Plus, Russia’s Putin claims the country has approved the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, Boeing said cancellations outpaced new sales for the sixth straight month in July, and Nikola shares surged after landing a garbage trucks deal.
Stocks were mixed to start Tuesday with the Dow adding 314 points, or 1.1%. The S&P 500 gained 0.2%, putting it within 1% of its all-time high, while the Nasdaq fell 0.7%.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced today that Russia’s health authorities have approved what the country claims is the world’s first vaccine for the coronavirus. “As far as I know, a vaccine against a new coronavirus infection has been registered this morning, for the first time in the world,” Putin said. “Although I know that it works quite effectively, it forms a stable immunity and, I repeat, has passed all the necessary checks.” Mass production of the vaccine for use in Russia is slated to begin next month, although it will reportedly take until January to complete human safety trials. The speed with which the vaccine has been granted regulatory approval has drawn criticism, with a local association of multinational pharmaceutical companies dubbing the rushed registration a “Pandora’s Box.” “This is a political decision by Putin so he can claim that Russia was the first in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine,” said Svetlana Zavidova, executive director of Russia’s Association of Clinical Trials Organizations. “I can’t understand why Russia needs to build this Potemkin village. …This is a Pandora’s Box and we don’t know what will happen to people injected with an unproven vaccine.”
Boeing said this morning that cancellations outpaced new sales for the sixth straight month as demand for planes continues to fall. Boeing customers canceled plans to buy 43 of the manufacturer’s troubled 737 Max planes last month, bringing the company’s net negative orders for the model to 416 planes this year. Meanwhile, the platemaker delivered just four jetliners last month, including two freighters and two 787 Dreamliners, and booked zero new orders.
Uber and Lyft shares are both down this morning following a California judge granting a preliminary injunction requiring the ride-hailing companies to stop classifying their drivers as independent contractors pending further action by the court. The order will take effect after 10 days, as the companies requested a brief stay during the appeals process. If the order is upheld, the ruling could have serious implications for Uber and Lyft, both of which have yet to reach profitability and have seen their ride-hailing businesses suffer amid the coronavirus pandemic. By reclassifying their drivers as employees instead of independent contractors, the companies will have to pay for costly benefits that come with full-time staff. “The vast majority of drivers want to work independently, and we’ve already made significant changes to our app to ensure that remains the case under California law,” an Uber spokesperson said. “When over 3 million Californians are without a job, our elected leaders should be focused on creating work, not trying to shut down an entire industry during an economic depression.” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, “The court has weighed in and agreed: Uber and Lyft need to put a stop to unlawful misclassification of their drivers while our litigation continues. While this fight still has a long way to go, we’re pushing ahead to make sure the people of California get the workplace protections they deserve. Our state and workers shouldn’t have to foot the bill when big businesses try to skip out on their responsibilities. We’re going to keep working to make sure Uber and Lyft play by the rules.”
Walmart is teaming up with Instacart to offer same-day delivery starting in a few U.S. markets, in an effort to take on Amazon and Whole Foods. The partnership is currently in a pilot phase in four markets across California and Oklahoma. “Today, we welcomed Walmart to the Instacart marketplace for the first time in the U.S. Instacart now delivers from Walmart locations in three California markets – Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego – as well as Tulsa, Oklahoma,” an Instacart spokesperson said in a statement. “The new partnership brings thousands of items – from groceries, alcohol and pantry staples to home decor and improvement, personal care, electronics and more – at everyday low prices from Walmart stores to customers’ doors in as fast as an hour.” Instacart already partners with Albertsons, Aldi, Costco, Kroger, Target, and Walmart’s Sam’s Club warehouse stores.
And Nikola shares surged as much as 24.5% yesterday after the company confirmed an order of thousands of all-electric refuse trucks for Republic Services. The order includes 2,500 electrified chassis, with the option to increase to up to 5,000 chassis, with deliveries expected in 2023. “We are going to buy these trucks over time,” said Jon Vander Ark, Republic Services’ president, said on a call with reporters. “This is effectively double any previous commitment we have made.” Nikola founder Trevor Milton said the company may ship prototypes for on-road testing to Republic by the end of next year. “This industry is the harshest industry out there but there’s no better industry for electrification,” Milton said. The companies haven’t disclosed how much Nikola will charge for each truck, though Milton said it will be less than $500,000 each, setting the company up for “good margins.”
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Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB): Seres shares skyrocketed 389% yesterday after the biotech announced positive topline results form its pivotal Phase 3 ECOSPOR III study evaluating its investigational oral microbiome therapeutic SER-109 for recurrent C. difficile infection (CDI), a bacterial infection of the colon that leads to inflammation and can be deadly. “We are extremely pleased with these highly clinically meaningful SER-109 Phase 3 study results, greatly exceeding the statistical threshold provided by the FDA. Based on our prior discussions with the FDA, we believe this trial should provide the efficacy basis for submitting an application for product approval. We look forward to meeting with the FDA as soon as possible to discuss the regulatory path forward with the goal of bringing SER-109 to patients as a first-in-class microbiome therapeutic,” said Eric D. Shaff, President and Chief Executive Officer of Seres. “Our results represent the first-ever positive pivotal clinical study results for a targeted microbiome drug candidate. We believe these Phase 3 data provide strong validation for our underlying microbiome therapeutics platform, which has been the scientific basis for the Company, as well as persuasive clinical evidence supporting our other active pipeline programs.”