(Bloomberg) — Gilead Sciences Inc.’s drug remdesivir showed only a limited benefit in a large trial of more moderate patients with Covid-19, a result that may shift perceptions of the therapy already cleared for use in severe cases of the disease.In the phase 3 trial, a group of moderately ill, hospitalized patients getting the drug for five days showed a modest improvement compared to those getting the standard of care, the company said in a statement. But another group getting the drug for 10 days didn’t show a statistically significant improvement, which is likely to raise questions about why a longer course doesn’t help more. Severely ill patients weren’t included in the trial.The shares fell 2.8% to $75.68 at 9:36 a.m. in New York. They’re up 16% this year, largely on optimism around remdesivir. Gilead’s drug has become a symbol of efforts to reopen the economy and effectively treat patients stricken with the coronavirus. A working therapy would help reduce the risk for people who become sick, providing greater certainty to efforts to reopen economies around the globe.The clinical trial looked at hospitalized Covid-19 patients who had more moderate disease, with pneumonia but who didn’t have reduced oxygen levels at the beginning of the study. Patients were randomly assigned to get five days of remdesivir, 10 days of remdesivir, or the standard of care, and then evaluated on a 7-point scale.Overall, the differences were quite modest. The patents who received five days of remdesivir did best, with 76% improving by at least one point by day 11, compared to 66% who received standard of care.But confusingly, patients who stayed on remdesivir for 10 days did slightly worse than those who received five days of remdesivir, with only 70% of them improving at day 11. That difference wasn’t statistically significant compared to the standard of care group.“There seems to be growing evidence five-day treatment is as good or better than 10-day — somewhat curious given no clear side-effect liabilities and may seem counter-intuitive to the typical ‘more is better’ expectation,” said Brian Abrahams, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets. He said the difference could be caused by a less burdensome administration of the drug.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared remdesivir under an emergency authorization on May 1, which has allowed hospitalized patients with severe cases of Covid-19 to begin using the therapy. The emergency approval followed early results from a large, placebo-controlled study run by the U.S. government that showed that patients getting remdesivir recovered faster than those that got a placebo.In the new trial, Gilead said there were no new safety risks identified across either treatment group. The company plans to submit the full data for publication in a peer-reviewed medical journal in coming weeks.(Updates with opening share price in the third 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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The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. Insider Monkey finished processing 821 13F filings submitted by hedge funds and prominent investors. These filings show these funds' portfolio positions as of March 31st, 2020. […]

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Facebook employees are speaking out this weekend about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s lack of movement to take down President Trump’s posts. Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi, Alexis Christoforous, and Dan Howley break down the details.

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Click here to read the full article. Multiple Facebook employees publicly criticized CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision to not take down Donald Trump's racially charged post suggesting Minneapolis rioters would be shot at.Zuckerberg, in a post Friday on Facebook, said while Trump’s message included a “troubling historical reference” — specifically, the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" — and while Zuckerberg personally disagreed with the president's inflammatory rhetoric, Facebook decided to not remove it to "enable as much expression as possible."Over the weekend, Facebook staffers took to Twitter to voice disagreement with Zuckerberg, with some lauding Twitter's decision to add a warning label in front of Trump's tweet because it broke Twitter rules against glorifying violence."There isn't a neutral position on racism," Facebook design manager Jason Stirman said on Twitter. "I'm a FB employee that completely disagrees with Mark's decision to do nothing about Trump's recent posts, which clearly incite violence. I'm not alone inside of FB."“Mark is wrong, and I will endeavor in the loudest possible way to change his mind,” Ryan Freitas, director of product design for Facebook’s News Feed, wrote in a tweet. He said he "focused on organizing 50+ like-minded folks into something that looks like internal change."Trump’s “looting-shooting” comment "encourages extra-judicial violence and stokes racism. Respect to @Twitter’s integrity team for making the enforcement call," tweeted David Gillis, a Facebook director of product design. He added that "when we have to vigorously debate whether to make an exception to the way we interpret and enforce a given policy (as happened on Friday), this often indicates that said policy needs to evolve. I think that is the case here."And Jason Toff, a Facebook product management director, wrote: “I work at Facebook and I am not proud of how we’re showing up. The majority of coworkers I’ve spoken to feel the same way. We are making our voice heard.”"Disappointed that, again, I need to call this out: Trump's glorification of violence on Facebook is disgusting and it should absolutely be flagged or removed from our platforms," Brandon Dail, a user-interface engineer at Facebook, said. "I categorically disagree with any policy that does otherwise."Facebook representatives did not respond to requests for comment about employees speaking out against Zuckerberg.Meanwhile, on Friday, Trump called Zuckerberg, during which the Facebook chief "expressed concerns about the tone and the rhetoric" of the president's "looting and shooting" remark, Axios reported. Citing anonymous sources, the Axios report said that Zuckerberg, while he "didn't make any specific requests," told Trump he was "putting Facebook in a difficult position."Amid the nationwide protests and civil unrest over Floyd's murder and police brutality, Instagram said in a post early Monday that its parent company is committing $10 million toward "ending racial injustice." Facebook joins a chorus of other companies supporting the Black Lives Matter cause."Time and time again, we have seen that the Instagram community has the power to bring about meaningful change," the Instagram post said. "The more we ShareBlackStories, the more we raise voices that make a lasting impact. To continue that impact, @facebook is pledging $10 million to efforts committed to ending racial injustice. BlackLivesMatter.⁣"

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Nio Inc. – ADR (NYSE: NIO) Chief Executive Officer William Li on Sunday told Bloomberg that the Chinese electric vehicles maker sees rival Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) more as an ally than a competitor.What Happened "We do compete against each other, but in general we are allies," Li said, as reported by Bloomberg, pointing out that the two companies are working to grab the market from gasoline-based automakers rather than each other."In fact, our sales kept growing since Tesla started production in Shanghai," he added.Li's comments come days after Nio reported mixed earnings for the first quarter this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic took toll.It posted a loss per ADS of 22 cents, narrower than the analyst consensus of 26 cents, and highlighted enhanced cost control measures taken in the quarter.What's Next Li told Bloomberg that the long-term growth outlook for the electric vehicles market in China remains the same despite the temporary impact from the pandemic.Nio said in the earnings report that it expected both car sales and revenue in the second quarter to double year-on-year.According to Li, the company has "secured sufficient funding" for its development post the billion financial commitment received from a set of strategic investors back in April, Bloomberg reported.Li added that Nio doesn't have any concrete plans to list its shares in China, even as Chinese companies listed in the United States face increased scrutiny."This isn't a challenge for Nio only," Li said, as per Bloomberg. "We wouldn't exclude any potential options."Price Action Nio shares closed nearly 4% higher at $3.98 on Friday and were mostly unchanged in the after-hours session.Tesla shares closed 3.6% higher at $835 the same day and added another 1% in after-hours at $842.75.Image Credit: Courtesy of Nio.See more from Benzinga * Trump Sheltered In Underground Bunker As Protests Raged Outside The White House On Friday * House Republicans To Introduce Bill Banning Investments In China-Linked Foreign Defense Companies * Trump Had A 'Productive' Call With Facebook CEO Day After He Signed Executive Order Targeting Social Media: Report(C) 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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We at Insider Monkey have gone over 821 13F filings that hedge funds and prominent investors are required to file by the SEC The 13F filings show the funds' and investors' portfolio positions as of March 31st, near the height of the coronavirus market crash. In this article, we look at what those funds think […]

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In this article we will take a look at whether hedge funds think Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) is a good investment right now. We check hedge fund and billionaire investor sentiment before delving into hours of research. Hedge funds spend millions of dollars on Ivy League graduates, unconventional data sources, expert networks, and get tips […]

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The financial regulations require hedge funds and wealthy investors that exceeded the $100 million equity holdings threshold to file a report that shows their positions at the end of every quarter. Even though it isn't the intention, these filings to a certain extent level the playing field for ordinary investors. The latest round of 13F […]

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In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds think Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) is a good investment right now. We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research on a given stock. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks […]

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Social game developer Zynga (ZNGA) has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Peak, one of the most globally successful mobile gaming companies, for $1.8 billion. Shares are rising 7% in Monday’s pre-market trading.Istanbul-based Peak brings two Forever Franchises to Zynga, Toon Blast and Toy Blast, that have consistently ranked in the top 10 and top 20 U.S. iPhone grossing games for over two years, respectively. Indeed, Peak is expected to grow Zynga’s average mobile DAUs by more than 60% while strengthening the company’s international audience.“Peak is one of the world’s best puzzle game makers and we could not be more excited… With the addition of Toon Blast and Toy Blast, we are expanding our live services portfolio to eight forever franchises, meaningfully increasing our global audience base and adding to our exciting new game pipeline” cheered Zynga CEO Frank Gibeau.Zynga will acquire 100% of Peak for $1.8 billion, with $900 million in cash and $900 million of Zynga common stock (issued at the volume-weighted average closing price per share over the thirty-day trading period ended May 29, 2020). The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020.At the same time, based on strength across its live services portfolio, Zynga updated its Q2 and Full Year 2020 financial guidance (without including any contributions from Peak).The company now anticipates Q2 revenue of $430M vs. $400M previously, with bookings of $500M vs. $460M previously and $465M consensus. Adjusted EBITDA is now expected at $35M up from the prior guidance of $32M.Shares in Zynga have exploded by 49% year-to-date. As a result, the average analyst price target of $8 now indicates downside potential of 9%. Analysts have a cautiously optimistic Moderate Buy consensus on Zynga, with 9 recent buy ratings offset by two hold ratings and two sell ratings. (See ZNGA stock analysis on TipRanks).Related News: Google Mulling Purchase of Stake in Indian Vodafone Idea FB Holds ‘Productive’ Call With Trump, As Social Media War Rages On Microsoft Seeks $2B Stake In India’s Jio Platforms- Report More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: * Immutep Surges In Pre-Market On Positive Efti Cancer Data * Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Invests In UK Freight Startup Beacon * Google Delays Rollout Of Android Beta Version Amid U.S. Protests * Facebook Holds ‘Productive’ Call With Trump, As Social Media War Rages On

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