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 Shares of Enzo Biochem Inc. rallied 7.7% in premarket trading on Monday after the company said it received an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its COVID-19 diagnostic test. The regulator issued the EUA on July 7. It has granted emergency authorization to at least 137 diagnostic tests during the COVID-19 pandemic. Enzo's stock is up 8.7% year-to-date. The S&P 500 has declined 1.4% since the start of the year.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said Monday that it will begin testing Cilantro-Lime Cauliflower Rice starting July 15 in 55 restaurants in Denver and around Wisconsin. The item will cost an additional $2. Cauliflower rice is one of the top requests the company has gotten as a new menu addition, said Chris Brandt, Chipotle's chief marketing officer in a statement. The item is compliant with Keto, vegan and other special diets, and is an alternative to brown or white rice that cuts carbs, the company said. The cauliflower rice dish is going through Chipotle's "stage-gate" testing process that ultimately led to the addition of carne asada, queso blanco, and other new menu items. Chipotle stock has rallied 33.6% for the year to date while the S&P 500 index is down 1.4% for the period.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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 (Bloomberg) -- PepsiCo Inc. reported a stronger-than-expected spring as homebound consumers looking for comfort stocked up on snack foods -- and its current-quarter forecast was even more bullish.As Covid-19 raged across the U.S., Americans seeking out familiar flavors filled their shelves with salty, crunchy treats, driving double-digit sales growth for brands like Tostitos, Fritos and Cheetos. Even newer snacks like fruit-chips line Bare and Off The Eaten Path, a maker of black bean and chickpea crisps, saw double-digit growth as households loaded up. Beverage sales were one key weakness, as both in-restaurant and grab-and-go gas station sales lagged during the lockdowns."Our snacks and food business has performed very well, while our beverage business was challenged but continued to improve its competitive positioning," Chief Executive Officer Ramon Laguarta said in pre-recorded remarks about the second quarter. "Consumer eating habits continue to evolve with consumers spending more time at home, which benefits the at-home breakfast, snacking and dinner occasions."PepsiCo shares rose as much as 3.3% in early U.S. trading. The stock was little changed this year through Friday.As one of the first big packaged-food companies reporting results for the spring months, PepsiCo is being closely watched by investors for a look at how consumers are responding to 2020's upheaval. The company is well-positioned because of its high global share of the market for snack foods, according to Bloomberg Intelli
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 (Bloomberg) -- Moderna Inc.'s experimental vaccine for Covid-19 could generate sales of more than $5 billion a year, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said, initiating the stock at a buy.A 220% surge for the stock since the start of the year has split Wall Street as to "what will happen or if the vaccine will even work, and is hugely divided on valuation," Yee wrote in a note to clients."We believe the Street will be surprised to the upside if the Covid-19 vaccine works, gets approved by early 2021, and there are multi-billion dollars of purchase orders from USA and around the world," he said.With a 30,000 person late-stage study set to kick off sometime this month, Moderna's shot leads the pack in the race to get a vaccine to the world at large as the pandemic continues to spread.Yee predicts mRNA-1273, as the inoculation is known, will get "at least" an emergency use authorization by early next year. There are more than 20 candidates in human testing, while at least another 130 vaccines are in even earlier stages of development, according to the World Health Organization.The analyst assigns the biotechnology company a $90 price target, which is largely in-line with the $88 average price target of analysts tracked by Bloomberg. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company has 12 other buys and a single hold rating, while no analyst followed by Bloomberg currently rates it a sell.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020
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The global tally for confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed to 12.9 million on Monday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, with the U.S. leading the way by far with 3.30 million cases. The number of deaths grew to 569,128, while the number of people who have recovered reached 7.1 million. The U.S. death toll is 135,205 and is rising again after it had started to flatten in mid-to-late April. Florida counted a record of more than 15,000 new cases on Sunday, while Arizona is reporting that hospitals are approaching full capacity. Brazil is second to the U.S. with 1.86 million cases and 72,100 deaths. India is third measured by cases at 878,254, followed by Russia with 726,826 and Peru with 326,326. The U.K. has 44,904 fatalities, the highest in Europe and third highest in the world. China, where the illness was first reported late last year, has 85,117 cases and 4,641 fatalities.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
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 Gilat Satellite Networks (GILT) has announced that it strongly rejects efforts by Comtech Telecom (CMTL) to halt the pending $523M acquisition deal between the two companies.At the beginning of the year, Comtech announced plans to acquire Gilat Satellite for $532M in cash and stock.According to Gilat, Comtech has now filed an amended complaint against Gilat in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware seeking an additional declaratory judgment that Gilat has suffered a "Material Adverse Effect" due to the Covid-19 pandemic.This would mean that Comtech is not required to complete the merger because certain closing conditions of the Merger Agreement cannot be satisfied.However Gilat believes that no Material Adverse Effect under the Merger Agreement has occurred and that Comtech's complaint is "nothing more than an effort to avoid its clear contractual obligation to acquire Gilat, due to Comtech's own rapidly deteriorating performance.""Comtech's continuous willful breaches have resulted and are continuing to result in significant monetary damages to Gilat and its shareholders, and are expected to amount to hundreds of millions of dollars if the merger is not consummated" the company said.Indeed, Gilat believes that Comtech is willfully trying to ensure that the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service ("FAS") approval is not obtained in time so that Comtech will not be required to consummate the merger.Gilat says it intends to vigorously defend its position in connection with the c
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 f it weren't for the "Giant 5," your money would have been better off in a savings account than the stock market over the past few years, according to Wolf Richter of the Wolf Street blog.
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