Back after the break: After Monday’s holiday, US stock futures continue to paint a cautious picture following the sharp sell-off at the end of last week. Futures tied to the S&P 500 are down 0.9%, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq futures down 2.6%. Dow futures are also currently trading 0.4% lower.
The good: Peloton is rising 2.2% in pre-market trading after the exercise equipment company announced plans to sell the original Peloton Bike at the lower price point of $1,895, the Peloton Bike+ at $2,495, the original Peloton Tread at $4,295 and the lower-priced Peloton Tread at $2,495.
The bad: The UK’s competition regulator has fined Amazon 55,000 pounds over delayed responses to the information requested in connection with the e-commerce giant’s purchase of a 16% stake in London-based food platform Deliveroo. Last month, the competition regulator finally cleared Amazon’s (AMZN) purchase of a minority stake in Deliveroo after probing the deal for over a year.
And the ugly: Boeing is currently trading down 2% this morning, after the Wall Street Journal reported that the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating manufacturing flaws in Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets “potentially stretching back almost a decade”, citing an internal government memo and people familiar with the matter.
Turning to healthcare stocks, Johnson & Johnson announced Tuesday that the European Commission (EC) has approved an extended use of imbruvica (ibrutinib) in combination with rituximab for the treatment of adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). “This new non-chemotherapy combination regimen can offer extended remission, as well as fewer chemotherapy-related side effects for patients living with CLL” said J&J’s Patrick Laroche.
Meanwhile Regeneron and Sanofi revealed positive new results from a Dupixent (dupilumab) Phase 3 open-label extension trial that showed the safety and efficacy profile observed in previous Dupixent trials was maintained for up to three years in adults and adolescents with moderate-to-severe asthma.
Sanofi is also in the headlines this morning after the president of Sanofi France, Olivier Bogillot, told France Inter radio that the company’s coronavirus vaccine candidate, which it is developing with the UK’s GlaxoSmithKline was likely to be priced at under €10 per shot. However, he added that a final price was yet to be fixed.
Coffee giant Starbucks is launching new plant-based food and beverage items to its menus in select locations across Asia to meet the growing demand for healthier lifestyles. Starting this month, Starbucks is adding two new seasonal plant-based beverages, Oatmilk Cocoa Macchiato and Almond milk Hazelnut Latte to store menus in 8 markets, as well as plant-based food choices at stores in across Asia.
Also on the food front, Beyond Meat has announced plans to build 2 production facilities near Shanghai as the plant-based meat pioneer has earmarked China as one of its most important major markets in the years to come. The facility is expected to begin trial production within months and reach full scale production of its imitation ‘chicken’, ‘pork’ and ‘beef’ in early 2021. Shares are trading marginally higher in Tuesday’s pre-market.
Are you ready? Popular athleisure retailer Lululemon is gearing up to release its earning results today after market close. Ahead of this key report, RBC Capital analyst Kate Fitzsimons has reiterated her LULU buy rating, while bumping up the price target from $348 to $435. You can read her earnings preview here.
And FYI: Volkswagen AG CEO Herbert Diess has clarified that the German automaker is not working on a cooperation with rival electric carmaker Tesla. Tesla’s (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk went on a three-day visit to Germany last week, and met up with Volkswagen’s Diess to test-drive the German competitor’s first electric car in its ID series.
“Just to be clear: We just drove the ID.3 and had a chat – there is no deal/cooperation in the making,” Diess wrote, adding “Thanks for the visit, Elon!… It was great driving the ID.3 with you! You were just quite critical with the available torque at higher speed. I told you: “Yes, we are on the runway – but no need for take off – it’s not a sports car.”
