Month: August 2020

(Bloomberg) — It’s anything but business as usual for the 1,500 U.S.-based employees of TikTok. Plans to hire 10,000 employees and open new offices in the country are being postponed, and brands and social media stars are inserting clauses into their contracts to address what happens if a proposed ban comes to pass, according to TikTok employees, executives and business partners.Virtual town hall sessions that were once held each month are now weekly affairs where worried employees ask top executives if their paychecks will keep coming if the app goes dark in the U.S. In response, executives have pointed to …read more […]

Harvard Medical School’s Professor of medicine and immunology, Dr. Dan Barouch, speaks with Yahoo Finance’s Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer about his experience with the coronavirus and his progress in the search for a vaccine.

…read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Several of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s biggest investors have converted billions of dollars in U.S. shares for Hong Kong stock in part to avoid potential U.S. sanctions and de-listings of major Chinese technology companies.Temasek Group Holdings Pte., Baillie Gifford & Co., and Matthews Asia are among the major shareholders that have swapped stakes in the Chinese e-commerce giant to take advantage of new rules easing the switch following Alibaba’s listing in Hong Kong last year. Geopolitics is contributing to the shift, according to people familiar with the moves.“Lots of long-term fund managers, especially the ones whose fund managers …read more […]

Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE) and SmartPharm Therapeutics have now signed a merger agreement for Sorrento to acquire SmartPharm, a gene-encoded therapeutics company developing non-viral DNA and RNA gene delivery platforms for COVID-19 and rare diseases.Shares in Sorrento rose 4% in Thursday’s after-hours trading.As previously announced on July 24, SmartPharm equity holders will receive up to an aggregate of $19.4 million of Sorrento common stock, based on a price per share calculated in accordance with the merger agreement.Sorrento and SmartPharm will also collaborate on research and development to encode and express in vivo Sorrento’s proprietary SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies with SmartPharm’s Gene …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Oil is set for a third weekly gain in New York on nascent signs of a demand recovery, but the pandemic is continuing to cloud the outlook while concerns are rising about over-supply.October oil was steady near $43 a barrel and up 1.3% for the week. Futures surged to a five-month high on Monday on fresh China stimulus and as a gauge of builder sentiment in America jumped to its highest since 1998. However, optimism was tempered by downbeat comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve and OPEC+ on the demand outlook due to the coronavirus, while American unemployment …read more […]

(Bloomberg Opinion) — The euro is becoming the go-to currency for safety and liquidity as we approach the U.S. presidential elections and investors bet on a rocky time for the dollar. This may be a source of pride for European policy makers in how they’ve handled the pandemic so far. Unfortunately, it’s a potential problem for exporters on the continent, not least its manufacturers.As Kit Juckes, a currency analyst at Societe Generale SA, puts it: “The dollar’s very overvalued but the euro isn’t very undervalued.”With signs that hedge funds are taking option exposure on a rising euro, the recent move …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — Billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Group plans to file for dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the next few weeks, targeting a valuation of about $225 billion, people familiar with the matter said, in an effort to pull off the world’s largest initial public offering.The share sales could raise about $30 billion in total if markets are favorable, said one of the people, requesting not to be named because the matter is private. The Hangzhou-based firm seeks to float its shares simultaneously on the Hong Kong stock exchange and the tech-focused Star board in Shanghai as soon …read more […]

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) asked the Federal Communications Commission for approval of a motion-sensing device that could prevent children from being left inside hot vehicles, Reuters reported Thursday.What Happened The automaker’s short-range interactive motion-sensing device uses unlicensed millimeter-wave sensors, which work at higher power levels than currently allowed, according to Reuters.The Elon Musk-led company claims that the device based on radar technology has advantages over other systems including camera-based ones as it can perceive depth.The system can “differentiate between a child and an object left on the seat, reducing the likelihood of false alarms,” Tesla stated. The company says the …read more […]

The comments from the online retail giant’s boss come as the firm saw sales jump in the wake of the pandemic. …read more […]

Goodyear Tire Chief Executive Rich Kramer said on Thursday the company had clarified its policy to make clear employees can wear apparel expressing support for law enforcement after it faced a boycott call from U.S. President Donald Trump. The Republican president, who is seeking a second term in office, told reporters on Wednesday he would swap out the Goodyear tires on his presidential limousine if there were an alternative. Goodyear on Thursday said it had a longstanding policy of asking employees of refraining from working place expressions of support for any political candidates. …read more […]

Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE), and its partner BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX), announced positive results for the Phase 1 trial of their second COVID-19 vaccine candidate, stating that the latest vaccine candidate had fewer side effects than their first.What Happened The second vaccine candidate called BNT162b2 or B2 is already in advanced trials and its administration was well tolerated in the trial participants across the age spectrum, according to a statement released by the two companies Thursday. The companies said 332 people participated in the clinical trial, who were administered either the latest vaccine or the first called BNT162b1 or B1.The …read more […]

(Bloomberg) — U.S. regulators are investigating whether a massive methane release over Florida they say likely occurred during maintenance on a natural gas compressor station this spring violated the nation’s Clean Air Act.The mysterious plume of invisible gas, estimated to total 300 metric tons, was released north of Gainesville between May 2 and May 3, according to Bluefield Technologies Inc., which analyzed data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5P satellite and was first reported by Bloomberg News.“Our preliminary findings indicate that the release may have occurred from maintenance operations at a natural gas compressor station located in Brooker (Bradford County), …read more […]

Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) founder, chairman and CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world… and not by a small margin.
Bezos’ net worth zeros in on $200 billion – more than $80 billion above Bill Gates, who sits in second place on Forbes‘ Real-Time Billionaires list.
Bezos also has access to some pretty elite financial advice…
In a meeting with Warren Buffett, he took the opportunity to pick the Oracle of Omaha’s brain on investing. He asked…
Your investment thesis is so simple. You’re [one of the] richest guys in the world, and it’s so simple. Why doesn’t everyone just copy you?
Buffett …read more […]

Warren Buffett is arguably the most successful investor of our time. But lately, people have been doubting the wisdom of the Oracle of Omaha.
He took a bath in airline shares, selling when they collapsed at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. Then his bank stocks took a dive when interest rates plunged and bad debt reserves soared thanks to the huge spike in unemployment.
But what investors have forgotten is that his biggest position by far, Apple, is about to break the $2 trillion valuation. That’s definitely not peanuts when you own 250 million shares and counting. So when he made …read more […]

…read more […]