Month: May 2020

Reopening states amid coronavirus could cause as many as 350,000 people to die by the end of June, according to a new Wharton model. …read more […]

Because of the coronavirus, Berkshire Hathaway’s meeting was a shadow affair. …read more […]

Chipmaker Intel Corp is in advanced talks to acquire Israeli public transit app developer Moovit for $1 billion, financial news website Calcalist reported on Sunday. Moovit has raised $133 million from investors including Intel, BMW iVentures and Sequoia Capital. Officials at Intel Israel and Moovit declined to comment on the report. …read more […]

Thomas Schinecker, Roche’s head of diagnostics, said the company aims to more than double production of tests from about 50 million a month to significantly more than 100 million a month by the end of the year. Governments, businesses and individuals are seeking such blood tests to learn who may have had the disease, who may have some immunity and to potentially craft strategies to help end national lockdowns. Basel-based Roche, which also makes molecular tests to identify active COVID-19 infections, said its antibody test has a specificity rate exceeding 99.8% and sensitivity of 100%, meaning tests would …read more […]

Chipmaker Intel Corp is in advanced talks to acquire Israeli public transit app developer Moovit for $1 billion, financial news website Calcalist reported on Sunday. Moovit has raised $133 million from investors including Intel, BMW iVentures and Sequoia Capital. Officials at Intel Israel and Moovit declined to comment on the report. …read more […]

Billionaire Warren Buffett said Saturday that its investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) has sold all of its stakes in U.S. airlines after air travel was shut off in an effort to contain the fast spread of the coronavirus pandemic.Buffett, who is a fond investor in the airlines industry, disclosed that Berkshire has divested its entire holdings in the U.S. four largest airline carriers: American Airlines Group Inc (AAL), United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL), Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL), and Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV). “We made that decision in terms of the airline business. We took money out of the business …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Middle Eastern stocks slumped on Sunday, with Saudi Arabia’s falling the most in almost eight weeks after the kingdom’s finance minister said “painful” measures — including deep spending cuts — were needed to respond to the coronavirus and crash in oil prices.The Tadawul All Share Index lost as much as 7.6%, the most since March 9. Oil giant Saudi Aramco retreated 6% as of 11:01 a.m. local time to trade below 30 riyals per share.The world’s biggest oil exporter hasn’t witnessed “a crisis of this severity” in decades, Mohammed Al-Jadaan said in an interview with Saudi television station …read more […]

As you might know, GlaxoSmithKline plc (LON:GSK) just kicked off its latest quarterly results with some very strong… …read more […]

There won’t be any college kids on Humana’s five main campuses around the country this summer. Their summer intern program is going virtual. …read more […]

Shares in Gilead Sciences (GILD) fell 5% in Friday’s trading after the company’s first quarter earnings results sparked a wave of downgrades from the Street. JP Morgan and Raymond James downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold on May 1, while SunTrust Robinson went one step further- taking its GILD rating from Hold to Sell due to “lack of visibility to growth.”“All guidance has been withdrawn due in part to uncertainty around COVID-19 impact on the core business, but primarily due to unknown revenue and costs with remdesivir [Gilead’s antiviral drug for the treatment of COVID-19]. We believe investors should …read more […]

Shares in Boeing Co (BA) fell after the ailing planemaker said it raised $25 billion in debt financing and told investors that as a result it would not need to tap capital markets or the U.S. government for additional funding for now.The planemaker’s stock dropped 5.4% to $133.37 in U.S. trading on Friday, taking its year-to-date plunge to 60%. The bond offering included debt instruments with an aggregate principal amount of $25 billion across seven tranches with maturities ranging from three to 40 years.“The robust demand for the offering reflects strong support for the long-term strength of Boeing and the …read more […]

Gilead Sciences (GILD) has announced that its remdesivir drug has received emergency FDA approval for the treatment of severe cases of Covid-19.“It is reasonable to believe that the known and potential benefits of RDV outweigh the known and potential risks of the drug for the treatment of patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19” the FDA wrote in its approval letter to Gilead.The decision was based on review of the topline data from the randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial conducted by The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and from the Gilead-sponsored open-label trial that evaluated different durations of remdesivir.Following the …read more […]

Apple (AAPL) has reported solid earnings results for its fiscal second quarter with Q2 GAAP EPS of $2.55 beating consensus expectations by $0.29. Revenue of $58.31B came in marginally higher year-over-year, smashing the Street’s forecast by $3.67B. International sales accounted for 62% of the quarter’s revenue.Crucially, AAPL also reported that its install base of active users reached an all-time high in all geographic segments as well as all major product categories. “Despite COVID-19’s unprecedented global impact, we’re proud to report that Apple grew for the quarter, driven by an all-time record in Services and a quarterly record for Wearables,” commented …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Even a calamity of disease, death and economic destruction afflicting the world all at once isn’t enough to suppress the notion in some quarters that inflation could return with a vengeance.The coronavirus crisis has killed hundreds of thousands, incapacitated millions and affected the livelihoods of billions — prompting policy makers to fear a deflation spiral reminiscent of the Great Depression. But economists including former Bank of England official Charles Goodhart, and investors such as BNP Paribas Asset Management, are asking if a different phenomenon lurks in the wreckage of global growth.Such contrarians wonder if an environment of ultra-loose …read more […]