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Thursday’s Market Snapshot: Here’s What You Need To Know Right Now
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Thursday’s Market Snapshot: Here’s What You Need To Know Right Now

US stock indexes are dropping led by technology stocks, including Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and Netflix declining between 2% to 4%. Meanwhile, US Labor Department data added to negative market sentiment, showing that jobless claims fell less than expected last week.  Initial unemployment benefits claims dropped 33,000 to a seasonally adjusted 860,000 in the week ended Sept. 12. Data for the previous week was revised showing that 9,000 additional claims were received than was reported earlier. 

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index is falling 1.9%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is declining 1%. The S&P 500 Index is down 1.4%.

General Electric shares are advancing more than 3% after CEO Larry Culp said that he expects to see positive industrial free cash flow (FCF) in the second half of 2020. Culp disclosed that the company is making “good progress” in reducing costs by $2 billion and generating cash savings of $3 billion to cope with the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ford Motor is getting a boost with the stock rising more than 4% after the carmaker announced the production start of the new generation all-electric F-150 pickup truck at its Michigan facility.

In some more M&A news, Illumina is leading declines on the S&P 500 with a 7% drop following a Bloomberg report that the company is in talks to buy Grail for a price tag of more than $8 billion. A deal for the purchase of the cancer-detection startup could be announced as early as this week, according to the report.

Dividend: Herman Miller is spiking 33% after reinstating its dividend and beating earnings estimates. The office-furniture maker will pay a dividend of $0.1875 per share of Jan. 15, 2021 to shareholders of record as of Nov. 28, 2020. In the 1Q ended August 29, sales declined 6.6% Y/Y to $626.8 million, exceeding analysts’ estimates of $524.8 million. Adjusted EPS in 1Q rose 47.6% to $1.24 year-on-year driven by significant margin expansion. Analysts had expected EPS of $0.26 for the quarter.

It’s all about gaming: Shares in Penn National Gaming are jumping 7% as Stifel Nikolaus ramped up the stock’s price target to a Street high of $85 (17% upside potential) from $47 and maintained a Buy rating on the stock, citing strong momentum for the sports gaming business. Stifel analyst Steven Wieczynski expects several states to pass gaming legislation that should keep the sports betting momentum rolling, which means that the stock “can continue to work, especially into November.

“Although the valuation might appear stretched when evaluated against historical norms, we view PENN as a ‘story’ stock at this point, and thus find valuation less important to our overall investment thesis,” Wieczynski wrote in a note to investors.

Corona updates: Shares in Sorrento are surging 14% after the biotech company said it received US regulatory clearance to start a Phase 1 trial for its Covid-19 neutralizing antibody candidate.The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given Sorrento the go-ahead to proceed with patient enrollment for its Phase 1 clinical trial for COVI-GUARD (STI-1499) in hospitalized Covid-19 patients. The initial trial is expected to be followed by large-scale trials targeting a potential Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) submission as early as before the end of this year.

BioNTech is up about 2% after signing an agreement to buy a new manufacturing site in Germany from Novartis AG in a move to ramp up Covid-19 vaccine production capacity by up to 750 million doses per year. The German facility is slated to start the production of so-called messenger RNA (mRNA) technology for a COVID-19 vaccine in the first half of 2021, pending regulatory approval. BioNTech and Pfizer are testing the BNT162b2 candidate in a global Phase 3 trial.

Eli Lilly is joining forces with Amgen to significantly boost the supply of its potential COVID-19 antibody therapies. Lilly said it entered into a global antibody manufacturing collaboration with Amgen to quickly scale up production and serve many more patients around the world should one or more of its antibody therapies prove successful in clinical testing and receive regulatory approval

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