Starting June 8, FedEx (FDX) has announced that it will start implementing a number of surcharges, including a temporary surcharge on FedEx SmartPost packages of $0.4/ package, as it deals with the fallout from Covid-19.For customers at the enterprise level, U.S. domestic residential FedEx Express and FedEx Ground packageswill face a surcharge of $0.3/ package, while Oversize U.S. domestic FedEx Express and FedEx Ground packages will now need to cough up an extra $30/ package.“As the impact of the virus continues to generate a surge in residential deliveries and has also generated a surge in oversize, hard-to-handle packages, we have experienced increased operating costs across our network” the company explained.“To continue providing our customers with strong levels of service during this time, we are implementing temporary peak surcharges” FedEx stated, arguing that it provides an essential business keeping commerce moving and delivering critical shipments during this challenging time.Indeed, FedEx rival UPS (UPS) has already implemented peak surcharges on certain U.S. domestic packages starting from May 31, and effective until further notice. “Our goal is to ensure businesses and customers are able to meet their shipping needs while demand has increased for shipping services” the company explained at the time.A $0.30 peak surcharge now applies to certain UPS Ground Residential and UPS SurePost packages if customer’s (like Amazon, Best Buy and Target) average weekly volume exceeds 25,000 packages.Shares in FedEx are currently trading down 9% year-to-date. Analysts have a cautiously optimistic Moderate Buy consensus on the stock, with 10 recent buy ratings offset by 8 hold ratings. More worryingly, the average analyst price target of $135 indicates 2% downside potential from current levels. (See FDX stock analysis on TipRanks).Morgan Stanley’s Ravi Shanker has just reiterated his hold rating on FedEx, citing unprecedented pressures from Covid-19 including sharp declines in B2B and International volumes, elevated costs and one fewer working day.Related News: Zoom Lifts Full-Year Sales Guidance As Quarterly Revenue Balloons 169% Billionaire Ackman Exits Berkshire Hathaway, Blackstone To Fund Opportunities Amazon Leases 12 Boeing Cargo Aircraft To Meet Online Orders Surge More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * AstraZeneca Partners With Accent To Develop Novel Cancer Treatments * Nio Rising On Record-High Monthly Deliveries, Goldman Sachs Upgrade * Inovio Suing Suppliers Over Covid-19 Vaccine Production * S&P; Cuts American Airlines’ Credit Rating To 'B-' from 'B' On Cash Flow Deficit Concern

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Inovio Pharmaceuticals (INO) has now initiated legal proceedings as an emergency action to compel the technology transfer required for the planned large-scale manufacture of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.The company has an ambitious goal of producing one million doses of INO-4800 by the end of 2020, with its existing capacity and contract resources, for further clinical trials or emergency use.To fulfil this goal, INO has filed a complaint in Pennsylvania to compel VGXI, Inc. and GeneOne Life Science to facilitate the transfer of manufacturing methods, using VGXI’s technology, to the company’s new engaged contract manufacturers.“The Company believes that widespread availability of its potential COVID-19 vaccine, which can only be achieved through accelerated large-scale manufacture following clinical trials and regulatory approval, is essential to combat the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic” INO states.Under the companies’ Supply Agreement, VGXI produces and supplies the DNA plasmids for the INO’s research and early clinical trials for its product candidates.However VGXI allegedly informed Inovio that it did not have the capacity to manufacture the full order of DNA plasmids on the requested timeline, nor would it be able to manufacture plasmids for the commercial sale of INO-4800, if the vaccine were approved.It subsequently refused to transfer the technology to INO’s third party contract manufacturers.In January 2020, INO began preclinical studies of INO-4800, and in April it received approval from the U.S. FDA to begin a Phase 1 clinical trial of INO-4800. If the initial safety and immunogenicity data from the Phase 1 trial are acceptable, INO plans to advance the development of INO-4800 into later-stage efficacy trials in the second half of 2020.In a further dose of bad news, Inovio has not been selected by the Trump administration as one of the five companies picked to develop a COVID-19 vaccine as part of the government’s Warp Speed operation. The companies selected will receive additional government funding, assistance in clinical development and manufacturing to ensure the availability of two hundred million doses by YE2020.“Given INO’s notable omission from this list, we see these developments as a negative read-through to INO shares, though we would await a formal announcement, given INO’s need for external funding in further clinical development and manufacturing scale-up of their ph.I candidate, INO-4800” commented RBC Capital analyst Gregory Renza. Indeed, shares fell 13% on June 3, and are now falling 5% in Thursday’s pre-market trading.However the anlayst adds “While the news can be seen as initially disappointing… we think the announcement would not preclude INO from an ultimately successful development of a COVID-19 vaccine as they continue to leverage external funding support funding and maintain active engagement with gov’t agencies and other funders.”Renza reiterated his Hold rating on the stock with a $10 price target (20% downside potential) on June 3. INO stock has exploded over 270% year-to-date, and analysts have a cautiously optimistic Moderate Buy consensus on the stock’s outlook. That’s with a $17 average analyst price target for further upside potential of 34%. (See INO stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: 5 Covid-19 Vaccines Picked For Trump’s Operation Warp Speed Inovio’s COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Has the Edge Over Moderna’s, Says 5-Star Analyst Novavax Seeks To Make 1 Billion Covid-19 Vaccine Doses More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * S&P; Cuts American Airlines’ Credit Rating To 'B-' from 'B' On Cash Flow Deficit Concern   * FedEx Adding Temporary Surcharges As Covid-19 Pressures Mount * Uber CEO Reveals Pickup In May Rides As Covid-19 Restrictions Ease * Billionaire Investor Dan Loeb’s Fund Lists Boeing As Top Winner In May

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(Bloomberg) — Oil traders and analysts scrutinizing U.S. inventory data for signs of a market recovery are being confronted by an odd situation: the math just doesn’t add up.Various government data sets including stockpiles, production, imports and exports are signaling that current official figures on at least some supplies are excessive. While it’s unclear where exactly the discrepancy lies, the difference could potentially signal a more bullish outlook for crude prices as they claw their way back after diving below zero in April.The excess is showing up in the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s so-called crude supply adjustment factor — the difference between stockpile numbers and those implied by production, refinery demand, imports and exports. That has averaged negative 980,000 barrels daily over the past four weeks — the largest in records going back to 2001, and equivalent to more than 27 million barrels.The adjustment factor tends to swing back and forth, depending on irregularities in various surveys the EIA pulls from for its reports. For these weekly reports, the EIA is not able to collect domestic crude oil production, instead estimating it from its short-term energy outlook model.Some investors lay the blame for the current discrepancy on U.S. oil production numbers. While daily output fell 700,000 barrels to 11.2 million in May, they believe oil’s plunge into negative territory in April should have led to a steeper decline.Just last month, consultancy IHS Markit said that U.S. oil producers are in the process of curtailing 1.75 million barrels a day of existing output by early June due to operating cash losses, lack of demand and storage capacity and an unwillingness to sell resources at low prices. Some of that lower production is already becoming evident, according to information disclosed in various company announcements and state data.Read: No One Expected U.S. Shale Oil Output Cuts to Happen So FastWhile output may be a factor, it’s unlikely the full answer. According to the EIA’s Robert Merriam, the accuracy of its production modeling compared to subsequent monthly data has been good, often within 1-2% in most months.Since prices started tumbling in March following the collapse of the OPEC+ deal to cut output, the EIA’s weekly data has recorded a production decline of 1.9 million barrels, which he said was substantial compared with historical numbers. And while he’s also seen a wide range of analyst estimates on current production volumes, it’s not clear whether those are comprehensive or extrapolated.“The adjustment reflects the aggregate uncertainty around each of the supply and disposition elements, and the crude production estimate certainly remains but one potential factor,” Merriam, the director of the Office of Energy Production, Conversion, and Delivery at the EIA, said.He said that there have also some large weekly swings in reported inventory levels and refinery runs, so all the elements within the crude data are moving around far more than they usually do, adding that “the timing of reporting those could also be driving the adjustment lately, as they always do.”A year ago, the crude adjustment factor caught the attention of energy enthusiasts when the figure was more than 800,000 barrels a day for four weeks, implying the reverse — that something in the data was undercounted. The EIA, at the time, had suspected that besides understating oil production, one of the reasons was plant condensate that was associated with natural gas output, but blended into the crude oil stream.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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