Plus, Lyft and Uber shares opened lower after a California court ruled that a ballot measure that exempted gig workers from state labor law was unconstitutional, PayPal said it is opening its crypto service to users in the U.K., and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbital is going public via a SPAC merger.
Stocks were higher at the open on Monday with the Dow adding 41 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 rose by 0.2%, while the Nasdaq gained 0.4%.
Pfizer shares are up more than 3% and BioNTech is up more than 10% at the time of writing after the FDA granted full approval to the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine, making it the first in the U.S. to win the designation. The approval paves the way for more businesses, schools, and universities to adopt vaccine mandates. The FDA said its scientists evaluated “hundreds of thousands of pages” of vaccine data, and the vaccine met the agency’s “high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality.” Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement, “While millions of people have already safely received COVID-19 vaccines, we recognize that for some, the FDA approval of a vaccine may now instill additional confidence to get vaccinated.” Pfizer and BioNTech are now expected to ask the FDA to approve a third dose as a booster shot following the vaccine’s full approval. Pfizer also announced today that it is acquiring Trillium Therapeutics for $18.50 per share, or around $2.26 billion.
Lyft and Uber shares opened lower this morning after a California court ruled that Prop 22, a ballot measure that exempted gig workers from state labor law, was unconstitutional. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch said in a ruling late Friday that Prop 22 is unconstitutional as “it limits the power of a future Legislature to define app-based drivers as workers subject to workers’ compensation law,” making the entire ballot measure “unenforceable.” A coalition representing Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and DoorDash said it plans to appeal. “We believe the judge made a serious error by ignoring a century’s worth of case law requiring the courts to guard the voters’ right of initiative,” Geoff Vetter, spokesperson for the Protect App-Based Drivers & Services Coalition, said in a statement. “This outrageous decision is an affront to the overwhelming majority of California voters who passed Prop 22. We will file an immediate appeal and are confident the Appellate Court will uphold Prop 22. Importantly, this Superior Court ruling is not binding and will be immediately stayed upon our appeal. All of the provisions of Prop 22 will remain in effect until the appeal process is complete.”
PayPal announced this morning that it is launching its cryptocurrency service in the U.K., allowing its British customers to buy, hold, and sell digital currencies beginning this week. The move sent Bitcoin to a more than three month high to above $50,000 late Sunday and into early Monday. “The pandemic has accelerated digital change and innovation across all aspects of our lives – including the digitization of money and greater consumer adoption of digital financial services,” Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Vice President and General Manager of Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies at PayPal, said in a press release. “Our global reach, digital payments expertise, and knowledge of consumer and businesses, combined with rigorous security and compliance controls provides us the unique opportunity, and the responsibility, to help people in the UK to explore cryptocurrency. We are committed to continue working closely with regulators in the UK, and around the world, to offer our support—and meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is going public via a SPAC merger with NextGen Acquisition Corp II. Virgin Orbit, the satellite-launching spinoff of Virgin Galactic, will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker “VORB” once the transaction is complete near the end of the year. “The Virgin Orbit team has proven its ability to create new ideas, new approaches, and new capabilities,” Branson said in a statement. “They are building on the incredible foundation of their rapid transition into successful commercial launch operations to find new ways to solve big problems that uplift our customers’ amazing ideas, again and again. I’m very excited we are taking Virgin Orbit public, with the support of our partners at NextGen and our other wonderful investors. It’s another milestone for empowering all of those working today to build space technology that will positively change the world.”
And Visa is getting into the NFT craze. The payment processor said today that it bought “CryptoPunk,” an NFT-based digital avatar, for nearly $150,000 in Ethereum. “We think NFTs will play an important role in the future of retail, social media, entertainment, and commerce,” said Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa. “To help our clients and partners participate, we need a firsthand understanding of the infrastructure requirements for a global brand to purchase, store, and leverage an NFT. … We’re a company steeped in the history of commerce and payments – but with our eyes on the future. With our CryptoPunk purchase, we’re jumping in feet first. This is just the beginning of our work in this space.”
Stocks We’re Watching
Kimball Electronics (NASDAQ: KE): Kimball Electronics announced on Friday the introduction of its Kimball Medical Solutions. “Our unified approach to providing innovative solutions and specialized services for the medical market from all of our areas of expertise and capabilities will enable our medical customers to increase their speed to market,” Don Charron, Chairman and CEO of Kimball Electronics, said in a statement. “We want Kimball Medical Solutions to be a single-source for our customers’ medical manufacturing needs.”