• Nike swings to a quarterly loss as global store closures dent results

    Nike swings to a quarterly loss as global store closures dent resultsNike reported fiscal 4Q results after market close Thursday.

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  • Moderna Partners With Catalent For First 100 Million Covid-19 Vaccine Doses In Q3

    Moderna Partners With Catalent For First 100 Million Covid-19 Vaccine Doses In Q3Moderna Inc. (MRNA) said it entered into a collaboration with Catalent (CTLT) for large-scale, commercial manufacturing of its mRNA-based experimental vaccine candidate against the novel coronavirus.As part of the agreement, Catalent will provide vial filling and packaging, as well as additional staffing at its facility for the production of an initial 100 million doses of the vaccine candidate to supply the U.S. market starting in the third quarter of this year. The companies said that they are also in talks to secure capacity for continued production of hundreds of millions of additional doses.The announcement pushed Catalent shares up 3.2% to $72.71 in midday U.S. trading, while Moderna dropped 5% to $61.60.“We appreciate this collaboration with Catalent and the flexibility of their team to deliver critical fill-finish capacity for mRNA-1273 at unprecedented speed,” said Juan Andres, Moderna’s Chief Technical Operations and Quality Officer.The partnership comes as Moderna announced that it is commencing with the late-stage testing of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The biotech company, which has already finalized the Phase 3 study protocol for the vaccine candidate is expected to start a trial of 30,000 participants enrolled in the U.S. in July.The trial’s primary endpoint will be the prevention of symptomatic COVID-19 disease, while key secondary endpoints include prevention of infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. As part of the collaboration, Catalent will also provide clinical supply services for the study, including packaging, labeling, storage and distribution.Shares in Moderna more than tripled this year, as investors piled into the stock amid hopes for the potential of its virus vaccine. It looks like the rally has not yet run out of steam. Indeed, the $87.64 average analyst price target still indicates a bullish 43% upside potential from current levels. (See Moderna stock analysis on TipRanks).Five-star analyst Geulah Livshits at Chardan Capital on Thursday reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $84 price target.“The disclosed agreement with Catalent puts another piece in place towards Moderna's commercial deployment of mRNA-1273 if positive clinical data emerge,” Livshits wrote in a note to investors.Moderna stock scores 11 Buy ratings versus 2 Hold ratings from analysts which add up to a Strong Buy consensus.Related News: LabCorp Launches Neutralizing Antibody Test For Covid-19 Gilead To Acquire Stake in Cancer Drug Developer Pionyr For $275 Million Merck, BioInvent Enroll First Patient In Solid Tumor Combo Trial More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Keysight Buys Eggplant From Carlyle In $330 Million Deal * Amazon Launches New Counterfeit Crimes Unit To Combat Knockoffs * Ally Financial, CardWorks Back Out Of $2.65B Merger Deal Due To Covid-19 * LabCorp Launches Neutralizing Antibody Test For Covid-19

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  • Would a president Joe Biden ruin your stock portfolio?

    Would a president Joe Biden ruin your stock portfolio?It's almost election time…and time to possibly examine your portfolio.

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  • Cloud computing ETFs soar sky high

    Cloud computing ETFs soar sky highYahoo Finance’s Akiko Fujita and Morningstar’s director for global ETF research Ben Johnson discuss the moves in cloud computing ETFs amid COVID-19.

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  • Rite Aid Asks Bondholders for More Time Amid Tepid Turnaround

    Rite Aid Asks Bondholders for More Time Amid Tepid Turnaround(Bloomberg) — Rite Aid Corp. is asking some of its creditors for a few more years of patience while it tries to turn around the struggling drugstore chain.Bondholders are being asked to swap $750 million of Rite Aid’s unsecured 2023 notes for securities that wouldn’t be paid back for three more years, according to a statement. They’d also have to accept a haircut on their holdings. In return, the new notes would be secured by Rite Aid’s assets and pay a higher interest rate.The debt swap was disclosed as part of a first-quarter earnings release that included a net loss from continuing operations of $72.7 million. Rite Aid withdrew its forecasts, citing effects of the coronavirus pandemic on its business.“Rite Aid’s fiscal 2021 is shaping up to be another challenging year, as it must face lingering structural challenges and pandemic-related shortfalls,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Jonathan Palmer and Fallon Stephan wrote in a note prior to the earnings results.Exchange TermsThe proposed swap would exchange the unsecured 2023 notes that pay interest of 6.125% for secured notes that come due in 2026 and pay 8%. Participating bondholders would receive $800 in new notes and $194 in cash for every $1,000 of face value if they tender early.Rite Aid, based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, is also asking bondholders for permission to create more secured debt.The drugstore chain has continued to struggle with high leverage tied to its $3.3 billion of debt amid pressure on its pharmacy and retail businesses.While its deal to sell about half of its stores to Walgreens helped reduce debt, Rite Aid has been trying to improve in-store retail sales while also dealing with falling pharmacy revenue due to reimbursement pressure, according to BI.New BossThe company recruited Heyward Donigan, a digital health executive with little retail background, to be its new chief executive and presented a vision for its turnaround in March.“Rite Aid emerged from its asset sale to Walgreens as a smaller competitor with a cleaner, but still highly levered, balance sheet. It faces an uphill climb due to structural conditions as it tries to improve profitability,” Bloomberg Intelligence said in a March note.It benefited from customers stocking up on essential medications and cleaning supplies in anticipation of the Coronavirus shelter-in-place orders, according to the earnings statement. However, many of Rite Aid’s stores are in states that have been hardest hit, according to BI, so the initial burst of purchases may not be sustained as the pandemic drags on.The notes targeted by Rite Aid rose by 3 cents on the dollar to 98 cents, according to Trace bond trading data. Some of its longer-dated unsecured debt hovers around 85 cents. The early tender deadline is July 9 at 5 p.m. New York time. The exchange offer expires July 23 at 11:59 p.m.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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  • Another 1.48M Americans filed for unemployment benefits

    Another 1.48M Americans filed for unemployment benefitsYahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Brian Sozzi join Michael Gapen, Barclays Chief U.S. Economist to discuss ongoing jobless claims, economic recovery and the bankruptcy of Chuck E. Cheese Parent company.

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  • The Daily Biotech Pulse: Merck’s Wonder Cancer Drug Snags Another Approval, Decision Day For Zogenix, UniQure Out-Licenses Gene Therapy

    The Daily Biotech Pulse: Merck's Wonder Cancer Drug Snags Another Approval, Decision Day For Zogenix, UniQure Out-Licenses Gene TherapyThe following is a roundup of top developments in the biotech space over the last 24 hours:Scaling The Peaks (Biotech Stocks Hitting 52-week Highs June 24) * ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACAD) * BioXcel Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: BTAI) * Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: BCLI) (announced new clinical program focused on the development of NurOwn as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease) * Burning Rock Biotech Ltd (NASDAQ: BNR) (went public June 12) * Cardiff Oncology Inc (NASDAQ: CRDF) * ESSA Pharma Inc (NASDAQ: EPIX) * Five Prime Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: FPRX) * Horizon Therapeutics PLC (NASDAQ: HZNP) * IGM Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ: IGMS) * Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: INO) * Kamada Ltd. (NASDAQ: KMDA) * Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) * Passage Bio Inc (NASDAQ: PASG) * Pliant Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: PLRX) * Translate Bio Inc (NASDAQ: TBIO) * Twist Bioscience Corp (NASDAQ: TWST)Down In The Dumps (Biotech Stocks Hitting 52-week Lows June 24) * Genetron Holdings Ltd – ADR (NASDAQ: GTH) (went public Friday) * Vaccinex Inc (NASDAQ: VCNX)Stocks In Focus Merck's Keytruda Approved For Skin Cancer Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) said the FDA as approved Keytruda, its anti-PD-1 therapy, as monotherapy for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma that is not curable by surgery or radiation.In pre-market trading, Merck shares were down 0.65% to $75.38.UniQure Out-Licenses Investigational Late-Stage Hemophilia B Gene Therapy For Up To $2.05B Gene therapy company Uniqure NV (NASDAQ: QURE) said it has entered into a licensing agreement with CSL Behring, providing the latter with exclusive global rights to etranacogene dezaparvovec, uniQure's investigational gene therapy for patients with hemophilia B.The agreement provides for uniQure receiving a $450 million upfront cash payment and potentially up to $1.6 billion in payments based on regulatory and commercial milestones. The company is also eligible to receive tiered double-digit royalties in a range of up to a low-20s percentage of net product sales arising from the collaboration.UniQure said the proposed transaction will provide significant financial resources to advance and expand its pipeline of gene therapy candidates, anchored by AMT-130 in Huntington's disease, and to invest further in its leading gene therapy manufacturing and technology platform to support pipeline growth.The stock was down 16.39% at $52.60 premarket Thursday.La Jolla Agrees To Buy Tetraphase After protracted three-way wrangling, Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: TTPH) clinched a definitive merger agreement to be bought by La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company (NASDAQ: LJPC) for $43 million in upfront cash, plus potential future cash payments of up to $16 million pursuant to contingent value rights.Melinta, which had earlier agreed to buy Tetraphase, terminated the agreement, and was paid $1.15 million as a break-up fee.In after-hours trading, Tetraphase shares declined 1.85% to $2.65, while La Jolla gained 2.08% to $4.90.See also: The Week Ahead In Biotech: Karyopharm, Zogenix, Heron, Chiasma On The Radar Ahead Of FDA Decisions Theravance Doses First Patient In Phase 2 COVID-19 Study Theravance Biopharma Inc (NASDAQ: TBPH) said the first COVID-19 patient has been dosed in a Phase 2 study of TD-0903, its lung-selective, nebulized Janus kinase inhibitor in development for the potential treatment of hospitalized patients with acute lung Injury caused by COVID-19.Offerings HUTCHISON CHINA/S ADR (NASDAQ: HCM) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement for the sale of $100 million of shares at $25 per ADS through a private placement to private equity firm General Atlantic.This fundraise could increase to $200 million through a warrant granted with a term of 18 months for a further $100 million in Chi-Med shares exercisable at a price per share equivalent to $30 per ADS, the company said. Erytech Pharma SA (NASDAQ: ERYP) announced the signing of an agreement with the Luxembourg-based European High Growth Opportunities Securitization Fund for issuing convertible notes valued up to a maximum of 60 million euros ($67.2 million) in the event of conversion of all the notes, subject to the regulatory limit of 20% dilution.View more earnings on IBBErytech said the financing line aims at improving its financial strength and extending its cash horizon for the next key development milestones.Xeris Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ: XERS) said it has commenced concurrent underwritten public offerings of $20 million in shares of its common stock and $60 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2025. The company expects the net proceeds to finance the commercialization of Gvoke and repay a $20 million loan, among other things.The stock was down 19.96% at $4.25 premarket. Evelo Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ: EVLO) priced its underwritten public offering of 12 million shares of its common stock at $3.75 per share for gross proceeds of $45 million. All of the shares in the offering are to be sold by the company. The offering is expected to close on or about June 29.The stock was down 8.98% at $3.65 premarket. Nantkwest Inc (NASDAQ: NK) priced its underwritten public offering of 7.41 million shares, with 3.7 million shares to be priced at $9.50 per share and the remaining 3.7 million shares at $12.12 per share to its CEO and principal stockholder Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. The aggregate gross proceeds from the offering are expected to be approximately $80.1 million.In after-hours trading, the stock shed 9.39% to $11.Translate Bio said it has commenced an underwritten public offering of $125 million of its common stock. In addition, Shire, a subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (NYSE: TAK), is offering 6.825 million of its common stock in the offering. The company clarified that it will not receive any proceeds from the shares sold by Shire.Translate Bio shares were down 6.64% at $24.89 premarket Thursday.Magenta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ: MGTA) priced its underwritten public offering of 7.5 million shares of its common stock at $8 per share for gross proceeds of $60 million. All the shares earmarked for the offering are sold by the company.On The Radar PDUFA Dates The FDA is set to rule on Zogenix, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: ZGNX) NDA for Fintepla as a potential treatment candidate for seizures associated with Dravet syndrome.Earnings * Aethlon Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ: AEMD) (after the close)Related Link: Evoke Gets FDA Nod For Gimoti, A Nasally-Administered Gastroparesis Drug See more from Benzinga * The Daily Biotech Pulse: MediciNova On Track For European Patent Win, Partial Clinical Hold Lifted For Innate Pharma, Tela Bio Details Coronavirus Impact * The Daily Biotech Pulse: Sanofi Expedites COVID-19 Vaccine Timeline, Apyx Cleared For Market Expansion, Miragen's Positive Readout(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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  • ‘The money’s gone’: Wirecard collapses owing $4 billion

    'The money's gone': Wirecard collapses owing $4 billionWirecard collapsed on Thursday owing creditors almost $4 billion after disclosing a gaping hole in its books in Germany’s worst accounting scandal. The payments company filed for insolvency at a Munich court saying that with 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) of loans due at the end of the month its survival as a going concern was “not assured”. Its implosion came a week after EY, its auditor for over a decade, refused to sign off the 2019 accounts, forcing out Chief Executive Markus Braun and leading Wirecard to admit that $2.1 billion of its cash probably didn’t exist.

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  • SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son Stepping Down From Alibaba’s Board

    SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son Stepping Down From Alibaba's BoardSoftBank Group Corp (OTC: SFTBY) CEO Masayoshi Son announced that he is resigning from the board of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA) on Thursday.What Happened Son announced his resignation from Alibaba's board, effective the same day, at the end of SoftBank's annual shareholder meeting, reported the Wall Street Journal. Son's resignation matches the day on which Alibaba CEO Jack Ma's resignation from Softbank's board comes into effect. Ma had announced his resignation last month. The SoftBank chief executive said he was stepping down of his own volition, and that the parting from Alibaba was smooth. Son made clear that there was no discord with Alibaba.Son had been on Alibaba's board since 2005 and Ma on Softbank's since 2007.Why It Matters In 2000, Son had invested $20 million in Alibaba, which has paid SoftBank handsomely. The investment supports the Japanese group's share price, credit rating, and funding activities, according to WSJ.Last month, SoftBank raised $11.5 billion by selling Alibaba's stock in an effort to bolster its balance sheet. The sale of shares came after its Vision Fund saw a decline in the value of its tech investments. For the financial year spanning April 2019 and March 2020, SoftBank incurred an operating loss of $12.7 billion.Price Action On Wednesday, SoftBank OTC shares closed 4.59% lower at $24.73. On Thursday, the company's shares traded 0.24% lower at $50.24 at press time in Tokyo.Image by WikimediaSee more from Benzinga * Chinese Internet Giant NetEase's Shares Surge In Hong Kong On Debut * Apple Cuts iPhone Prices in China To Push Sales As Country Reopens Economy * Alibaba Invests .4B In AI And Internet of Things Systems For Its Smart Speakers(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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