In the red: Futures tied to the S&P 500 are dropping 1.7% in Monday’s pre-market trading, with Dow Jones futures down almost 2%. Nasdaq 100 futures are faring no better- with the index now on track to open 1.7% lower. Stocks are sinking on renewed coronavirus fears, with airlines, hotels and cruise operators bearing the brunt of investor jitters as a second round of global lockdowns now appears increasingly likely.
We will, we won’t: Over the weekend, a US judge prevented the Trump administration from implementing its intended download ban on Tencent Holding’s WeChat app.
US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in California granted the motion in favor of WeChat “on the ground that the plaintiffs have shown serious questions going to the merits of the First Amendment claim, the balance of hardships tips in the plaintiffs’ favor, and the plaintiffs establish sufficiently the other elements for preliminary-injunctive relief.”
Shares in Nikola are diving 30% in the pre-market session after its founder Trevor Milton voluntarily stepped down as executive chairman amid allegations that the electric truckmaker is an “intricate fraud built on dozens of lies” and misled investors about its business prospects.
Nikola said that Stephen Girsky, former General Motors Vice Chairman, has been appointed Chairman, with immediate effect.
Short-seller Hindenburg Research claims that it has extensive evidence – including recorded phone calls, text messages, private emails and behind-the-scenes photographs – detailing dozens of false statements by Milton, concluding that it has “never seen this level of deception at a public company, especially of this size.” In response NKLA called the report “false and defamatory.”
No slacking: Tesla CEO Elon Musk is busy urging employees to make and sell as many electric cars as possible before Sept. 30, reports Bloomberg. “We have a shot at a record quarter for vehicle deliveries, but will have to rally hard to achieve it,” said Musk in an internal email titled ‘All hands on deck!’ “This is the most number of vehicles per day that we’ve ever had to deliver” he added. Shares in Tesla are trading marginally higher in early morning trading.
From cars to clothes, Walmart is launching a new fashion essentials brand called Free Assembly which will sell clothing for both men and women online and in stores. Shares are up 1% in pre-market trading on Monday.
Denise Incandela, the head of fashion of Walmart’s US e-commerce business described Free Assembly as “a modern fashion brand that offers elevated style essentials at an incredible value.” The company stated: “Starting today, the Fall collection will include more than 30 items for women and 25 items for men, all priced between $9 and $45.”
Also in the spotlight this morning is PepsiCo which just announced an impressive new target to source 100% renewable electricity across all of its company owned and controlled operations globally by 2030 and across its entire franchise and third-party operations by 2040.
Meanwhile the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020 is finishing today. Eli Lilly and Innovent Biologics announced positive interim results from the ORIENT-12 study at the event. In the interim analysis, TYVYT with GEMZAR and platinum chemotherapy demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) compared with placebo, meeting the pre-specified primary endpoint.
Eli Lilly also said that the late-stage trial of its Verzenio treatment showed to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence by 25%.
Further encouraging news came from Sanofi and Regeneron, with positive pivotal trial data for the investigational use of PD-1 inhibitor Libtayo (cemiplimab) in first-line locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
And AstraZeneca revealed that its Lynparza drug has been recommended for marketing authorization in the European Union (EU) for patients with metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC) and breast cancer susceptibility gene 1/2 (BRCA1/2) mutations, as well as for advanced ovarian cancer.
Corona updates: both Moderna and Pfizer have taken the rare step of publishing the clinical protocol for their late-stage Covid-19 vaccine trials. Notably Moderna is using a much more restrictive definition of Covid-19 for its late-stage vaccine trials than Pfizer, as it will require at least two of the less severe symptoms instead of at least one.
Game over: Garrett Motion has announced that it has filed for bankruptcy by commencing voluntary Chapter 11 cases with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
At the same time, GTX entered into a definitive agreement with private-equity firm KPS Capital Partners, LP to serve as stalking horse bidder to purchase the business for $2.1 billion. Garrett anticipates emerging from the Chapter 11 and completing the sale process in early 2021- at which point it would operate as a private company.
