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(Bloomberg) -- European stocks climbed to a four-month high and German equities erased losses for the year after leaders agreed on a landmark recovery plan.Markets across the region are giving a vote of confidence to the 750 billion euros ($860 billion) stimulus package. Italy’s stock benchmark added 2%, leading gains among local exchanges. A gauge of risk in Europe’s investment-grade debt dropped to the lowest since February. The euro steadied after a recent rally.Norway’s Adevinta ASA surged 29% after agreeing to buy EBay Inc.’s online classifieds business for $9.2 billion, ending one of the largest auctions of the year. Silver extended gains above $20 an ounce. Stocks globally are marching higher on the back of more government stimulus and an unstoppable advance in technology companies that benefit from people shopping more online due to the pandemic. U.S. equity futures pointed to more gains on Tuesday after a blistering rally that sent...
Cybersecurity stock Fortinet (FTNT) has announced that it has snapped up OPAQ Networks, a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) cloud provider based in Herndon, Virginia. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.OPAQ’s Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) cloud solution protects organizations’ distributed networks – from data centers, to branch offices, to remote users, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.“The recent SASE market momentum further validates our Security-driven Networking approach and underscores what we’ve been saying for years. In this era of hyperconnectivity and expanding networks; with the network edge stretching across the entire digital infrastructure, networking and security must converge” comments Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman of the Board, and CEO.According to Xie, the acquisition of OPAQ further enhances Fortinet’s existing SASE offering, enabling Fortinet to deliver the most complete SASE platform on the market.“The Fortinet SASE platform delivers the broadest security and industry-leading SD-WAN and networking offerings that can all be...
Jul.21 -- Novartis AG Chief Executive Officer Vasant Narasimhan discusses second-quarter earnings, efforts to find a Covid-19 vaccine, and growth prospects. He speaks on "Bloomberg Markets: European Open" after the Swiss drugmaker trimmed its sales forecast for the year as the coronavirus pandemic hit demand for the eye drug Lucentis and other medicines....
Shares in Acadia Pharmaceuticals (ACAD) plunged 12% in Monday’s extended trading, after the company announced disappointing top-line results from its 298 patient Phase 3 CLARITY study evaluating pimavanserin as an adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD).The study did not achieve statistical significance on the primary endpoint which was the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) total score change from baseline to week 5. Pimavanserin 34 mg, given once-daily as an adjunctive treatment to standard antidepressant therapy was associated with a mean reduction of 9.0 in HAMD-17 total score compared to 8.1 for placebo as an adjunctive treatment (p=0.296).Positive results were observed on the key secondary endpoint, the Clinical Global Impression – Severity (CGI-S) score, a clinician assessment of a patient’s severity of depression (nominal p=0.042) and on the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) score (nominal p=0.005).“We observed a consistent improvement of depressive symptoms over time with pimavanserin but, unfortunately, the robust...
IBM Corp. (IBM) reported better-than-estimated profit in the second quarter driven by sales of its cloud computing business sending shares up almost 5% in extended market trading on Monday.The stock surged to $132.25 in Monday’s after-market trading. IBM’s total revenue in the second quarter dropped 5.4% to $18.12 billion year-on-year, coming in above analysts’ estimates of $17.72 billion. Adjusting for the impact from currency and divested businesses, revenue slipped 1.9%. Meanwhile total cloud revenue surged 30% to $6.3 billion in the reported quarter.Excluding items, the company earned $2.18 per share, exceeding analysts’ expectations for $2.07 per share. IBM’s focus of investment has been its hybrid cloud transition and AI as clients modernize their businesses and need to enhance their work-at-home capabilities in today’s COVID-19 environment.“Our clients see the value of IBM’s hybrid cloud platform, based on open technologies, at a time of unprecedented business disruption," said IBM CEO Arvind Krishna. "We...
(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. surged as much as 9.5%, its biggest jump in five years, after billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group announced plans to seek a dual listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai, bypassing New York.Ant Group is seeking a valuation of more than $200 billion as it goes public, and could raise more than Saudi Aramco’s record $29 billion if market conditions are favorable, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Hong Kong portion could raise about $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, which would make it the sixth-largest initial public offering in the city.The listing is a boost to exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai, while dealing a blow to U.S. bourses as more Chinese firms look to raise money closer to home amid rising U.S.-China tensions. Hong Kong-listed Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. raised $7.5 billion from a Shanghai share...
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos added $13 billion to his wealth on Monday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.What Happened This is the largest single-day gain in the net worth of an individual recorded by the index since it was created in 2012, Bloomberg noted.Amazon's shares rose nearly 8% on Monday to close at $3,196.84, the highest single-day gain since December 2018.The e-commerce company's shares surged after a Goldman Sachs analyst upgraded the price target at the stock to $3,800 per share. Online shopping is also seeing positive trends, according to Bloomberg.The 56-year old's reported net worth of $189 billion is now more than companies like Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM), Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE), and McDonald's Corp (NYSE: MCD).The Amazon founder's former wife Mackenzie Bezos also saw a rise of $4.6 billion in her net worth on the day, making her the 13th richest individual in...
