These four states are set to reopen businesses this week, governors ignore Trump’s reopening guidelines

Gold Analyst Says Rally Is Short-Term, Prices Will Recede To $1,600 By Year's End

Gold has rallied over the past month, but it's a short-term rally, according to one analyst.If the global economy finds its feet over the second half of 2020, safe haven purchases of gold are likely to ease substantially, with the commodity's price falling back to $1,600 by the end of 2020.On Wednesday, the shares of several gold and silver companies were trading higher as equities gained amid a potential stabilization in oil prices.Capital Economics analyst Oliver Allen said that while gold has rallied over the past month, he doesn't think that it will continue to outperform most other asset classes.The GSCI Precious Metals Index, in which the weight of gold is 90%, will be the worst-performing headline index among those tracked by the Capital Economics asset allocation service, he said. The index has returned almost 15% over the past month, Allen said. "Of the headline indices that we cover on our...

Counting the Biggest Winners of the $7.2 Billion U.S. Coronavirus Battle

(Bloomberg) -- The federal government has awarded $7.2 billion in contracts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, including one that would pay a little-known Massachusetts biotech firm more than its reported revenue for the last three years combined.The award to Moderna Inc. is just one example of the thousands of federal contracts awarded by the Trump administration to fight the coronavirus, according to a review of federal data compiled by Bloomberg Government. Some companies have secured nine-figure deals to supply thousands of ventilators, face masks, hospital capacity and other critical services needed to manage the outbreak.Amsterdam-based Royal Philips NV has so far been the top corporate recipient with some $661.4 million in agreements. The vast majority of that sum came on April 8 via a $646.7 million contract to procure ventilators from the health technology giant’s Philips Electronics North America unit.Health and Human Services last week awarded seven contracts worth a combined...

Sycamore Partners seeks to end Victoria's Secret deal, L Brands shares plunge

Sycamore said less than one month after entering the deal with L Brands, the company closed nearly all of its about 1,600 Victoria's Secret and PINK stores globally, including more than a thousand stores in North America. L Brands also furloughed most of its Victoria's Secret employees and reduced compensation for senior staff and took other actions that could hurt the lingerie business, Sycamore said in the filing....

Pfizer Rises on Nod to Start First In-Human COVID-19 Vaccine Trial in Germany

U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and BioNTech SE (BNTX) got the green light from German regulators to conduct the first in-human clinical trial in Germany of a potential coronavirus vaccine.Pfizer and BioNTech said they expected shortly to get regulatory approval to also start clinical trials in the U.S. Pfizer shares rose as much as 10% in early morning trading and were priced at $36.38 around midday. BioNtech stock surged 14% to $48.35.The Phase 1/2 trial comprises 4 vaccine candidates. The trial will include about 200 healthy individuals between the ages of 18 to 55 and aims to test the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine. The study will also evaluate the effects of repeated immunization for three of the four vaccine candidates which utilize uRNA or modRNA. Individuals with a higher risk for a severe COVID-19 infection will be included in the second part of the study.“We are pleased to have completed pre-clinical studies...