Today we'll take a closer look at Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) from a dividend investor's perspective. Owning a strong…

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Many struggling homeowners who delay mortgage payments through forbearance plans will be allowed to make missed payments when the home is sold or the loan term is over, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.

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French drugmaker Sanofi (SNY) said that the U.S. would likely get its Covid-19 vaccine first once it is available.“The U.S. government has the right to the largest pre-order because it’s invested in taking the risk,” Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson said in an interview with Bloomberg News. The U.S., which expanded a vaccine partnership with the company in February, expects “that if we’ve helped you manufacture the doses at risk, we expect to get the doses first.”Hudson cautioned that Europe needs to step up efforts to find protection against the pandemic if it doesn’t want to fall behind.Last month Sanofi entered into a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to jointly develop an adjuvanted vaccine for COVID-19. The two companies said they expected a candidate vaccine to enter Phase 1 clinical trials in the second half of 2020 and, if successful, they plan to make it available in the second half of 2021. The vaccine candidate is being supported through funding by the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).While funding from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority puts the U.S. first in line, the country may be only days or weeks ahead of everyone else, Hudson said.“I’ve been campaigning in Europe to say the U.S. will get vaccines first,” Hudson said. “That’s how it will be because they’ve invested to try and protect their population, to restart their economy.”Sanofi also announced that it is in talks with the European Union and the French and German governments to accelerate regional vaccine development.Separately to its GSK collaboration, Sanofi’s vaccines division Sanofi Pasteur in March partnered with Translate Bio (TBIO) for the development of a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine against Covid-19.Shares in Sanofi were down 2.3% to $47.20 in pre-market U.S. trading. The stock has soared 27% in the past two months.TipRanks data shows that Goldman Sachs and Argus Research both have a Buy rating on the stock. The $56 price target set by Argus Research reflects 16% upside potential in the shares in the coming 12 months. (See Sanofi stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Gilead Signs Remdesivir Licensing Agreements With Five Drugmakers Allogene Explodes 28% After-Hours On Initial ALLO-501 Data Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Progressing at ‘Warp Speed,’ Says Top Analyst More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * 3 Biotech Stocks Under $4 With at Least 50% Upside Potential * Amazon Urges Congress to Establish a Law Against Price Gouging * Live Nation Announces $1.2B Debt Offering, Business Severely Affected by Covid-19 Crisis * GM Plans To Reopen Lucrative Mexican Pickup Plant Next Week- Report

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On Wednesday, Allogene (ALLO) revealed positive initial data from its ALLO-501 CD19 allogeneic CAR T, showing both activity and a tolerable safety profile. The news sent shares surging 28% in Wednesday’s after-hours trading.Allogene announced preliminary data from the Phase 1 dose escalation ALPHA trial of ALLO-501 in conjunction with the release of ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) abstracts.As of the January cutoff, 3 non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients achieved complete responses and 4 achieved partial responses, for an ORR [overall response rate] of 78% (n=7/9).“Although early, we believe these data suggest that ALLO-501 could go toe-to-toe with autologous CAR-Ts on performance and safety—setting a new bar for allogeneic CAR-Ts in NHL and underscoring the importance of Allogene’s antibody-dependent approach to lymphodepletion” commented Oppenheimer’s Mark Breidenbach following the report.He anticipates updated results from 11 evaluable patients in the May 29 oral presentation at ASCO—including patients treated with high-dose ALLO-647, which may further improve efficacy.As a result of these ‘encouraging early results’, Breidenbach reiterated his buy rating on the stock while ramping up his price target from $44 to $50 (61% upside potential).Meanwhile JP Morgan’s Cory Kasimov wrote: “In our view, this is good initial data but it hard to interpret relative to other CAR T / CD19 approaches given the limited details in the abstract (i.e. what doses, which histologies, and the amount of follow-up for patients still responding).”Ultimately, the JP Morgan analyst looks to the upcoming ASCO presentation (which will also include patients treated at a higher ‘647 dose) to further evaluate.ALLO currently shows a cautiously optimistic Moderate Buy consensus from the Street with 7 recent buy ratings vs 4 hold ratings. The average analyst price target stands at $34 (11% upside potential). (See ALLO stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate Progressing at ‘Warp Speed,’ Says Top Analyst Twilio Partners With Zocdoc For Telehealth Video Consultations CymaBay (CBAY) Stock Is up 127% in a Day. How Much Higher Can It Go? More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Amazon Urges Congress to Establish a Law Against Price Gouging * Live Nation Announces $1.2B Debt Offering, Business Severely Affected by Covid-19 Crisis * GM Plans To Reopen Lucrative Mexican Pickup Plant Next Week- Report * Cisco Shares Up Pre-Market After Topping Quarterly Profit Bets

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For months, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk has been teasing investors, and rivals, with promises to reveal significant advances in battery technology during a “Battery Day” in late May. New, low-cost batteries designed to last for a million miles of use and enable electric Teslas to sell profitably for the same price or less than a gasoline vehicle are just part of Musk’s agenda, people familiar with the plans told Reuters.

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Cruise operators have been hammered by the curbs to contain the spread of the virus, with extended port quarantines in Japan and California due to deadly outbreaks on some cruise ships adding to the worries. “We continue to experience demand for voyages further in the future across our three brands,” Chief Executive Officer Frank Del Rio said.

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(Bloomberg) — U.S. homeowners hurt by coronavirus were told they could delay their mortgage payments without facing consequences. Now, some are learning they’re at risk of being shut out of the housing market.The snafu has been triggered by the hastily drafted $2.2 trillion stimulus bill that Congress passed in March. The law allowed borrowers with government-backed loans to postpone payments for as long as 12 months if they’re dealing with financial hardships stemming from the pandemic. It even specified that mortgage firms must report homeowners in forbearance as being “current” on payments, thus preventing any damage to their credit scores.But the law didn’t address long-standing policies that restrict consumers from getting new loans for a year after their forbearances end. For instance, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the government-controlled companies that facilitate nearly half of U.S. home lending — won’t buy such mortgages.Some borrowers who took advantage of the relief lawmakers provided are now being told that they will have to wait before they can refinance or obtain a fresh mortgage to purchase a home. That’s true even for those who ultimately make their payments on time, as the forbearances are still being noted on some consumers’ credit reports.The issue is the latest for a real-estate market that has been thrown into chaos by the coronavirus economic crisis and lawmakers’ decision to let millions of Americans temporarily stop paying their mortgages. The industry and government officials are racing to mitigate the law’s unintended consequences.Fix Coming? Fannie and Freddie’s policies don’t contemplate an emergency such as the current pandemic or specify how affected borrowers should be treated, said Raphael Williams, a spokesman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie, is working with the companies to resolve the situation, he said.Fannie and Freddie spokesmen referred comment to the FHFA.Read More: Ginnie Bond Investors May Find That Worse Is BetterIan McDonald, a branch manager with Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. in Hutchinson, Minnesota, said his firm recently tried to lend to someone who wanted to purchase a new home. The borrower had his work hours cut back in March and April, but recently had them restored. The individual called his mortgage servicer to ask about forbearance but never actually missed a payment, according to McDonald.But when a Fairway loan officer pulled the borrower’s credit report, they found that he was in the forbearance program approved by Congress. The borrower rushed to make his May mortgage payment, which wasn’t yet due, and told his servicer to take him out of forbearance. Still, McDonald’s company determined it was too late.“We believe he’s ineligible for all loans,” McDonald said. “They put this legislation in with good intentions but there wasn’t contemplation of all the ripple effects that are taking place right now in real time.”Lobbying Lawmakers The National Association of Mortgage Brokers wants lawmakers to get involved. In a Tuesday letter, the trade group told members of the Senate Banking Committee that it believes it violates the spirit of the virus stimulus bill for mortgage forbearance to be disclosed to credit reporting companies — the firms that collect consumers’ financial data. NAMB President-Elect Kimber White said in an interview that halting such disclosures would reduce the negative impacts of Fannie and Freddie’s forbearance policies.Fannie and Freddie don’t make mortgages themselves. Instead they buy them from lenders and wrap them into securities to sell to investors. Lenders rely on that process to make new mortgages. So Fannie, Freddie and government agencies that backstop loans dictate which borrowers get mortgages.Part of the issue is that many mortgage servicers, which collect money from homeowners and facilitate payments to mortgage-bond investors, didn’t know themselves until recently that borrowers who took forbearance couldn’t get new loans. So consumers may have decided to delay their payments without being told of the potential consequences.Read More: If Landlords Get Wiped Out, Renters Won’t Benefit St. Louis-based lender F&B Financial Group has fielded calls from several customers wanting to refinance their loans who didn’t know their recent forbearance requests had made them ineligible for mortgages backed by Fannie and Freddie, said owner Chris Fox.Pointed QuestionsFox said he discovered himself that servicers were leaving borrowers in the dark after calling the company that handles his mortgage.“I went through the process with them, and pointedly asked twice, ‘So there are no negative impacts from doing this?’ and I was told, ‘No, sir, go ahead and do it,’” he said.To address the problem, Fannie and Freddie are considering shortening the time period homeowners are restricted from getting new loans to three months or even fewer if borrowers never missed payments, said a person familiar with the companies’ discussions. The issue has taken on some urgency due to concerns that consumers have received forbearance without being informed of the risks, said the person, who asked not to be named in discussing internal deliberations.If Fannie and Freddie don’t take action, the broader economy could take a hit should a substantial number of homeowners fail to secure financing to buy new properties once the pandemic passes, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi said. A slump in mortgage refinances wouldn’t have the same negative impact, he said.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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Stock futures were mostly lower Thursday morning after a selloff during the regular session Wednesday sent the Nasdaq back into negative territory for the year to date.

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Top news and what to watch in the markets on Thursday, May 14, 2020.

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