The major averages are rallying again this morning despite the fact that Florida broke the U.S. record for the largest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic on Sunday, adding more than 15,000 cases. PepsiCo (PEP) began the Q2 earnings season and it appears from recent action that markets are betting that other corporations will follow the snack and beverage giant's example by beating lowered expectations.
ECONOMIC EVENTS: The latest data from the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering shows there are now 12.95M confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, including 3.31M in the U.S., and 569,878 deaths due to the disease. At the state level for some U.S. hot spots, Florida reported 282,435 COVID-19 cases, up 12,624 cases from yesterday, while Arizona reports 123,824 COVID-19 cases, up 1,357 from yesterday.
TOP NEWS: Shares of PepsiCo (PEP) are 2% higher near noon after the company's core earnings per share and revenues topped consensus forecasts, with Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta stating that its "businesses performed relatively well during the quarter, with a notable level of resiliency in our global snacks and foods business." The company's snacks business remained "very resilient" with 5% organic revenue growth in Q2, while global beverages declined (7%) as increased take-home consumption was more than offset by a decline in the convenience and gas and away-from-home channels, Pepsi noted.
In M&A news, Analog Devices (ADI) announced an agreement to acquire Maxim Integrated Products (MXIM) in an all stock transaction that values the combined enterprise at over $68B. Upon closing, current ADI stockholders will own approximately 69% of the combined company, while Maxim stockholders will own approximately 31%. Meanwhile, Fisker and Spartan Energy Acquisition (SPAQ), a special purpose acquisition company sponsored by an affiliate of Apollo Global Management (APO), announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for a business combination that would result in electric car maker Fisker becoming a publicly listed company. Churchill Capital Corp III, another SPAC, and MultiPlan, a provider of end-to-end healthcare cost management solutions, announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to merge and bring MultiPlan to be listed on the NYSE.
In news on the search for pharmaceutical answers to COVID-19, Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech SE (BNTX) announced that two of the companies' four investigational vaccine candidates from their BNT162 mRNA-based vaccine program received Fast Track designation from the FDA. BNT162b1 and BNT162b2 are the two most advanced vaccine candidates in the program currently being evaluated in ongoing Phase 1/2 clinical studies in the U.S. and Germany, the companies noted.
MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Vaxart (VXRT), which rose 31% after B. Riley FBR analyst Mayank Mamtani initiated coverage of the stock with a Buy rating and $22 price target. Also higher was Rigel Pharmaceuticals (RIGL), which gained 17% after Citi and Cantor analysts pointed to some recent research that they say supports a possible role for Rigel in treating COVID-19.
Among the notable losers was NextCure (NXTC), which dropped 45% after announcing the company does not plan to advance the non-small cell lung cancer and ovarian cancer cohorts into the stage 2 portion of the Simon 2-stage trial. NextCure also announced that its Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kevin Heller, is resigning. Also lower was CytoDyn (CYDY), which fell 19% after the company received a Refusal to File letter from the FDA on its Biologics License Application for leronlimab. In addition, RedFin (RDFN) was 1% lower after BofA analyst Nat Schindler downgraded the shares to Underperform from Neutral with a $24 price target.
INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 391.78, or 1.50%, to 26,467.08, the Nasdaq was up 173.80, or 1.64%, to 10,791.25, and the S&P 500 was up 39.68, or 1.25%, to 3,224.72.
Pfizer
+1.48 (+4.37%)
BioNTech
+8.8 (+12.50%)
PepsiCo
+2.65 (+1.97%)
Spartan Acquisition Corp. III
+1.465 (+8.79%)
Churchill Capital
+0.575 (+5.33%)
Vaxart
+2.21 (+27.73%)
Rigel Pharmaceuticals
+0.275 (+15.45%)
NextCure
-7.97 (-44.78%)
CytoDyn
+ (+0.00%)
Redfin
-0.35 (-0.94%)