US stock indexes are edging higher after the US Federal Reserve signaled that it would keep interest rates low through 2023 to help the economy recover from the pandemic-induced crisis. “The ongoing public health crisis will continue to weigh on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term,” the Fed said in a statement.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index is adding 0.2%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is rising 1.2%. The S&P 500 Index is advancing 0.7%.
Shares of Warren Buffett-backed Snowflake more than doubled in value during their debut on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock opened at $245 a share and soared to as high as $319. The cloud-based data company raised $3.36 billion in what marks the largest US initial public offering this year.
Earnings stock movers: FedEx is soaring more than 5% after the delivery company crushed 1Q profit and revenue expectations aided by strong shipping volumes during the Covid-19 pandemic. The delivery and logistics company reported 1Q adjusted earnings of $4.87 per share, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $2.70. Its revenues of $19.3 billion also exceeded the Street consensus of $17.6 billion.
FedEx CFO Alan B. Graf, expects the company to continue to benefit from its “strong position in the U.S. and international package and freight markets, yield improvement opportunities and cost management initiatives.”
Adobe is down almost 3% even after reporting stronger-than-expected 3Q results, thanks to the robust demand for cloud-based creative software amid the coronavirus pandemic. The software maker’s 3Q adjusted earnings jumped 25% to $2.57 per share year-on-year, topping analysts’ estimates of $2.41. Its revenues rose 14% to $3.23 billion, exceeding the Street consensus of $3.16 billion.
Rating changes: Veeco is surging 14% after Goldman upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold saying that the current valuation is “compelling” and provides “significant runway” for the shares to re-rate as the company executes on its “higher-margin, more-diversified” equipment platform.
Goldman analyst Brian K. Lee lifted the stock’s price target to $16 (29% upside potential) from $13.50, as he is confident that the semiconductor equipment provider will return to double-digit revenue growth in the 2021-2022 period.
Deutsche Bank raised Tapestry to Buy from Hold amid “strong digital trends” pushing the retailer’s shares up almost 10%.
“We believe TPR will be a beneficiary of the current trend that appears to be accelerating the shift to digital,” Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Trussell said. The analyst hiked the stock’s price target to $21 (14% upside potential) from $18.
Corona updates: Novavax is popping 12% after the company inked an additional agreement with the Serum Institute of India Private Limited (SIIPL) to ramp up the manufacturing capacity of its Covid‑19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, to over 2 billion doses annually as of 2021.
“Beyond the manufacturing capacity expansion, we believe this also serves as incremental validation to ‘2373’s best-in-class potential to have significant resources committed “at-risk” by SIIPL, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by a number of doses, i.e., 1.5 billion+ doses provided globally across polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hib, BCG, rHepatitis B, measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines,” B.Riley FBR analyst Mayank Mamtani wrote in a note to investors.
Opko Health is up 3.5% as the company announced the initiation of a Phase 2 trial of Rayaldee as a treatment for mild-to-moderate COVID-19. Opko expects to report top-line results from the Phase 2 trial before the end of this year. Rayaldee is an extended-release oral formulation of calcifediol, a prohormone of calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D3 and was launched in 2016 for treating secondary hyperparathyroidism in adults with stage 3 or 4 CKD (chronic kidney disease) and vitamin D insufficiency.
And last, but not least, Merck is making organic growth and debt reduction a priority over the next 2 years and thereafter it is more likely to target smaller to medium-sized acquisitions, its CEO Stefan Oschmann said.
“We don’t rule out large transformative deals as of 2022, yet in view of our strong business portfolio, at present the likelihood is higher that we will complement our businesses through a number of smaller to medium-sized acquisitions after 2022,” Oschmann said.
