Plus, Apple is reportedly planning to make major camera and video upgrades to its new lineup of iPhones, AMC reported a narrower-than-expected loss, and Robinhood is buying Say Technologies.
Stocks were higher at the open on Tuesday with the Dow adding 33 points, or nearly 0.1%. The S&P 500 rose less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq gained just under 0.2%.
PepsiCo is teaming up with Boston Beer to produce a Mountain Dew spiked seltzer beverage. The new HARD MTN DEW alcoholic beverage will be a sugar-free canned beverage with 5% alcohol by volume and is expected to be on shelves early next year. “For 80 years MTN DEW has challenged the status quo, bringing bold flavors and unmatched beverage innovation to millions of fans,” Kirk Tanner, PepsiCo Beverages North America CEO, said in a press release. “The Boston Beer Company partnership combines two recognized leaders in our respective industries to address the changing tastes of drinkers and we are thrilled at the opportunity to create HARD MTN DEW that maintains the bold, citrus flavor fans know and expect.” Boston Beer CEO Dave Burwick added, “We know that adult drinkers’ tastes are evolving, and they are looking for new and exciting flavorful beverages. The combination of our experience in brewing and developing the best-tasting hard seltzers and hard teas, and MTN DEW, a one of kind multi-billion dollar brand, will deliver the excitement and refreshment that drinkers know and love.”
Apple is reportedly readying its next lineup of iPhones with three major new camera and video upgrades. Bloomberg reported the new smart phones will include the Portrait mode feature for video, as well as a new filters-like feature to improve the look and colors of photos. The updated iPhone models will also have a new ProRes video format, which is typically used by professional video editors. The new iPhones with these features are expected to go on sale next month, and will also include a faster A15 chip and a smaller top notch, as well as new screen technology that will give the phones a higher refresh rate to make scrolling through photos and websites feel smoother.
AMC shares are up 1% at the time of writing after the movie theater chain reported a narrower-than-expected loss for the second quarter. While AMC’s CEO warned the company still has challenges ahead, he added that the chain could post a profit as soon as the fourth quarter. “AMC’s journey through this pandemic is not finished, and we are not yet out of the woods,” CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. “However, while there are no guarantees as to what the future will bring in a still infection-impacted world, one can look ahead and envision a happy Hollywood ending to this story.” Still, famed short seller Jim Chanos said that AMC’s fundamentals have deteriorated since before the COVID-19 pandemic. “The reality is that things have gotten worse at this company,” Chanos said. “So clearly something has changed. And that change is streaming.” Chanos added that AMC’s “revenues were down 70% in the second quarter, versus the second quarter of 2019,” which is far worse than other companies that are in the midst of “reopening” like the gym chain Planet Fitness, whose revenues were down 25% versus the second quarter of 2019 by comparison.
Tesla shares are down this morning after the electric vehicle maker reported that shipments of China-made cars to the local market fell sharply in July following a wave of negative publicity and the recall of nearly every vehicle the company has produced in the country. Tesla reported domestic shipments of just 8,621 units in China in July, marking a 69% plunge from June, while exports from its Shanghai factory nearly quintupled to 24,347 vehicles, with overall shipments from the Tesla China factory coming in at 32,968, or a drop of just 0.6%. “We think current demand for Tesla is fine in China, but that Tesla has over/forward built capacity relative to the U.S., which is triggering price cuts and exports,” Bernstein analysts led by Toni Sacconaghi said in a report, adding that domestic competition in China is “likely to make it difficult to Tesla to fully capture its fair share or sustain similar levels of profitability.”
And Robinhood announced that it is buying Say Technologies for roughly $140 million. The all-cash deal marks Robinhood’s first acquisition as a public company and will give the trading platform access to Say’s software which helps company shareholders exercise their right to vote proxies and ask questions of management. “We founded Say to give investors a better way to engage with the companies they own, and to give companies tools to better understand and access their investors,” Say Technologies co-founder and CEO Alex Lebow said in a statement. “As part of the Robinhood family, we’ll be able to further our goal of creating a new ecosystem of ownership and engagement to benefit all investors and companies.”
Stocks We’re Watching
Enlivex Therapeutics Ltd (NASDAQ: ENLV): Enlivex Therapeutics reported second quarter earnings yesterday. “We are very pleased with our recent progress, which has placed us on track to achieve a steady cadence of value creating milestones,” Oren Hershkovitz, CEO of Enlivex, said in the earnings release. “Our placebo-controlled Phase IIb sepsis trial is ongoing, with top-line data expected in the second quarter of 2022. We are also on track to initiate a Phase IIb trial evaluating AllocetraTM as a treatment for severe/critical COVID-19 patients in Israel in Q3 of this year, and we plan to expand the trial to include European sites thereafter. These trials are each supported by compelling clinical data that highlight the broad applicability of Allocetra’s immunotherapeutic mechanism of action. Alongside our clinical progress, we have also generated preclinical data highlighting Allocetra’s potential to synergistically enhance the efficacy of cancer therapies. By combining AllocetraTM with these therapies, we believe we can improve response rates and provide effective therapeutic options to patients who currently have none available. We look forward to evaluating this hypothesis through our planned Phase Ib solid tumor trial. With a strong financial position and talented leadership team, we believe we are well positioned to advance these and our other clinical studies as we work to become a leader in cell therapies for infectious, inflammatory and oncologic diseases.”