the Mac App Store listing, the app does show up as Designed for iPad.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

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Yahoo Mail brings its iPad app to M1-powered Macs with latest update - 9to5Mac

Despite pulling back a bit from its all-time high earlier this year, ethereum (ETH-USD) still has a shot to hit $10,000 by year's end, according to one analyst who has been right so far this year.

Magnetic Managing Director Megan Kaspar, who called ether's tripling to top $3,000 back when it was still closer to $1,000 in January, told Yahoo Finance Friday that the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap could still hit her $8,000 to $10,000 price target in 2021.

"Investors are still using crypto as a favorite tool to hedge against inflation," she said, adding that two new upgrades are likely to catapult the ethereum network when completed. Those proposals will initiate the "burn" or elimination of the fractions of ether that had previously been paid to miners in transactions.

"Towards the end of the year, beginning of next year, we'll have about a million worth of ethereum coming out of supply. So that will initiate it becoming a deflationary asset," Kaspar said.

At the same time, non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, transacting on the ethereum network have been attracting a lot more attention lately. This week, the cartoon image of a rock, offered through the EtherRock NFT collection, was sold for more than $1.7 million. Overall, monthly NFT sales hit a record high near $900 million during August, according to industry tracker NonFungible.

That spike in attention is continuing to bring people into ethereum, since many of the NFT sales on sites like OpenSea and others price NFT auctions in ether.

"I think we'll continue to see this as the younger generation feels comfortable buying and owning assets that are not physical, and that, again, is sort of the tech trend that we're moving towards in dematerialization," Kaspar said.

Zack Guzman is an anchor for Yahoo Finance Live as well as a senior writer covering crypto, cannabis, startups, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.

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Crypto analyst who called ethereum's climb to $3,400 reiterates a $10,000 call - Yahoo Finance

Vaccine mandates are on the rise after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval of Pfizer-BioNTechs COVID-19 vaccine and Moderna submitted for full federal approval of its vaccine, bringing to light an issue dividing the country as supporters say a mandate is for the common good while opponents call for medical freedom.

And as the number of COVID-19 cases climb nationwide, with the seven-day average topping 150,000 this week for the first time since January, health officials are pleading with the public to get vaccinated.

I wish everyone was mandated to have the vaccine. Its a political problem, particularly in the deep South, Dr. David Thrasher, director of respiratory services at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, Alabama, told Yahoo Finance. I dont want the government telling me what to do, but this is one for the common good.

Public and private sector employers are mandating vaccines as the U.S. sees a surge in cases, driven largely by the highly contagious Delta variant. So far this week, Goldman Sachs, Chevron, and UPS are among several companies announcing vaccine mandates for employees. The Pentagon also said Monday that it is requiring all U.S. military service members to be fully vaccinated, while Disney World reached a deal to require workers at its Florida theme parks to be innocculated.

Hospitals are overwhelmed in states where vaccination rates are low, including Thrashs home state of Alabama, as well as Mississippi, and Louisiana, as unvaccinated patients make up the majority of COVID-19 patients hospitalized.

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U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations have now surpassed 100,000 for the first time since January, with ICU beds at or near capacity in a number of states. In Alabama, hospitals are facing a severe shortage of ICU beds as the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations climbed to 2,845 as of Wednesday. The state currently has an ICU bed deficit of 54, according to the Alabama Hospital Association, and of those hospitalized, 85% were unvaccinated and 3% were partially vaccinated.

Alabamas vaccination rate, although rising, remains among the lowest in the nation with about 48% of Alabama residents having received at least one dose. Nationwide, about 202 million people, or 61% of the total U.S. population, have received at least one shot.

A surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is also fueling renewed calls for mask mandates. A number of state and local officials have already sprung into action. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said on Tuesday that the state is restoring an indoor and outdoor statewide mask mandate. And last week, Los Angeles County enacted an outdoor mask mandate for large outdoor events of over 10,000 people.

On the other hand, a number of GOP governors are holding firm on orders banning mask mandates, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

It's a shame, Thrasher said of governors who have politicized mask mandates. Masks are not hurting anybody. They clearly help. How much flu did you see last year? None because the masks work. It's a shame it's become such a political issue.

In Texas this week, a Dallas County judge ruled against Abbotts order to ban mask mandates in the state and therefore allowing Dallas County to reinstate a mask mandate, the same day the governor reissued his ban on vaccine mandates regardless of federal approval status.

Seana Smith anchors Yahoo Finance Lives 3-5 p.m. ET program. Follow her on Twitter @SeanaNSmith

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Delta variant surge: 'I wish everyone was mandated to have the vaccine,' says Alabama doctor - Yahoo Finance

Web service provider Yahoo said it is shutting down its news operations in India on August 26 citing new Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regulations.

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Yahoo will shut down its services including Yahoo News, Yahoo Cricket, Finance, Entertainment and MAKERS India. The change will not affect users of Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Search.

As of August 26, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account, Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual, a statement on Yahoo India homepage read.

The Verizon Media owned company ceased publication of content in the country as the new FDI policy, which will come into effect in October, limits foreign funding of more than 26% in digital news media outlets.

Also Read | Yahoo Groups to shut down on December 15

Yahoo said on its FAQ page it did not come to this decision lightly but has been impacted by changes to regulatory laws in India that limit foreign ownership of media companies.

Answering a question on shutting down of Yahoo Cricket, it explained that Yahoo Cricket has a news component which is why it was impacted under the new FDI regulations.

The company noted that it has a long association with India and remains open to opportunities that connect to users.

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Yahoo shuts down news sites in India over FDI regulations - The Hindu

Billionaire "Bond King" Jeffrey Gundlach says the stimulus and the Federal Reserve's low interest rates have "been a very deep punch bowl spiked pretty heavily with 100-proof liquor," and "once this party ends, the hangover is going to be in the form of a sharp drop in economic growth."

Gundlach, the founder and CEO of $137 billion DoubleLine Capital, explained that the economic picture in the U.S. is "very hard to divine" because of the government's intervention.

"It's like pushing on like a waterbed or something. As you push on the side of the waterbed, the other side goes up, and weird things happen, and you can't really compare it to a time period where you're not pushing on a waterbed," Gundlach told Yahoo Finance Live exclusively on Monday, adding that "it's very hard to discern what's going to happen."

The 61-year-old bond investor noted that the employment situation in the U.S. "is really fascinating, and it's kind of seminal to the screwed-up nature of the economy."

In the U.S., GDP has recovered from the depths of the pandemic and is essentially flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, and that's with 5.8 million fewer jobs compared to February 2020. Meanwhile, the latest JOLTS report showed job openings in the U.S. reaching 10.1 million.

"Everywhere you go, almost any profession you ask, they say they have a hard time getting workers. Well, no surprise. People are making more money or the same amount of money by not working, and the government continues to support that," he said.

Jeffrey Gundlach, chief executive and chief investment officer of DoubleLine Capital, speaks during the Sohn Investment Conference in New York May 4, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Gundlach argues that when the stimulus programs ultimately end or when the moratorium on evictions is lifted, "There's going to be tremendous economic disruption." On the eviction moratorium, when that ends, Gundlach believes there will be "all kinds of consequences," including rents going "way up."

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"The officials have a tiger by the tail, and for now they are not getting clawed or mauled by the tiger. But if you let go of the tail of the tiger, you're going to very likely get mauled. And that's what's going to happen," Gundlach said.

The investor also highlighted that the rebound in GDP, which is 70% consumption, has been fueled by the stimulus.

"As this economy has rebounded back on a GDP basis, it's done so with tremendous increase in the trade deficit. Multiple percentage points of GDP have come from an increase in the trade deficit that's not real GDP," Gundlach said.

He argued that consumption is "not really the economy," but instead, the economy is about production.

"And when you buy goods produced in Asia with stimulus money, it shows up as GDP, but it's really Asian GDP, it's consumption for the United States. So the economy isn't really that strong, as you point out, with 5 million fewer jobs. It shows up as correctly, mathematically, in the productivity equation, but it's really Chinese productivity," Gundlach said.

Elsewhere, Gundlach believes that one reason consumer sentiment recently cratered in the most recent reading "has to do with the fact that people are aware that maybe stimulus is getting a little shakier in terms of our ability to predictably rely if it's coming again."

The University of Michigan's preliminary reading on consumer sentiment for August fell 11 points to 70.2, the lowest level since the coronavirus pandemic began and one of the worst declines in the survey's more than 50-year history.

The bond investor also brought up the Misery Index, an economic indicator that's the sum of CPI and the unemployment rate, which is back in the double-digits. The U.S. Misery Index is currently at a level of 10.77, down from the prior month's 11.29 reading.

"Maybe the consumers are feeling the inflation. I think people are starting to realize that inflation is out there. If you ask people what the big thing worrying you about the economy, overwhelmingly right now, what comes across is inflation because people see it at the gas pump, at the supermarket. As long as there's stimulus happening, I see food inflation as continuing," Gundlach said.

Julia La Roche is a Correspondent at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.

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Gundlach: Low rates, stimulus have been 'a very deep punch bowl spiked pretty heavily with 100-proof liquor' - Yahoo Finance

Hawaii was the summer poster child of what a U.S. travel rebound could look like, but now it's quickly turning into what could be a nightmare fall.

As Hawaii's Lieutenant Governor Josh Green explained to Yahoo Finance Thursday, a 14-fold spike in COVID-19 infections since July and a surge in hospitalizations has led the Aloha state to "hit the pause button on travel to Hawaii until October."

"As a physician, I'm seeing the impact on our hospitals. Our hospitals are now full in the state of Hawaii because we've had a large surge since July 4," Green said. "And when I say full, I mean so full with COVID patients that we don't have any access to transfer other patients, like heart attack patients and stroke patients that I see in the hospital, because we don't have ICU beds."

Hawaii's huge step backwards is particularly surprising given how stringent testing requirements for travelers basically eradicated COVID on the island earlier this year. It's also surprising given Hawaii's vaccination status. About 66% of Hawaii's adult population is fully vaccinated, and a nation-leading 87% of its adult population has received at least one dose.

The state only recorded about 50 cases a day in July, when the state opted to lift its requirement for U.S. travelers to show a negative test before traveling to the islands as long as they were vaccinated. But now, as the state averages more than 700 daily cases, Green explains federal travel guidelines are complicating a return to stricter controls at the state level.

"We now have to wrestle with the fact that the CDC and the FDA have given us formal recommendations that people can travel safely if they are fully vaccinated. That creates some legal challenges," he said. "I will say this, there is still a concern that people will catch and spread the Delta variant even if they are fully vaccinated."

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As such, Gov. David Ige (D, Hawaii) stopped short of either requiring testing for travelers or officially restricting travel from other states, however, Green did note renewed capacity restraints on the island could force travelers to reconsider. Earlier in August, for example, the state limited indoor capacity in restaurants, bars, and gyms to 50%.

"It will be a little more difficult to get a restaurant reservation. No one is allowed to gather indoors with groups larger than 10, or outdoors in groups larger than 25. That means that a lot of the activities that people tend to do in Hawaii are severely restricted," Green said.

Some on the island, including billionaire Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, have criticized the restrictions for not going far enough. But for a state that suffered the largest spike in unemployment as its tourist-dependent economy saw a nearly 100% reduction in travel, the latest wave has become particularly complicated as small business owners were just starting to recover.

"With the lowest mortality rate in the pandemic, I think Mr. Benioff should be applauding that," Green said. "Ultimately, vaccinating is what will end this pandemic. Science will end this pandemic, and we will do our best."

Zack Guzman is an anchor for Yahoo Finance Live as well as a senior writer covering entrepreneurship, crypto, cannabis, startups, and breaking news at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @zGuz.

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Why Hawaii 'hitting the pause button' on travel is turning heads - Yahoo Finance