Plus, Trump is back at the White House, House Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin will resume stimulus negotiations today, and Apple announced a new product launch event for October 13 where it is expected to unveil new iPhone models.
Stocks were higher to start Tuesday with the Dow adding 106 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 gained 0.1%, while the Nasdaq traded just above the flatline.
President Donald Trump is back at the White House, where he will continue to be treated for the coronavirus even as he looks to restart his reelection bid. However, questions remain about his condition and doubts have arisen about his willingness to abide by constraints needed to keep a virus outbreak at the White House from worsening. Ahead of his release, his physician, Sean Conley, said that while the president was fit enough to go home, he “may not be entirely out of the woods” just yet and that further care would be provided at the White House over the coming days. Still, Trump said that he feels “great” and is looking forward to debating Democratic challenger Joe Biden next week, in what may be a digital debate given Trump’s diagnosis.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will resume stimulus negotiations today. The two have spoken regularly by phone over the past week after reviving talks last week, and while both sides have reported progress, significant gaps remain between Democrats’ $2.2 trillion bill passed late last week and a $1.6 trillion offer backed by the White House. When asked if a deal was coming this week, Pelosi put the onus on Republicans, saying, “It depends on if they really wan to crush the virus, honor our hero’s and put money in the pockets of the American people.” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell called this morning for continued aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus for an economic recovery that he says still has “a long way to go.” “Too little support would lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses,” Powell said in the text of a speech for a virtual conference hosted by the National Association for Business Economics. “By contrast, the risks of overdoing it seem, for now, to be smaller. Even if policy actions ultimately prove to be greater than needed, they will not go to waste.”
As deaths from COVID-19 surpass 210,000 in the U.S., the White House has nixed new FDA guidelines that could have prevented potential vaccines for the deadly virus from hitting the market ahead of the November 3 presidential election. The FDA’s guidelines instructed vaccine developers to follow patients enrolled in their trials for at least two months to rule out safety issues before seeking emergency approval, according to reports, while White House officials said there was “no clinical or medical reason for the requirement.” While the FDA has said that it plans to approve vaccine candidates as quickly as possible, it has also said it will not cut scientific corners or bend to political pressure to rush a vaccine. Elsewhere, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said today that it is reviewing a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech in real-time, just days after launching a similar assessment process for AstraZeneca’s vaccine. The EMA is using “rolling reviews” to speed up evaluations of vaccines during the pandemic by studying data as it is submitted, rather than waiting for all data to be made available along with a formal application.
Boeing shares are down more than 3% this morning after the airplane manufacturer cut its expectations for new commercial aircraft demand over the next decade, citing what it estimates will be a years-long slump in travel demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. Boeing said today that the world’s airlines will need 18,350 planes worth $2.9 trillion over the next 10 years, an 11% drop from its forecast a year ago and a jarring downbeat prediction after years of strong growth in travel around the world. “The industry has faced challenges before, and from a comparative basis this challenge is … larger without question,” said Darren Hulst, Boeing’s vice president of commercial marketing, adding that the industry’s recovery will likely take years.
And Apple announced a new product launch event where it is expected to reveal the next iPhone models. On October 13, Apple is expected to announce four new iPhones at the event, including two “regular” iPhone 12 devices and two iPhone 12 Pro models. In other Apple news, the company has purged its online store of third-party audio products and instructed its retail outlets to do the same, sending Sonos and Logitech shares sharply lower. Apple manufactures a variety of audio products under its Beats brand as well as products such as AirPods wireless earbuds and the HomePod smart speaker under the main Apple brand. The company is also reportedly working on a high-end set of over-ear headphones.
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Corvus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CRVS): Corvus Pharmaceuticals shares gained as much as 41% yesterday after the company announced updated data from its ongoing Phase 1 study investigating the potential for CPI-006 to provide a novel immunotherapy approach for patients with COVID-19. “We continue to see consistent, promising results with CPI-006 in hospitalized COVID-19 patients,” said Richard A. Miller, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Corvus. “The data indicates that B cell activation with CPI-006 stimulated robust and durable immune responses, and that these responses have been associated with induction of memory B and memory T cells. The dose-response observed in the first two cohorts support the proposed mechanism of action of the drug and provide evidence of induction of high levels of antibodies with relatively low doses of CPI-006. The data supports continued evaluation of CPI-006 in this patient population, and potentially in outpatients with COVID-19 and in other infectious diseases. We are also exploring the potential use in combination with preventative vaccines under development by third parties to enhance and prolong immunity.”