United Airlines Holdings (UAL) warned on Wednesday that it may lay off as many as 36,000 workers, or 45% of its workforce.

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Moderna (MRNA) has announced that it has completed enrollment for its Phase 2 study of mRNA-1273, the company’s vaccine candidate against Covid-19. Shares are currently trading up 2% so far on Wednesday.The clinical study will assess the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of 2 dose levels of mRNA-1273 SARS-COV-2 vaccine in around 600 adults 18 years of age or older. The patients will be split into those aged 18-55, and those above 55, and in each group two trial doses will be tested of 50mcg and 100mcg.According to the trial record, the estimated completion date will be August 2021 with the estimated primary completion date expected for March 2021. This primary date refers to the date the last participant in the clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure.The company also announced that the cohorts of older adults and elderly adults in the NIH-led Phase 1 study have completed enrollment. Results are expected to be published once available.“We are committed to helping address this ongoing public health emergency and continue to focus on our Phase 3 study, which remains on track to start in July, less than seven months from the sequencing of the virus” said Tal Zaks, CMO at Moderna.Moderna has also now finalized the Phase 3 study protocol based on feedback from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The randomized, 1:1 placebo-controlled trial is expected to include approximately 30,000 participants at the 100 µg dose level in the U.S. and is expected to be conducted in collaboration with NIAID, subject to regulatory approval.With the Phase 3 dose at 100 μg, Moderna says it remains on track to be able to deliver approximately 500 million doses per year, and possibly up to 1 billion doses per year, beginning in 2021 due to collaborations with Lonza and Catalent.Enthusiasm over the vaccine has pushed the stock up 216% year-to-date, and analysts have a bullish Strong Buy consensus on Moderna’s outlook. Indeed, the average analyst price target of $86 suggests 39% further upside potential lies ahead. (See MRNA stock analysis on TipRanks).“With Covid-19 cases rising across large swaths of the US, and a record high of new US cases we believe the stage is set for rapid evaluation of the study’s primary endpoint of symptomatic Covid-19 disease prevention” comments Chardan Capital analyst Geulah Livshits. She has a buy rating on the stock and $84 price target.Meanwhile JP Morgan’s Cory Kasimov writes: “The company has spent almost a decade building a world-class platform around messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics, a new class of medicines that, if ultimately successful, could have broad and disruptive potential across the whole biopharma landscape.”Related News: Novavax Spikes 42% Pre-Market On $1.6B U.S. Funding For Covid-19 Candidate Corvus Shoots Up 115% On Start Of Novel Immunotherapy Study In Covid-19 Patients GenMark Soaring In Pre-Market On 118% Revenue Explosion More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * KKR To Snap Up Global Atlantic For Foothold In Insurance Industry * National General Pops 69% In Pre-Market On $4B Takeover Deal By Allstate * AstraZeneca-Merck Pancreatic Cancer Drug Wins European Approval * Alphabet’s Loon Deploys Internet In Kenya From Balloons

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President Donald Trump is beginning to take steps in order to remove the United States from the World Health Organization. Chris Meekins, Raymond James Healthcare Policy Analyst, joins Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade to discuss the implications and future impact of COVID-19.

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(Bloomberg Opinion) — Facebook Inc. still doesn’t get it.A widely anticipated meeting on Tuesday between the social media giant and the civil rights groups behind the recent Facebook ad boycott — including the Anti-Defamation League, NAACP and Color of Change — did not go well. The New York Times reported CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg met for about an hour on a video-conference call, but offered little in terms of concessions related to their policies for managing content on their social networks.A negative response came swiftly. “It was abundantly clear in our meeting today that Mark Zuckerberg and the Facebook team is not yet ready to address the vitriolic hate on their platform,” the groups said in a statement. “Instead of actually responding to the demands of dozens of the platform’s largest advertisers that have joined the StopHateForProfit ad boycott during the month of July, Facebook wants us to accept the same old rhetoric, repackaged as a fresh response.”The representatives said Facebook offered to address just one of the groups’ 10 demands — the company was willing to create a position focused on promoting civil rights — but it didn’t promise to do so at the asked-for C-suite level. Otherwise, the company did not give an inch for the other nine demands, according to the groups.Frankly, Facebook’s inaction is not a surprise. The company has gone to this “hunkering down” playbook many times in the past. The old aphorism that says incentives often drive behavior seems to hold true for this tech giant. And on a pure dollars-and-cents level, the company is incentivized to do as little as possible.We all know the worst types of content — such as hate speech, misinformation and false conspiracies, along with the outrage surrounding them — tend to be more viral and generate more page-views for social media firms. The upside for Facebook in elevating such engaging content is obvious, but the downside to society as a whole is vast — from mental-health issues to giving rise to scientifically discredited  ideas such as the anti-vaxer movement. The brains of millions go down these poisonous rabbit holes. Given Facebook’s recent stock performance, Zuckerberg may feel even less pressure now. After a brief decline late last month, amid the frantic coverage of advertiser pledges to pull ads from Facebook’s platforms, the shares are now back near all-time highs again. At the end of it all, the boycott was mainly about headline risk, not significant sales risk for Facebook. Last week, I argued Facebook should act on the back of a sea-change in perception and beliefs after the recent wave of protests over racial injustice, adding the true risk for the company was the prospect of future political blow-back, not a near-term revenue hit. That view still stands.The strange thing is, meeting the civil rights groups’ demands isn’t such a big lift for a company with Facebook’s resources. Most of them are simply common sense. Following the meeting Tuesday, the civil rights groups reiterated them. Here’s a brief selection:Provide audit of and refund to advertisers whose ads were shown next to content that was later removed for violations of terms of service. Isn’t that just good customer service? Wouldn’t that assuage Facebook’s advertisers worried about brand safety placement, giving them confidence Facebook will take content moderation more seriously?Stop recommending or otherwise amplifying groups or content from groups associated with hate, misinformation or conspiracies to users. Not a big ask.Enable individuals facing severe hate and harassment to connect with a live Facebook employee. That’s just a question of being willing to spend some money for something worthwhile.Unfortunately, it looks like Facebook will keep disappointing its critics. Last week, Zuckerberg told his employees that advertisers will eventually return and they will not change their policies under duress, according to The Information. “I tend to think that if someone goes out there and threatens you to do something, that actually kind of puts you in a box where in some ways it's even harder to do what they want because now it looks like you're capitulating,” the executive reportedly said.For now, he may feel a sense of vindication. But instead of focusing on how it looks and establishing bad precedent, perhaps Zuckerberg should instead reassess his thinking and come to terms to this reality: The moral fabric of our society is fraying amid the disinformation propagated on his platform.There may be a ray of light, however, small. Facebook said it will release its independent civil rights audit report on Wednesday after a two-year review of its policies and practices.There may be a ray of light, however, small. Facebook released an independent civil rights audit report on Wednesday after a two-year review of its policies and practices. While the auditors commended the company on some positive improvements, the report questioned Facebook’s “full-throated commitment” in upholding civil rights. They said the company needed to do much more in addressing hate speech against minority groups, prohibiting white nationalism advocacy and protecting against voter suppression. On Tuesday ahead of the report’s release, Sandberg explained in a blog post that the company has heeded some of the recommendations and will do more, but won’t make all the changes the auditors asked for.There is still room for real action. Let’s hope Facebook decides to do the right thing.(The penultimate paragraph of this piece was updated to include new details from the civil-rights audit.)This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Tae Kim is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology. He previously covered technology for Barron's, following an earlier career as an equity analyst.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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Warren Buffett famously said, 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' So it seems the smart money knows that…

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The analysts covering Match Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MTCH) delivered a dose of negativity to shareholders today, by making…

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(Bloomberg) — Huawei Technologies Co. has gone from a crucial component of U.K. and French mobile networks to potential outcast, after resistance and compromises began to give way to a relentless White House campaign.Both countries indicated this week that they’re taking steps to reduce their reliance on the Chinese company — with the U.K. considering a phase out of Huawei’s role set to begin as soon as this year and French cybersecurity agency Anssi imposing a waiver system that’s likely to severely limit its use.Read more: France Begins to Sideline Huawei From Its Mobile NetworksA year ago, things were looking far more optimistic for the Chinese company. Britain’s intelligence and security committee said last July that barring Huawei would make networks less resilient to malicious attacks. The committee’s reasoning was that it would reduce competition and leave the U.K. dependent on just two suppliers — Nokia Oyj and Ericsson AB.U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson attempted a compromise in January, allowing carriers to use Huawei equipment to build out their 5G systems as long as they capped it at 35% and agreed not to use it in sensitive network cores.But pressure from the U.S. has only increased and European governments and carriers have found themselves having to choose sides between two world powers. President Donald Trump’s administration has piled on sanctions, making it more and more difficult for European carriers to access products from the world’s biggest maker of telecommunications equipment.“Huawei’s R&D spending growth has been accelerating recently,” said Neil Campling, an analyst at Mirabaud Securities. “Their advances relative to the Western peers are significant, and so the U.S. is using everything it can in its political power — whether that’s trade sanctions, official agreements, unofficial agreements – to try and slow China’s advances.”Huawei Vice President Victor Zhang urged the U.K. to assess the long-term impact of U.S. sanctions before deciding to exclude the company’s products.“It is too early to assess their long-term impact. This means it is also premature to make a considered judgment on our ability to deliver next-generation connectivity across the U.K.,” Zhang said in a call with reporters on Wednesday. “Now is not the time to be hasty in making such a critical decision about Huawei.” Huawei has consistently denied that it’s a security risk and that it operates independently of the Chinese government. Huawei spokesman Paul Harrison argued on Twitter that the U.S. is unfairly dictating U.K. policy with its sanctions and that they threaten the U.K.’s 5G rollout.Like the U.K. France tried to find a middle ground. In May 2019, Macron told Bloomberg Television he didn’t intend to capitulate to U.S. pressure, though the government had already restricted the amount and location of Huawei equipment used in its networks. As wireless carriers prepare to roll out 5G, the country will likely add additional restrictions on Huawei’s access.The Trump administration, which wanted Europe to ban Huawei outright because of concerns that the Shenzhen-based company’s equipment was vulnerable to infiltration by Chinese spies, hit back.Trump berated Johnson in a call after the U.K.’s announcement, a person familiar with the matter said at the time, and Vice President Mike Pence didn’t rule out that the clash could affect trade talks for post-Brexit Britain in a CNBC interview in February.Even U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi weighed in, warning European allies in a security conference in Munich that month that it would be dangerous to rely on the company. And U.S. ambassador Richard Grenell tweeted that nations using an “untrustworthy vendor” for 5G risked intelligence sharing.Read more: How Huawei Landed at the Center of Global Tech Tussle: QuickTakeNow France has effectively shut out Huawei in all but name, by only allowing time-limited authorizations of between three and eight years for local telecoms providers to use Huawei equipment. The move poses a technical challenge for companies like Bouygues and SFR, which will now be forced to think twice before slotting Huawei 5G kit on top of their 4G systems if they face the risk of dismantling Chinese equipment in the near future.There are still European markets to be fought over. The German government is struggling to settle on rules that would require security certification for vendors in the 5G network. Earlier senior Chinese officials highlighted German car companies – the crown jewel of Europe’s biggest economy – as a potential target for retaliation if Huawei is banned from their markets.The fatal blow for Huawei’s relationship with Europe may have come in May when the U.S. banned the company from sourcing microchips that use American technology.The prevalence of chips that are made with or incorporate U.S. technology caused New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu to declare in May that “Huawei has 12 months left to live.”Those sanctions were so severe they prompted British security services to re-open their review of how secure and sustainable a supplier Huawei could be in national networks. That review has now been completed and sent to U.K. digital and culture secretary Oliver Dowden. He said they were “likely to have an impact on the viability of Huawei as a provider” and more details on the U.K.’s next steps will come soon.(Updates with Huawei comments in eighth paragraph)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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Top news and what to watch in the markets on Wednesday, July 8, 2020.

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Brooks Brothers and Ann Taylor’s parent company Ascena is reportedly planning to file bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Levi’s shared a major loss in sales and plans to cut its workforce in its latest earnings report. Yahoo Finance’s Emily McCormick joins The First Trade to discuss.

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