Vaccine hopes
More data needed
Moderna (US:MRNA) said this week that it had seen positive results from its early-stage coronavirus vaccine trials. The US biotech group’s vaccine candidate “elicited neutralising antibodies” in eight participants – triggering an immune response like that brought about by a natural infection. Shares in Moderna soared by more than a fifth in response. Hours later, Moderna announced a $1.34bn (£1.1bn) share sale to fund the manufacturing of its vaccine candidate. But the group’s shares stumbled the following day, after Stat News reported that experts had questioned the lack of critical information in Moderna’s update.
Astra’s 30m doses
Oxford trials
UK business secretary Alok Sharma has said that pharma giant AstraZeneca (AZN) will work to make 30m doses of Oxford University’s coronavirus vaccine available by September, if – and it’s a big if – the vaccine proves successful in trials. Oxford and Astra had already announced their partnership in early May. Mr Sharma added that an extra £84m has now been made available to Oxford’s and Imperial College’s vaccine development programmes, on top of an original £47m. Vaccine development typically takes years, but companies around the world are moving at lightning speed to tackle the ongoing pandemic.
Dividend ban
£200m loans
The UK government is to grant loans of up to £200m to larger businesses affected by coronavirus – up from an earlier cap of £50m. This is with a view to ensuring that companies that do not qualify for the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility still have enough money to meet cash-flow needs. But companies borrowing more than £50m through this scheme will be banned from paying dividends beyond those already declared, and banned from making share buybacks. Moreover, there are restrictions on companies’ abilities to pay bonuses and award pay rises to senior management.
SoftBank suffers
Massive losses
Japanese investment group SoftBank reported an operating loss of Y1.4t trillion ($13bn) for the year to March 2020 – enduring losses of Y1.9tn within its renowned Vision Fund, which has injected money into the likes of flexible workspace group WeWork and ride-hailing business Uber (US:UBER). The fair value of companies within the Vision portfolio fell significantly in the fourth quarter, largely due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, SoftBank is reportedly mulling over a sale of up to $20bn in shares of T-Mobile US.
easyJet hacked
Security breach
Things were bad enough for easyJet (EZJ) with the small matter of a global health crisis keeping passengers firmly grounded. But the airline operator has now revealed that it was targeted in a cyber-attack from a “highly sophisticated source”. The names, email addresses and travel details of about 9m customers were accessed and for about 2,200 customers, credit-card details were accessed. easyJet has notified the Information Commissioner’s Office and the National cyber Security Centre, and “closed off this unauthorised access”.
J&J pulls powder
Health allegations
Johnson & Johnson (US:JNJ) will no longer sell its iconic baby powder in the US or Canada, having endured declining demand for the talc-based product amid allegations that it can cause cancer. The American healthcare behemoth said that it had stopped shipping several items in the US and Canada as part of a portfolio assessment related to Covid-19. It has now decided to permanently discontinue a number of those products, including baby powder. The group said it would continue to “vigorously defend” the safety of the powder and the “unfounded allegations” against it.
Facebook Shops
E-commerce channel
Social media giant Facebook (US:FB) has revealed a new service that establishes it as an e-commerce rival to Amazon (US:AMZN). The group’s ‘Facebook Shops’ offering is designed to “give people a place to experience the joy of shopping versus the chore of buying”. Facebook noted that many small businesses are currently facing difficulties, and more are trying to take their channels online. Its aim is to “make shopping seamless and empower anyone from a small business owner to a global brand to use our apps to connect with customers”.
IHS Markit’s UK Household Finance Index – which monitors perceptions of financial wellbeing – gave a reading of 37.8 in May, up slightly from April’s eight-and-a-half-year low of 34.9.
Any reading below 50 signals a contraction. Workplace activity dwindled and the decline in income from employment was the “sharpest ever seen” since data was first collected in 2009.
People’s perceptions of job security also remained gloomy during April and May. But household debt levels “held stable”, helped by a significant contraction in consumer spending.
