Plus, Tesla began delivering Model 3s from its new Shanghai factory, and AstraZeneca and Merck’s cancer drug just got approved to treat pancreatic cancer.
Stocks fell to start the second to last trading day of the year with the Dow sinking 205 points lower. The S&P 500 slipped 0.6%, while the Nasdaq dropped 1%.
Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, the nation’s top trade negotiator, is scheduled to visit Washinton this week to sign the phase one trade agreement with the U.S., according to The South China Morning Post. The newspaper said that the Chinese delegation will stay in the U.S. for a few days through the middle of next week. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said on Fox News this morning that the signing of the deal will likely happen within the next week or so, while President Donald Trump said last week that the deal was “getting done” and that there will eventually be a signing ceremony with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump is in some hot water today after he retweeted over the weekend a post naming the alleged whistleblower whose complaint triggered the congressional inquiry that resulted in his impeachment in the House. “The president has a responsibility under the whistle-blower statute to ensure protection of the intelligence community” officials who report alleged wrongdoing, said David Colapinto, a lawyer who represents whistleblowers at the law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto LLP, who added that Trump’s retweet was a “willful violation of the law.”
Tesla said that it has started to deliver Model 3 electric cars built at its Shanghai factory just under a year after beginning work on the $2 billion plant. The plant was up and running in 357 days, setting a record for automakers in China, and is part of the auto maker’s plans to expand its presence in the world’s largest car market while also minimizing the impact of the U.S.-China trade war. But despite this win, TSLA shares are down more than -2.5% this morning after analysts at Cowen said deliveries could miss the company’s targets this year as demand for the Model 3 slumps. “Excluding the Netherlands and China, we expect Model 3 deliveries to be down” compared to the year-ago quarter, wrote analyst Jeffrey Osborne. His estimate “highlights the demand saturation we are seeing across most mature markets as we shift from pent-up demand to steady flow demand. According to the analyst, Tesla could deliver 356,000 vehicles for 2019, below its October target range of between 360,000 to 400,000.
AstraZeneca and Merck were up in premarket trading following the Food and Drug Administration approving the cancer drug Lynparza, a joint development between the two companies, to treat pancreatic cancer. Lynparza is already approved to treat ovarian and breast cancer and is in a class of drugs known as PARP inhibitors which work by stopping DNA from repairing itself, stopping the growth of tumors.
Stocks We’re Watching
Iterum Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ITRM): Shares of this clinical-stage pharmaceutical are up 64% in the last week after the company announced “the completion of patient enrollment in its Sulopenem for Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (SURE) 1 clinical trial in uncomplicated urinary tract infections (uUTI).” Iterum Therapeutics CEO Corey Fishman said, “We are pleased to announce the completion of enrollment in our final phase 3 trail for uncomplicated urinary trace infections (uUTI) with over 1,670 patients treated. Topline results from this trial are expected in the first quarter of 2020… It has been over 20 years since a new, oral treatment has been developed for urinary tract infections and the existing orals are no longer effective. If approved, oral sulopenem will provide an option to those patients with an elevated risk for treatment failure that currently have no other alternatives.”
Flexion Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FLXN): Flexion shares jumped 20% on Friday after the FDA approved updates to the product label for the biopharmaceutical’s Zilretta which should help to boost sales of the drug in treating osteoarthritis knee pain. “We are very pleased with the new product label as it achieves our primary goal of removing unclear language pertaining to repeat administration, which we believe was potentially confusing to patients, physicians and payers alike,” said Flexion CEO Michael Clayman, M.D. On the news, Raymond James reiterated its Strong Buy rating on the stock and boosted its price target from $25 to $28 – nearly 40% higher than the price as of this writing.