Wall Street’s main indexes rallied amid renewed optimism for the prospects of a fresh coronavirus stimulus package, and as US first-time claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week.
US Labor Department data showed that the number of jobless claims totaled a seasonally adjusted 885,000 in the week ended Dec. 12, versus the 862,000 recorded in the prior week. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 800,000 claims in the reported week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average appreciated 0.4%. The S&P 500 Index rose 0.5%. and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.6%.
Shares of Moderna surged 5.5% as the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) advisory committee is set to review its COVID-19 vaccine candidate today and vote on whether to recommend the approval of its emergency use authorization (EUA). Should the vote be favorable, the FDA is expected to adopt the committee’s recommendation for approval.
In another corona update, Abbott Laboratories has won EUA approval by the FDA for its virtually guided at-home BinaxNow COVID-19 Ag Card rapid test. The company said that the $25 test is the cheapest available at-home antigen test. The portable test, which provides results in 15 minutes, does not require any equipment for processing samples. The FDA authorized the test for prescription use at home with self-collected nasal swab samples from individuals ages 15 years or older who are suspected of having COVID-19 by their healthcare provider within the first seven days of symptom onset. Shares rose 1.2%.
BioNTech and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical announced an agreement for the supply of an initial 100 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine BNT162 to mainland China in 2021. BioNTech’s production facilities in Germany will distribute the initial supply of the vaccine, the company said. The two companies entered into a strategic collaboration on Mar. 20 to target the development and commercialization of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine based on BioNTech’s mRNA technology platform. They initiated the Phase 2 trial of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate in China, on Nov. 20, with 960 participants, aged between 18 and 85. BNTX increased 1.4%.
In other healthcare news, Merck announced that the FDA has granted priority review for the use of its lead drug Keytruda in combination with chemotherapy as a first-line treatment in patients with advanced esophagus and gastroesophageal cancer (GEJ). The priority review approval for Merck’s new supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) for the Keytruda therapy was based on data from the pivotal Phase 3 trial which demonstrated “significant” improvements in the primary endpoints – overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) – versus chemotherapy in these patients. In the US alone, it is estimated there will be nearly 18,500 new cases of esophageal cancer diagnosed and more than 16,000 deaths resulting from the disease in 2020, according to Merck.
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals advanced 2% after entering into a collaboration agreement with AC Bioscience, enabling the use of preclinical and clinical data for LX2931, without granting any right or license under any of Lexicon’s patent rights for the compound. Lexicon’s LX2931 is a small molecule sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) lyase inhibitor that is currently not in active development at the company. As per the agreement, Lexicon will receive an upfront payment and is eligible to receive milestone payments totaling up to $5.3 million.
Meanwhile, shares of WPP jumped 5.2% after the world’s largest advertising company said that it is making progress on its goal to return to 2019 net sales by 2022. In the medium-term, the company plans to reinstate its stock repurchase programme in 2021, and introduce a new dividend policy with a pay-out ratio of around 40% of headline EPS. It expects double-digit headline EPS growth over the next three years, as a result of businesses shifting towards e-commerce and digital services.
In more earnings news, Lennar spiked 6% as the homebuilder posted better-than-expected 4Q results, spurred by strong housing demand amid the coronavirus pandemic. The company’s 4Q EPS of $2.82 increased 32.4% year-over-year and came in ahead of analysts’ forecast of $2.37. Fourth-quarter sales of $6.83 billion fell 2% but beat the Street’s consensus estimates of $6.65 billion. Lennar’s executive chairman Stuart Miller said that, “The confluence of Millennials starting families and creating households of their own, along with the pro-housing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, has materially strengthened demand. This surge in demand for housing, combined with the market’s inability to produce sufficient homes to meet this demand, has exacerbated the already well-documented undersupply of new and existing homes for sale.”
