Healthcare, Energy Stocks Lead Major Indexes Lower – Wall Street Journal, 5/6/2021

• U.S. stocks bounced around the flatline Thursday as investors sold shares of healthcare and energy companies.
• The S&P 500 fell 0.1% shortly after the opening bell, while the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.4%, putting the tech-heavy benchmark on pace for a fifth straight daily decline. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added around 73 points.
• Many healthcare stocks in the S&P 500 traded in the red after the U.S. said a day earlier it would support the temporary waiver of intellectual property provisions that would allow developing countries to produce Covid-19 vaccines created by pharmaceutical companies.
• Shares of vaccine makers led most other healthcare stocks lower.
• Pfizer shed nearly 3%, while Johnson & Johnson slipped 0.4%.
• Moderna fell 9.2% and AstraZeneca was recently down 1.3%.
• The Labor Department said jobless claims dipped below 500,000 last week for the first time during the Covid-19 pandemic as layoffs declined and hiring accelerated. Initial claims for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, fell to 498,000 from 590,000 a week before.
• Companies have blown past forecasts so far this earnings season. Of the 381 companies on the S&P 500 that had reported through Wednesday, 84% had topped analysts’ expectations, according to FactSet.
• Yet many companies beating forecasts have seen a lackluster response in their share price. Some investors say that is a sign, alongside recent volatility in tech stocks, that the rally that began last March is beginning to flag.
• In the bond market, the yield on 10-year Treasury notes slipped to 1.583% from 1.584% Wednesday.
• Yields, which move in the opposite direction to bond prices, have fallen for four consecutive days.
• Overseas, the Stoxx Europe 600 slipped 0.3%, weighed down by shares of oil, gas, travel-and-leisure and technology companies. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.8% and China’s Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2%.

U.S. Covid-19 Cases Continue to Trend Lower – Wall Street Journal, 5/6/2021

• Newly reported Covid-19 cases in the U.S. rose from a day earlier but are broadly edging lower, as the average number of vaccine doses administered continued to slide.
• There were 44,510 new cases reported in the U.S. on Wednesday, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That figure was up from 40,733 a day earlier but down from 55,125 a week earlier. More than 32.5 million cases have been reported in the U.S. overall, the data show.
• Hospitalizations stood at 39,554, according to the latest data posted by the Department of Health and Human Services.
• There were 776 deaths reported for Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins data, bringing the U.S. death toll to more than 579,000. Wednesday’s figure was down from 934 a day earlier and 959 a week earlier.
• The decline in Covid-19 cases comes as some 41.3% of U.S. adults have been fully vaccinated, and 56.7% have received at least one dose, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
• An average of 2.1 million doses a day were administered over the past week, according to a Journal analysis of CDC data. That was down from 2.2 million a day earlier and 2.7 million a week earlier.
• Governors across the U.S. are broadly rolling back restrictions. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that Broadway shows can resume performances at 100% capacity Sept. 14, with tickets allowed to go on sale Thursday.
• Theaters have been closed since March 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. New York City businesses will be allowed to reopen fully from July 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio said last week.
• As the U.S. begins to return to some semblance of normalcy, much of the world is fighting a fresh surge of the virus. The Biden administration said Wednesday it would back a proposal at the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines to help speed up global production.
• Developing nations led by India and South Africa have been pushing for the waiver, saying it is needed to stem the coronavirus pandemic. The waiver is also supported by more than 100 members of Congress.

PayPal profit tops estimates on digital payments boom – Reuters, 5/6/2021

• PayPal reported its strongest first quarter on record and beat profit estimates on Wednesday, with a coronavirus-driven shift to online shopping and digital transactions boosting payment volumes.
• Revenue also beat estimates, rising 31%.
• San Jose, California-based PayPal processed a total of $285 billion in payments in the first quarter, up 50% from a year earlier, and added 14.5 million net new active customers.
• Venmo, PayPal’s app which allows individuals in the United States to send each other money, processed $51 billion in payments in the quarter, up 63%.
• PayPal reported first-quarter net income of $1.22 per share, beating analysts’ average estimates of $1.01 per share.
• PayPal also said it expects to add 52–55 million net new active accounts in 2021, with an about 30% rise in total payments volume on a spot and forex neutral basis.
• The company in February forecast an addition of about 50 million active users in 2021.

Uber’s First Quarter Shows Food Delivery’s Continuing Strength – Wall Street Journal, 5/6/2021

• Uber Technologies’ first-quarter bookings rose despite weak demand for its ride-sharing service, as sustained growth in its food-delivery business offset the slump in its core operations.
• The company reported revenue at $2.9 billion after setting aside $600 million tied to the U.K. changes.
• That compares with revenue of $3.2 billion in the same period last year.
• Uber’s bookings grew 24% year-over-year to $19.5 billion in the three months ended March, of which $12.5 billion came from its food-delivery arm.
• Uber Eats’ bookings more than doubled from a year earlier, while Uber’s ride business declined 38% over the same period.
• Uber reported a net loss of $108 million, compared with a loss of $2.9 billion in the year-earlier period.

Moderna Turns First-Ever Profit, Boosted by Its Covid-19 Vaccine – Wall Street Journal, 5/6/2021

• Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine lifted the biotech company to its first-ever quarterly profit, a milestone in the rise of a company that burst into the spotlight last year as it rapidly developed a shot against the coronavirus.
• Vaccine sales were by far the largest contributor to Moderna’s total revenue, which rose to $1.94 billion, from $8 million a year earlier. Total revenue also includes grant and collaboration revenue.
• The vaccine brought Moderna revenue of $1.73 billion in the first quarter, reflecting three full months of its use in the U.S. and initial international sales, the company said Thursday.
• The company logged a profit of $1.22 billion, or $2.84 a share, compared with a loss of $124 million, or 35 cents a share, in 2020’s first quarter.
• Moderna also boosted its full-year forecast of Covid-19 vaccine sales to $19.2 billion, based on advance purchase agreements, from $18.4 billion it previously predicted.

Kellogg lifts full-year forecasts on resilient pandemic demand – Reuters, 5/6/2021

• Breakfast cereal maker Kellogg raised annual forecasts and beat first-quarter sales and profit estimates on Thursday, helped by a sustained snacking boom that began during the pandemic but continues even as the U.S. economy reopens.
• Net sales rose to $3.58 billion in the quarter ended April 3 from $3.41 billion a year earlier.
• Analysts were expecting sales of $3.38 billion, according to IBES Refinitiv.
• Net income attributable to the company climbed to $368 million, or $ 1.07 per share, from $347 million, or $1.01 per share, a year earlier.
• Kellogg, which also makes Pringles, Cheez-Its and Pop-Tarts, projected full-year organic net sales to be about flat, compared to its previous estimate of a decline of about 1%.

ViacomCBS beats quarterly revenue estimates on streaming, advertising boost – Reuters, 5/6/2021

• ViacomCBS on Thursday beat Wall Street quarterly revenue estimates, driven by strong streaming revenue and advertising growth following the March launch of its rebranded Paramount+ service.
• Revenue rose 14% to $7.41 billion in the quarter, beating estimates of $7.31 billion, IBES data from Refinitiv showed.
• Advertising revenue jumped 21% to $2.68 billion, driven by CBS’ broadcasts of Super Bowl LV and NCAA basketball tournament games.
• The company has 36 million global streaming subscribers after adding 6 million in the first quarter.
• Streaming revenue rose 65% year-on-year.
• Net earnings attributable rose to $899 million, or $1.42 per share, from $501 million, or 81 cents per share, a year earlier.
• The company said it expects “strong double-digit advertising growth” in the second quarter.

Fox to Acquire Clay Travis’s Outkick Media, a Sports and Culture News Site – Wall Street Journal, 5/6/2021

• Fox said it agreed to acquire Outkick Media, a news outlet focused on sports, politics and culture that was founded by provocateur Clay Travis.
• The company said revenue fell 6.5%, primarily as a result of not broadcasting the Super Bowl, as it did in the year-ago quarter.
• Revenue at Fox’s cable programming unit was essentially flat at $1.47 billion as an increase in the price distributors pay to carry its TV networks was offset by a 7% decline in advertising revenue.
• Profit jumped to $567 million, or 96 cents a share, from $78 million, or 13 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter, due largely to a change in the value of the company’s investments.

Albemarle profit beats expectations on rising lithium demand – Reuters, 5/6/2021

• Albemarle, the world’s largest producer of lithium, posted a quarterly profit on Wednesday that easily beat Wall Street’s expectations on rising demand from the electric vehicle industry.
• The company reported first-quarter net income of $95.7 million, or 84 cents per share, compared with $107.2 million, or $1.01 per share, in the year-ago period.
• Albemarle said the outlook for lithium sales has improved since 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic forced the company to pause expansions and production in some regions. Prices for the white metal should improve for the rest of the year, the company forecast.

MetLife moves past worst of pandemic as investment gains drive profit beat – Reuters, 5/6/2021

• MetLife said on Wednesday the worst of the pandemic was behind it after the U.S. insurer beat Wall Street estimates for first-quarter profit, with large investment gains cushioning the hit from coronavirus-related claims.
• The New York-based insurer’s net investment income jumped nearly 74% to $5.31 billion on strong returns from private-equity investments.
• MetLife said it booked $2.24 billion in losses on its hedging strategy, which is designed to offset the hit from declining interest rates. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield rose nearly 83 basis points to 1.7460% in the first quarter.
• The company reported adjusted earnings of $2 billion, or $2.20 per share, for the first quarter ended March 31, from $1.45 billion, or $1.58 per share, a year earlier.

Global pharma shares sink as Biden backs COVID-19 vaccine IP waiver – Reuters, 5/6/2021

• Shares of COVID-19 vaccine makers plunged after U.S. President Joe Biden backed a proposed waiver for intellectual property rights even as the pharmaceutical industry, analysts and experts doubted its impact, saying the real problem is a lack of raw materials and know-how.
• The Biden administration move drew applause from patent activists and the World Health Organization as it could increase availability of vaccines to poorer nations including India, which is under the grip of a deadly second wave of infection.
• However, implementing such a move could be a lengthy process as all 164 WTO member countries are required to arrive at a consent.
• The pharmaceutical industry, which has long defended patents as the key to research and development of new treatments, criticized the move, with its biggest lobby group warning that it would undermine pandemic response and compromise safety.

North American companies buying more robots to keep up with demand – Reuters, 5/6/2021

• North American companies boosted spending on industrial robots in the first quarter as they scrambled to keep up with surging demand in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Companies ordered 9,098 robots in the first quarter, a 19.6% increase over a year ago, according to the Association for Advancing Automation, an industry group based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The orders were valued at over $466 million in total.
• The strongest growth in the latest quarter was to metal producers, where orders surged 86%. Orders to life science, pharmaceutical and biomedical companies rose 72%, while orders to consumer goods companies increased 32%.

Dogecoin’s 12,000% Rally Spurs Hunt for Next Crypto Winner – Wall Street Journal, 5/6/2021

• After bitcoin and dogecoin’s blistering rally this year, individual investors are venturing further out into the cryptocurrency universe in search of the next big thing.
• A more than 12,000% rally this year in dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that was set up as a joke and serves no purpose, sent its price to a record 69 cents per token this week. Bitcoin climbed briefly to over $60,000 apiece last month, more than doubling its price since the end of 2020.
• The jump from one speculative asset to another is indicative of the broader frenzy that has driven up prices for a range of assets including stocks, commodities such as silver and cryptocurrencies. It also shows how new investors with savings bolstered by stimulus checks and who are spending more time at home during the Covid-19 pandemic have become a volatile new force in financial markets.

Chicken Shortage Sends Prices Soaring, and Restaurants Can’t Keep Up – Wall Street Journal, 5/6/2021

• After a year promoting takeout wings and crispy chicken sandwiches, restaurants including KFC, Wingstop and Buffalo Wild Wings say they are paying steep prices for scarce poultry. Some are running out of or limiting sales of tenders, filets and wings, cutting into some of their most reliable sales.
• Independent eateries and bars have gone weeks without wings, owners say. Chicken breast prices have more than doubled since the beginning of the year, and wing prices have hit records, according to market-research firm Urner Barry.
• Boneless skinless chicken breast, the poultry industry’s flagship product, last year averaged around $1 a pound, according to Urner Barry. Now boneless chicken breast is trading at $2.04 a pound, the firm said. Over the past decade, the price averaged about $1.32 a pound.
• One reason for the higher prices is the chicken sandwich wars of recent years. Fast-food chains including McDonald’s, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Wendy’s have introduced new crispy and spicy offerings. More chains plan to introduce new chicken sandwiches in the coming months, including a hand-breaded version that Burger King plans to sell nationally by this summer.