Thursday Morning Reads
Reads:
- So Easy
- Generous Social Welfare State
- Anxious for a Lifeline
- Ant Group’s $35 Billion IPO Unlikely To Be Hurt
- A New Kind of Fund
- Hack Your Personal Finance
- American Technology Is Used to Censor the Web
- Facebook Widens Ban
- Wait, Wall Street Is Pro-Biden Now?
- JPMorgan Pledges Billions
- Here’s the Real Cost of Stock Splits
- Playing a Game of Chicken With Cruise Lines
Futures:
Open Interest:
Premium:
Seekingalpha:
Regeneron seeks FDA emergency clearance for COVID-19 therapy
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:REGN) has asked the Food and Drug Administration to provide emergency use authorization to its REGN-COV2 investigational antibody combination for COVID-19, The company says it currently has enough doses for about 50,000 patients and expects to have enough for 300,000 patients within the next few months. President Trump received the antibody cocktail last Friday and lauded the treatment in a video posted to Twitter yesterday, saying he would authorize its emergency use.
Pelosi and Mnuchin to talk airline relief
The airline sector is on watch after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met yesterday to discuss the possibility of standalone legislation of as much as $25B for cash-strapped carriers. Pelosi and Mnuchin plan to talk again today amid what is considered broad bipartisan support for a standalone relief package. Underpinning the urgency of the talks, major airlines announced plans last week to begin furloughing thousands of workers without new federal aid being received.
Sam's Club adding 2,000 workers, more discount days for holiday shopping
Sam's Club (NYSE:WMT) plans to add 2,000 permanent full-time workers to its fulfillment and distribution centers for the holidays, and give all fulfillment center hourly workers a $2/hour premium for the season. And despite a historical reliance on one-day discount events, it's departing from those and offering more extended events to manage crowd control amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as marking its first holiday season filling online orders from warehouses via curbside pickup. An internal survey reveals 61% of members say they'll shop online more this holiday season.
Samsung reports preliminary Q3 results, profits up 58% on the year
Samsung Electronics (OTC:SSNNF, OTC:SSNLF) announced preliminary Q3 results with 66 trillion won in consolidated sales and operating income of 12.3 trillion won, topping the 10 trillion won consensus estimate. Sales were up 7% on the year and profits popped 58%. Samsung didn’t break out net income or unit sales in the guidance, but the quarter likely got a boost from the U.S. supply restrictions against smartphone rival Huawei.
Chevron surpasses Exxon as largest U.S. oil company, but both lag NextEra
Chevron (NYSE:CVX) closed yesterday with a higher market value than Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), marking the first time Exxon has been dethroned as America’s largest oil company since it began as Standard Oil more than a century ago. Chevron has a market cap of $142B compared to Exxon’s $141.6B. NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE), the world's biggest provider of wind and solar energy, beat both companies by closing the day at a $145.5B market value.
Live streaming company FuboTV prices upsized IPO, raising $183M
FuboTV (OTCQB:FUBO) will start trading today on the NYSE after pricing an upsized offering of 18.3M shares at $10 per share, the midpoint of the prior $9-11 range. The $183M offering increased the share count from 15M shares. FuboTV, which competes with Sling (NASDAQ:DISH) and YouTube TV (GOOG, GOOGL) had revenue of $150.8M last year (up 102% Y/Y) with a $246.9M net loss.
Regenerative medicine company Aziyo Biologics prices $50M IPO, trades Thursday
Trading starts today for commercial-stage regenerative medicine company Aziyo Biologics (AZYO), which priced a full-size IPO with 2.9M shares at $17 per share. The company’s competitors include Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), Terumo (OTCPK:TRUMF), NuVasive (NASDAQ:NUVA), and AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV). Aziyo had 2019 sales of $42.9M (up 10% Y/Y) with a net loss of $11.9M.
JPMorgan Chase commits $30B to address racial wealth gap
America's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), says it's committing $30B over five years to help bridge the racial wealth gap in the United States - the latest move from a large company to address racial justice in the months since protests erupted over a Minneapolis police officer's killing of George Floyd. The initiative includes some $8B going toward funding an additional 40,000 mortgages for Black and Latino homebuyers, along with about $14B to finance affordable rental units. And it plans $2B in loans to small businesses in majority Black and Latino communities.
What else is happening...
Chevron (CVX) workers to reapply for jobs in global restructuring - Reuters.U.S. railroads set record intermodal month in September, carloads down 9.7%.Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:DNB) to acquire Bisnode for $818M.JPMorgan (JPM) aims to help clients align with Paris climate pact.Boeing (NYSE:BA) loses lead astronaut for first Starliner crew flight.DTE Energy (NYSE:DTE) may sell or spin off non-utility units - Bloomberg.
Wednesday's Key Earnings
Saratoga Investment (NYSE:SAR) +4% PM on strong Q2 earnings.
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan +0.96%. Hong Kong -0.20%. China closed. India +1.04%.
In Europe, at midday, London +0.29%. Paris +0.33%. Frankfurt +0.55%.
Futures at 6:20, Dow +0.37%. S&P +0.4%. Nasdaq +0.6%. Crude +1.33% to $40.47. Gold +0.27% to $1896. Bitcoin -0.4% to $10574.
Ten-year Treasury Yield -1.5 bps to 0.77%
Today's Economic Calendar
8:30 Initial Jobless Claims
10:30 EIA Natural Gas Inventory
12:10 PM Fed's Rosengren: “Economic Fragility: Implications for Recovery from the Pandemic”
1:00 PM Fed's Kaplan Speech
1:00 PM Results of $23B, 30-Year Note Auction
2:00 PM Fed's Bostic: “Empowering Workers to Recover Stronger”
2:30 PM Fed's Barkin: “Investing in Rural America”
4:30 PM Money Supply
4:30 PM Fed Balance Sheet
6:00 PM Fed's Kaplan Speech