The week ended April 24 turned out to be an up-and-down one for biotech stocks, as the sector swayed along with the broader market. Two FDA approvals came through this week, with Immunomedics, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: IMMU) breast cancer drug snagging an FDA nod and Sanofi SA's (NASDAQ: SNY) meningococcal vaccine greenlighted by the regulatory agency.View more earnings on IBBFirst-quarter earnings were healthy, although the same cannot be said of the forward outlook given the uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Biogen Inc (NASDAQ: BIIB) came under pressure on a delay in the regulatory filing for its Alzheimer's drug.The following are key catalysts that could sway biotech stocks in the unfolding week:Conferences * American Association for Cancer Research, or AACR, 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting: April 27-28PDUFA Dates * The FDA is set to rule on Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: NBIX) NDA for Opicapone, a once-daily, oral, selective catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor that is being...
(Bloomberg) -- In this era of pandemic uncertainty, Chinese and Hong Kong-listed firms have come to one consensus on how to best survive it: sit on their wallets and preserve cash.They are retaining profits instead of distributing them to shareholders, with the most Hong Kong dividend payers in at least 35 years opting not to do so in the first quarter. Meanwhile, though valuations recently reached a historical low in the city, firms haven’t picked up their stock-repurchase pace. Instead, sales of additional stock are near their highest since 2018.The data help illustrate how the pandemic has distressed the corporate side of China’s economy, which contracted to start 2020, the first quarterly decline in decades. Beijing has resorted to a long list of measures to counter the fallout from the coronavirus, but so far has shown little appetite for stimulus on the scale unveiled in the U.S. or Japan even as...
The week of 4/20 came with no shortage of news. We saw a long list of online events to celebrate the international day of weed, while Los Angeles got its first cannabis and food drive-thru and Brazil authorized the production of its first cannabis-containing phytopharmaceutical product.In the Middle East, Lebanon became the first country to authorize the production of medical cannabis. Australia issued its framework for regulating the free sale of CBD products. In Colombia, Clever Leaves closed a joint agreement with a subsidiary of Canopy Growth Corp (TSX: WEED) (NYSE: CGC) to enroll in a regional supply deal that will last at least one year, while Avicanna (OTC: AVCNF) closed a private placement deal led by Chinese pharma giant Tasly. It's important to note that both companies mentioned above are domiciled in Canada, despite conducting business in Colombia.And, in the U.S., Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced a bill...
Domino’s Pizza Inc. (DPZ) provided an outlook into the four weeks of its second quarter, projecting a 7.1% increase in U.S. comparable store sales, as demand for home-delivery services is on the rise during the coronavirus pandemic.At the same time though, the world’s largest pizza chain by global retail sales pulled its two-to three-year outlook, citing the uncertainty about the global economy and the company's business operations as a result of the COVID-19 impact. Domino’s international same-store sales are expected to be down 3.2% in the four weeks from March 23 to April 19, according to preliminary figures."In a time of unprecedented change in our industry, I am pleased to report that Domino's is in a very strong financial position," said Ritch Allison, Domino's Chief Executive Officer. "We can't predict the full impact of COVID-19 on the broader economy and we don't know how consumer behavior and restaurant purchasing patterns may evolve...
Brazilian planemaker Embraer SA has been thrust into an uncertain future with no immediate plan B, while not ruling out seeking a bailout after Boeing Co jettisoned a $4.2 billion commercial aerospace tie-up amid the coronavirus crisis. The company's shell-shocked chief executive, in the job for a year with little aerospace experience, sought to rally staff after the board held late-night talks to review the collapse of plans for surviving mounting aerospace competition. "Our history is full of difficult moments, and we have overcome all of them," Francisco Gomes Neto told Embraer's 20,000 staff before giving them a thumbs up....
The U.S. government notified lenders on Sunday that it will cap how much each bank can lend under the emergency loan program designed to keep workers on payrolls amid the coronavirus pandemic, hours ahead of the reopening of the lending program. The Small Business Administration (SBA) will impose a maximum dollar amount for individual lenders at 10% of Paycheck Protection Program funding, or $60 billion per lender, and pace the applications filed, according to SBA guidance on Sunday to lenders that have received a significant number of applications. The SBA was due to reopen PPP funding at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) on Monday, allowing lenders to resume processing piles of backlogged applications from businesses hurt by the coronavirus shutdown....
