Plus, the House voted to approve $2,000 direct payments to Americans, a JPMorgan analyst said Nikola’s drama should be behind it in 2021, and Qualtrics filed to go public.
Stocks were mixed to start Tuesday with the Dow trading 65 points, or 0.2%, higher. The S&P 500 added 0.2%, while the Nasdaq slid 0.2%.
Lift off. Boeing shares are up more than 1% this morning as American Airlines operates the first U.S. commercial flight of the manufacturer’s 737 MAX since two deadly crashes grounded the plane in March 2019. American Airlines Flight 718 left Miami International Airport for New York’s LaGuardia Airport this morning, and the carrier will operate a once-daily roundtrip flight between the two airports before increasing service of the plane to other cities in the coming weeks. The milestone flights come after the largest grounding in U.S. aviation history was concluded just over a month ago after the FAA cleared the MAX to fly again after signing off on several safety changes made to the Boeing aircraft. United Airlines is expected to start MAX flights on February 11 from its Denver and Houston hubs, while Southwest Airlines said it will begin flights of the planes in the second quarter.
The House voted Monday to increase the second round of stimulus checks to Americans to $2,000 as Democrats embraced President Donald Trump’s calls for larger direct payments to struggling Americans. The bill cleared the chamber on a 275 to 134 vote, reaching the two-thirds majority needed for the fast-track procedural vote. The measure will now head to the Senate where it will create a political dilemma for Republicans, who have previously opposed stimulus payments larger than the $600 direct payments in the existing law though Trump’s stamp of approval still has sway within the party. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’t said whether or not the Senate will take up the House bill, attempt to vote on a different measure that would also increase direct payments, or simply ignore the issue.
Experts say the new, highly transmissible coronavirus strain could be spreading undetected in the U.S. due to COVID-19 testing challenges. While the CDC says the new strain hasn’t yet been detected in the U.S., however only around 51,000 infections of the 19 million cases in the country have been sequenced, which means the mutation could already be present without having been detected. “To find that strain, what we need to do is o take a percentage of the samples that are diagnosed and do deep genetic analysis, and (in) the U.S., our capacity hasn’t been spectacular,” said Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, the medical director of the Special Pathogens Unit at Boston Medical Center. “If the strain is here, we might just be missing it because the holes in our net are too wide.”
Nikola shares got a boost yesterday after JPMorgan analyst Paul Coster said the drama surrounding the scandal-plagued electric vehicle maker should end next year as the company rolls out actual, working trucks and other evidence its technology is actually viable. Coster said in a note that he expects the news about Nikola “to turn generally positive” next year, though he reduced his price target on the stock from $40 to $35 to “reflect he execution risk associated with a tarnished brand.” The analyst added, “We expect Nikola to post a video of a functioning Tre in January. We look for a steady flow of updates for the truck in 2021, as test milestones are met.”
And Qualtrics has filed to go public. The cloud software vendor, which SAP acquired two years ago on the eve of another planned IPO, filed its paperwork with the SEC on Monday to move forward as an independent company. The initial pricing range of $20 to $24 per share would value the company at between $12 and $14.4 billion, and Qualtrics will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker “XM.” SAP announced its plans to spin off Qualtrics in July, and said it will initially keep most of its ownership stake. After the IPO, which could come as early as January, SAP will own 80% of the outstanding shares.
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DarioHealth (NASDAQ: DRIO): DarioHealth shares have gained nearly 2% over the last week following the company’s announcement that it has entered into an agreement to provide its remote patient monitoring (RPM) solution to Presbyterian Medical Services, one of the largest integrated healthcare systems in the State of New Mexico, effective January 1, 2021. “We are very pleased to partner with Presbyterian Medical Services in their mission to provide the best possible care to their patients. Adding Dario’s RPM solution with personalized digital journeys can engage patients and help them manage their chronic conditions while giving providers tools that enable remote patient monitoring, greater data, and interaction with their patients. Dario’s solution has demonstrated that it can assist patients in achieving improved health outcomes,” said Rick Anderson, President and General Manager of North America at DarioHealth. “With healthcare resources stretched thin across the country, and many patients unwilling to leave their homes due to COVID-19, we believe that Dario’s RPM is the ideal solution to help Presbyterian Medical Services provide quality care to their patients during these challenging times by providing support when and where they need it.”