Stockwinners Market Radar for July 08, 2020 - Earnings, Upgrades downgrades, option trades, Best Stock Advisory Service

20:08 EDT American Public Education names Wade Dyke as President - American Public University System announced that it has selected Dr. Wade Dyke as president, effective August 12, 2020. Dr. Dyke joined Kaplan in 2008 as vice president of higher and professional education and served as president of Kaplan University from 2010 to 2015.

18:46 EDT Newgioco Group receives Nasdaq notification on delayed report on Form 10-Q - Newgioco Group announced that it received a letter from the Listing Qualifications Department of The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC on July 2, 2020, indicating that, as a result of the company's delay in filing its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2020, the company is not in compliance with the timely filing requirement for continued listing under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1). The notification letter has no immediate effect on the listing or trading on the company's common stock on the Nasdaq Market.

18:30 EDT Energy Transfer LP issues clarifying statement on Dakota Access Pipeline - Energy Transfer issued a clarification regarding a statement on the Dakota Access Pipeline: "We would like to provide further clarification around news reports out today regarding the operations of the Dakota Access Pipeline. To be clear, we have never suggested that we would defy a court order. Rather, DAPL is seeking appropriate relief from that order through the established legal process".

18:02 EDT Celanese to increase selling prices for acetyl intermediates products by $50/MT - Celanese will increase list and off-list selling prices for acetyl intermediates products that include Acetic Acid, Vinyl Acetate Monomer, Ethyl Acetate, Butyl Acetate, Acetic Anhydride, and Vinyl-based Emulsions by $50 per MT. The price increases are for orders shipped and will be effective immediately, or as contracts otherwise allow, and are incremental to any previously announced increases.

17:43 EDT Triumph subsidiary acquires assets of Transport Financial Solutions - Triumph Bancorp (TBK) announced the close of the acquisition of the transportation factoring assets of Transport Financial Solutions by Triumph Business Capital. Triumph Business Capital is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the company. TFS is a wholly owned subsidiary of Covenant Logistics Group (CVLG). The transaction was structured as the acquisition of TFS' factoring assets, consisting primarily of $103.3M of net accounts receivable and related transportation factoring assets, in exchange for closing cash consideration of $108.4M, plus company common stock valued at approximately $13.9M. In addition, TFS has the opportunity to earn contingent cash consideration of up to approximately $9.9M following the twelve-month period ending July 31, 2021. The parties also entered into an ongoing referral arrangement. The acquisition of the TFS portfolio further underscores Triumph's commitment to the transportation industry, a key driver in the company's transformation into a transportation-centric financial technology provider and community bank platform.

17:24 EDT Best Buy says not providing 2020 guidance - Says situation remains volatile. Says expects to close approximately 200 mostly Bed Bath & Beyond stores over the next two years under store network optimization project. Says expects to generate future annualized savings of between $250M and $350M, excluding related one-time costs. Says remains committed to a capital return program. Comments taken from Q1 earnings conference call and accompanying slides.

17:02 EDT Biogen says 'positive' toferson study results published in NEJM - Biogen announced that positive results from a Phase 1/2 study of tofersen for the potential treatment of superoxide dismutase 1 amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. A mutation in the SOD1 gene is believed to be a genetic driver of disease in approximately two percent of all ALS cases. "By evaluating genetically validated targets such as SOD1 in defined populations, we believe we can more quickly identify how to treat this devastating disease," said Toby Ferguson, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President and Head of the Neuromuscular Development Unit at Biogen. "Biogen is committed to furthering ALS research in an effort to potentially bring a therapy to people living with this rapidly progressing neurological condition."

16:50 EDT Norwegian Cruise auditor removes passage over ability to remain going concern - In a regulatory filing, the company states: "Norwegian Cruise Lines' independent registered public accounting firm reissued its report to include an explanatory paragraph relating to the removal of substantial doubt about NCLH's ability to continue as a going concern, and an emphasis of matter paragraph relating to the impact of COVID-19 and NCLH's liquidity and management plans."

16:44 EDT Richmond Mutual Bancorp announces stock repurchase program for 5% - Richmond Mutual Bancorporation announced that its board approved a stock repurchase program under which the company may repurchase up to 676,331 shares or 5% of its outstanding shares through open market purchases, privately-negotiated transactions, or otherwise in compliance with Rule 10b-18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

16:40 EDT Bed Bath & Beyond says Q1 net sales from digital channels grew 82% - The company states: "Net sales from stores, of which 90% of the company's total fleet were closed during the majority of the quarter, declined approximately 77%. Net sales from digital channels represented nearly two-thirds of the company's Q1 total net sales."

16:36 EDT CSX names former AK Steel CEO James Wainscott to board - CSX Corp. (CSX) announced that James Wainscott has been appointed to the company's board of directors, effective immediately. "I am pleased to welcome Jim to the CSX board of directors and look forward to benefiting from his insight and experience having led one of the nation's premier steel producers," said John J. Zillmer, chairman of the board. "Jim's deep knowledge of key industrial markets and his proven leadership will be assets to CSX as we work to strengthen our position as North America's best-run railroad." Mr. Wainscott is the retired chairman, president and chief executive officer of AK Steel Holding (AKS) a leading steel production and manufacturing company.

16:35 EDT Air Lease fleet comprised of 301 owned, 81 managed aircraft as of June 30 - Air Lease Corporation (AL) announced an update on order book deliveries, sales and new significant financing occurring in the second quarter of 2020. As of June 30, 2020, ALC's fleet was comprised of 301 owned aircraft and 81 managed aircraft, with 398 new aircraft on order from Boeing (BA) and Airbus (EADSY) set to deliver through 2026. The company said it delievered one new Airbus 320neo aircraft from its order book, sold three aircraft to Thunderbolt Aircraft Lease Limited III and one aircraft to a third-party buyer, for total sales proceeds in the quarter totaling roughly $87M. Air Lease added that it has issued $850M of senior unsecured medium-term notes due 2025 at a fixed rate of 3.375%.

16:33 EDT Atlas Financial receives additional listing non-compliance notice - Atlas Financial received a delinquency notification letter from the Nasdaq Qualifications Staff on July 1 due to the company's non-compliance with listing rules as a result of the company's failure to file its Quarterly Report for the quarter ended March 31. The company received notice from the Staff on June 9 regarding its non-compliance following the company's delay in filing its Annual Report for 2019. The company will continue to work to complete and file both forms as soon as practicable. However, there can be no assurance that the Company will be able to file the Form 10-K by the July 15 extension previously granted by the Nasdaq Hearings Panel. The company is also currently in violation of additional Nasdaq Listing Rules due to its failure to hold an annual general meeting of shareholders during 2019 and the failure to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. The company is updating the Panel with respect to its compliance plan as requested by the Staff

16:31 EDT CBIZ acquires substantially all assets of Prince-Wood Insurance - CBIZ announced the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of Prince-Wood Insurance, L.L.C., of Woodbridge, VA, effective July 1, 2020. Established in 1967, PWI provides property and casualty insurance to small and mid-sized businesses in Northern and Central Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC. PWI has seven employees and approximately $1.2 million in annual revenue. Jerry Grisko, President and CEO of CBIZ, stated, "We are pleased to complete the acquisition of Prince-Wood Insurance as part of our ongoing strategy to strengthen our property and casualty insurance business. Despite the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, our property and casualty business continues to grow coming off a very strong year of performance in 2019. Prince-Wood is an ideal partner given their long-standing local presence and deep client relationships. We look forward to welcoming them to the CBIZ team."

16:20 EDT Chase Corporation reports on 4.5% reduction in global workforce - "In these unprecedented times, we undertook difficult decisions to contain expenses, including a 4.5% reduction in our global workforce. This was an action contemplated pre-pandemic but catalyzed by COVID-19, and was taken along with additional administrative expense reductions," said Christian J. Talma, Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer of Chase Corporation. "This is consistent with our strategic approach to prudently deploy capital to enhance our portfolio of products and pursue inorganic growth to drive shareholder return. Additionally, and to reiterate, financial flexibility is a core component of our strategy and we remain in a position of strength at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, with no debt, $83.3 million cash on hand and a $150 million credit facility fully available to support our global operations and investments in growth opportunities. This provides the Company continued agility to operate in this period of COVID-19 related uncertainty."

16:16 EDT Costco reports June total company SSS up 11.5% y/y - Costco Wholesale Corporation reported net sales of $16.18 billion for the retail month of June, the five weeks ended July 5, 2020, an increase of 11.1 percent from $14.57 billion last year. For the forty-four weeks ended July 5, 2020, the Company reported net sales of $136.37 billion, an increase of 8.1 percent from $126.13 billion during the similar period last year. The company reported total company comp sales growth for the period of 11.5%, with comparable sales growth excluding the impacts from change in gasoline prices and foreign exchange of 14.4%.

16:11 EDT AnaptysBio gets orphan drug designation of imsidolimab for pustular psoriasis - AnaptysBio announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted orphan drug designation for imsidolimab, the company's proprietary anti-interleukin-36 receptor, IL-36R, antibody, for the treatment of patients with GPP. The FDA's Office of Orphan Drug Products grants orphan status to support development of medicines for underserved patient populations, or rare disorders, that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. Orphan drug designation may provide certain benefits to AnaptysBio, including market exclusivity upon regulatory approval, if received, exemption of FDA application fees and tax credits for qualified clinical trials. "Receiving orphan drug designation for the treatment of GPP is an important milestone for our wholly-owned imsidolimab program," said Hamza Suria, president and chief executive officer of AnaptysBio. "We look forward to advancing clinical development of imsidolimab in GPP, PPP and additional clinical indications that may be driven by dysregulated IL-36R signaling."...AnaptysBio is currently advancing clinical development of imsidolimab in two indications and plans to expand into additional unmet medical needs. Treatment of GPP by imsidolimab is being evaluated in the GALLOP Phase 2 trial, where additional clinical data and a regulatory update is anticipated in the second half of 2020. PPP treatment with imsidolimab is being evaluated in the randomized, placebo-controlled POPLAR Phase 2 trial where top-line data is anticipated in the second half of 2020. In addition, AnaptysBio intends to initiate Phase 2 clinical trials with imsidolimab in two additional indications, in which human translational data suggests dysregulated IL-36R signaling, during the second half of 2020.

16:09 EDT Five Below chairman sells 100K shares of common stock - In a regulatory filing, Five Below disclosed that its chairman Thomas Velios sold 100K shares of common stock on July 6th in a total transaction size of $10.3M.

16:08 EDT Veritone up over 15% at $14 per share after raising Q2 guidance

16:04 EDT Rio Tinto to wind-down NZAS operations after strategic review - Rio Tinto will start planning for the wind-down of operations and the eventual closure of New Zealand Aluminium Smelters, or NZAS, following the conclusion of its strategic review which has shown the business is no longer viable given high energy costs and a challenging outlook for the Aluminum industry. As a result, NZAS has given Meridian Energy notice to terminate the power contract, which will end in August 2021, when the wind-down of operations is expected to complete. The strategic review concluded that the smelter, which has made Rio Tinto an underlying loss of NZ$46M in 2019, is not economically viable due to energy costs that are some of the highest in the industry globally, coupled with a challenging short to medium term aluminum outlook. Extensive discussions with a wide range of interested parties have failed to secure a power contract that will enable the operation to become both competitive and profitable.

15:46 EDT U.S. PTAB rules ShockWave's claims of '091 patent 'unpatentable' - The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board, or PTAB, ruled against ShockWave Medical (SWAV) in IPR2019-00409: Cardiovascular Systems (CSII) v. Shockwave Medical - U.S. Patent No. 8728091, Shockwave Catheter System With Energy Control. The ruling stated that "Cardiovascular Systems has shown, by a preponderance of the evidence, that claims 1-14 of patent 8,728,091 are unpatentable."

15:22 EDT Walt Disney World Resort parks preparing for phased reopening starting July 11 - Walt Disney World Resort theme parks are preparing for a phased reopening - with significant reduction in capacity - beginning July 11, with Magic Kingdom Park and Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park, the company announced. EPCOT and Disney's Hollywood Studios will follow July 15, Disney stated. Reference Link

14:52 EDT Vitt says Immunic seeing increased interest from investors - Immunic (IMUX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a pipeline of selective oral immunology therapies aimed at treating chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and psoriasis. In an exclusive interview with The Fly, Immunic Therapeutics President and CEO Daniel Vitt discussed the company and analyst coverage: "Since we came through the side door to the Nasdaq, people are less aware of us because we didn't have these big IPO marketing campaign like other companies had. Maybe it takes a little bit more time but I'm not unhappy with the situation because usually our attitude is more science driven, more careful to not overpromise things. Sometimes it's a pity because I always think our share price should be higher than it is but I shouldn't complain. My PR team says I should never complain about the share price. Reading the initiation of coverage from Roth Capital analyst Yasmeen Rahimi was very nice. What I see is that people are starting to understand what we're doing. I'm pretty optimistic that there will be even more analyst coverage out as Immunic sees an increased interest from investors in the story and in the company." "Meet the Company" is The Fly's recurring series of exclusive short interviews with Executive Officers to offer a deeper look inside the company.

14:31 EDT Gilead starts Phase 1a trial of inhaled remdesivir in healthy volunteers - Gilead Sciences a statement from Merdad Parsey, its Chief Medical Officer: "Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gilead has mobilized its deep expertise in virology to rapidly assess the potent investigational antiviral, remdesivir, to evaluate its safety and efficacy as a potential treatment option for patients with COVID-19. With promising data emerging from the randomized, clinical trials of intravenous remdesivir administered to hospitalized patients, it became clear that efforts were needed to investigate the drug's potential in the outpatient setting. Significant research efforts have been undertaken to deliver remdesivir in an inhaled, nebulized format. We are pleased to announce the initiation of a Phase 1a clinical study to evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of an investigational, inhaled solution of remdesivir in healthy volunteers. Based on current scientific understanding, the upper respiratory tract is the most prevalent site of SARS-CoV-2 infection early in disease. Delivering remdesivir directly to the primary site of infection with a nebulized, inhaled solution may enable more targeted and accessible administration in non-hospitalized patients and potentially lower systemic exposure to the drug. This randomized, placebo-controlled trial will enroll approximately 60 healthy individuals aged 18-45 in the United States to form the basis for further clinical study of the inhaled drug, particularly in patients whose disease has not progressed to require hospitalization."

14:10 EDT Immunic '935 trial restarting after COVID-related disruption, CEO says - Immunic (IMUX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a pipeline of selective oral immunology therapies aimed at treating chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and psoriasis. In an exclusive interview with The Fly, Immunic Therapeutics President and CEO Daniel Vitt discussed the company's IMU-935 and IMU-856 programs: "So, 935 is our baby. We just brought it to the clinic last year. It's a very interesting molecule. It was developed as a RORgt inverse agonist. We've identified that the molecule is also somehow inhibiting DHODH as well as a second target. There have been so many successes with antibodies on IL-17 pathway - specifically in the field of psoriasis - but there are so many autoimmune smaller indications with high unmet needs that are related to IL-17 which we could really address with our drug. So, we started Phase 1 last year and a couple of weeks ago, we had an R&D day where we disclosed some first preclinical data. We're now currently restarting activities. Our Phase 1 unit was closed due to COVID-19 and is now reopening. Therefore, we're continuing with our Phase 1 testing. The next part will be the multi ascending dose and in the third part of this Phase 1 we will also include patients with psoriasis to also get a first hint on potential efficacy of the drug. If all goes well, we may have efficacy data in the second half of next year. The third molecule, the 856, it's very complementary of the other two programs. And this came to us based on a long trustworthy relationship Daiichi Sankyo company in Tokyo. 856 appears to have a targeted ability to strengthen the intestinal barrier function. For example, irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's and colitis are associated with weaker barrier function and this could be interesting in potentially restoring proper barrier function. We took over the project one and a half years ago in an auction deal. We're now progressing toward Phase 1 for the drug. The concept is to have something which is safe for the long-term because we're talking of restoring immune function. It could be a very unique long-term and a safe treatment option for patients." "Meet the Company" is The Fly's recurring series of exclusive short interviews with Executive Officers to offer a deeper look inside the company. The remainder of this interview to follow.

13:36 EDT Immunic expecting data in RRMS this quarter, UC later next year - Immunic (IMUX) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a pipeline of selective oral immunology therapies aimed at treating chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and psoriasis. In an exclusive interview with The Fly, Immunic Therapeutics President and CEO Daniel Vitt discussed IMU-838 ongoing trials in RRMS, ulcerative colitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis: "Altogether, we have currently four Phase 2 efficacy studies ongoing with IMU-838. The multiple sclerosis trial is the one we're expecting data read very soon. This trial is performed in patients suffering from relapsing/remitting multiple sclerosis and it's a 210-patients trial. The goal is to demonstrate efficacy and safety and tolerability of the drug in MS patients. We're expecting data during this quarter, a couple of weeks from now. That's the basis for preparing and for execution of a Phase 3 pivotal program, hopefully leading to the market authorization of the drug. Also very important is the ulcerative colitis trial; a Phase 2 efficacy trial with a placebo arm. We have three active doses in this trial. We already had promising interim data on the doses published last August. This trial is recruiting right now in the U.S. and in Europe. We're expecting data toward the end of next year. The third trial is an investigative sponsored trial, run by commissions at Mayo Clinic and investigators at Arizona State University. In this trial we're testing efficacy in 30 patients suffering from primary sclerosing cholangitis, or PSC. This is a rare liver disease which ultimately leads to the requirement of liver transplantation almost in every patient, in average about 10 years after diagnosis. That's a very high unmet medical need. There's no drug approved for that. Therefore, we're very excited that the Mayo team is performing this trial with some funding support from the NIH." "Meet the Company" is The Fly's recurring series of exclusive short interviews with Executive Officers to offer a deeper look inside the company. The remainder of this interview to follow.

13:16 EDT BioSig subsidiary partnering with Albany Molecular on merimepodib - BioSig Technologies (BSGM) and its subsidiary, ViralClear Pharmaceuticals, announced that it is partnering with Albany Molecular Research (AMRI) for support in undertaking research to investigate the potential of merimepodib to fight SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, either as a standalone treatment or in combination with other anti-viral agents or immune modulators. "As part of our ongoing development and commercialization strategy we are delighted to be working with AMRI as our second US-based active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) supplier. The rapid transfer, scale up and validation of merimepodib API manufacture is key to our future supply chain and commercialization strategy. ViralClear is committed to using US-based CDMOs for the development and commercialization of merimepodib," said Steve King, COO, ViralClear.

13:00 EDT IMU-935 trial now restarting after COVID-related pause, Immunic CEO says

13:00 EDT Immunic's Vitt expects COVID-19 Phase 2 trial readout later this year

12:59 EDT ConocoPhillips announces quarterly dividend of 42c per share - ConocoPhillips announced a quarterly dividend of 42 cents per share, payable Sept. 1 to stockholders of record at the close of business on July 20.

12:42 EDT Enzo jumps 31% to $3.23 after FDA Emergency Use authorization

12:29 EDT North American rail traffic dropped 4.9% in week ended July 4 - The Association of American Railroads, AAR, reported U.S. rail traffic for the week ending July 4. For this week, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 437,989 carloads and intermodal units, down 2.4% compared with the same week last year. Total carloads for the week ending July 4 were 192,767 carloads, down 12.7% compared with the same week in 2019, while U.S. weekly intermodal volume was 245,222 containers and trailers, up 7.7 percent compared to 2019. North American rail volume for the week ending July 4, on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 280,627 carloads, down 12.5% compared with the same week last year, and 321,035 intermodal units, up 2.9% compared with last year. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 601,662 carloads and intermodal units, down 4.9%. North American rail volume for the first 27 weeks of 2020 was 16,776,056 carloads and intermodal units, down 11.8% compared with 2019. Publicly traded companies in the space include CSX (CSX), Canadian National (CNI), Canadian Pacific (CP), Genesee & Wyoming (GWR), Kansas City Southern (KSU), Norfolk Southern (NSC) and Union Pacific (UNP). Reference Link

12:09 EDT Smiths Group to help produce COVID-19 antibody-testing device - Smiths Detection, part of Smiths Group, announces that it has partnered with Attomarker, a multiplex blood-testing technology company spun out of the University of Exeter, to help produce "a robust and accurate" COVID-19 antibody-testing device "that could represent an evolution in rapid and precise COVID-19 antibody testing." The company said that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has already approved Attomarker's Triple Antibody Test for NHS use in the UK. "The Smiths Detection team has been working alongside Attomarker since April on the design and performance of the device and has manufactured 10 pre-production units, with the ability to ramp up volume according to demand," the Group added. Reference Link

12:00 EDT Horizon Global falls -13.0% - Horizon Global is down -13.0%, or -47c to $3.17.

12:00 EDT Taylor Morrison rises 13.8% - Taylor Morrison is up 13.8%, or $2.62 to $21.54.

12:00 EDT Container Store rises 27.8% - Container Store is up 27.8%, or 92c to $4.23.

11:32 EDT Retractable Technologies trading resumes

11:21 EDT Comtech files complaint against Gilat Satellite - Comtech Telecommunications Corp. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Convoy Ltd. announced that on July 7, 2020 it filed a complaint in the Delaware Court of Chancery against Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd.. The complaint relates to the Agreement and Plan of Merger dated January 29, 2020 between Gilat and Comtech providing for the acquisition of Gilat by Comtech and seeks a declaratory judgment that certain actions, if taken by Gilat, would breach Gilat's obligations under the Merger Agreement. The actions at issue in the complaint relate to Comtech's pending application for required regulatory approval in the Russian Federation. The complaint also states that Comtech is assessing whether the precipitous decline in Gilat's business since January 29, 2020 gives rise to a Material Adverse Effect on Gilat and, if so, Comtech's rights regarding an MAE.

11:00 EDT Tenet unit to pay $65.86M to resolve False Claims Act allegations - Tenet unit Oklahoma Center for Orthopaedic and Multi-Specialty Surgery will pay $60.86M to the United States, $5M to the State of Oklahoma, and $206,000 to the State of Texas to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act and the Oklahoma Medicaid False Claims Act. The Department of Justice accused the hospital of submitting false claims to the Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE programs. Reference Link

10:01 EDT Kiadis licences K-NK004 program to Sanofi, receives EUR 17.5M upfront - Kiadis Pharma (KIADF) earlier today announced the exclusive license of its previously undisclosed K-NK004 program to Sanofi (SNY). The agreement covers Kiadis' proprietary CD38 knock out K-NK therapeutic for combination with anti-CD38 monoclonal antibodies, including Sarclisa, Sanofi's recently approved therapy for patients with multiple myeloma. Additionally, Sanofi has obtained exclusive rights to use Kiadis' K-NK platform for two undisclosed pre-clinical programs. As part of the agreement, Kiadis will receive a EUR 17.5M upfront payment and will be entitled to receive up to EUR 857.5M upon Sanofi's achievement of preclinical, clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones. Kiadis will also receive up to low double-digit royalties based on commercial sales of approved products resulting from this agreement.

10:00 EDT Global Geoscience falls -11.6% - Global Geoscience is down -11.6%, or -$1.70 to $13.03.

10:00 EDT TechnipFMC rises 8.4% - TechnipFMC is up 8.4%, or 60c to $7.71.

10:00 EDT NIO Inc. rises 12.7% - NIO Inc. is up 12.7%, or $1.68 to $14.90.

09:47 EDT Moderna completes enrollment of Phase 2 study of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine - Moderna announced that it has completed enrollment for both cohorts of the Phase 2 study of its vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, against COVID-19. mRNA-1273 is Moderna's second mRNA vaccine for an infectious disease to complete enrollment of a Phase 2 study, following the company's CMV Phase 2 study, which was fully enrolled on March 3, the company stated. On June 11, "13 days after the first participant was dosed," the company announced that the cohort of healthy younger adults ages 18-55 and the sentinel group of older adults ages 55 years and above in the Phase 2 study of mRNA-1273 was complete. The company also announced that the cohorts of older adults and elderly adults in NIH-led Phase 1 study have completed enrollment. Results are expected to be published once available.

09:31 EDT CHF Solutions signs distribution agreement with RenalSense for fluid management - CHF Solutions and RenalSense announced the signing of a distribution agreement to offer complementary solutions for fluid management. The agreement allows CHF Solutions to market and sell RenalSense's Clarity RMS in certain U.S. territories. Clarity RMS is a critical care monitoring system that continuously measures urine flow rates and automatically transmits real-time data and fluctuation notifications to medical staff on a 24/7 basis. This information reflects changes in renal function and provides an early sign of acute kidney injury, or AKI, risk, enabling rapid intervention with therapeutic solutions such as CHF Solutions' Aquadex SmartFlow ultrafiltration system.

09:18 EDT Keurig Dr Pepper to invest $10M to improve polypropylene recycling in the U.S. - Keurig Dr Pepper announced its founding sponsorship of The Recycling Partnership's Polypropylene Recycling Coalition. The company has committed $10M over the next five years, alongside investments from industry peers, to increase and improve the recovery and recycling of polypropylene plastic in the U.S. The company states that it is on track to meet its commitments of making 100% of its packaging recyclable or compostable and incorporating 30% post-consumer recycled content in its packaging by 2025.

09:15 EDT AeroVironment receives $21M initial contract option under Army contract - AeroVironment announced the United States Army exercised the first of three options under the sole source Flight Control Systems, or FCS, domain of the Army's multi-year small UAS contract on April 28. AeroVironment said in a release, "The value of the initial contract option is $21,058,643 and includes avionics and data link upgrade packages to modify radio frequencies employed by the Army's existing fleet of Raven tactical UAS, the largest fleet of Raven systems in the world. Delivery will take place over a two-year period. The Army exercised the option under the FCS domain awarded to AeroVironment by the Army in June 2019. FCS is one of six domains comprising the Army's existing five-year Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity SUAS contract, and has a potential value of up to $55 million."

09:11 EDT Dynatronics promotes CFO John Krier as CEO - Dynatronics announced that on July 7, its board promoted John Krier to CEO. Dynatronics said in a release, "Krier has also joined the company's board. His appointment comes after Brian Baker announced his resignation due to health issues relating to the COVID-19 virus. Baker continues as a member of the Dynatronics board and will work for the company as a consultant on a part-time basis. Krier joined Dynatronics in March 2020 as CFO. Krier will serve as the company's interim CFO until his replacement is appointed."

09:08 EDT Inpixon CEO provides business update - Inpixon provided a business update from CEO Nadir Ali, who commented: "(...) Over recent weeks we have announced additional product enhancements and features, such as the release of enterprise-class features for our mapping solution, designed to speed app development, streamline map administration, and further enhance platform resilience. In addition, during Q2, we launched our Workplace Readiness solution (...) To support these efforts, we launched a nationwide Reclaim Your Workplace ad campaign(...), resulting in an increase in our web traffic by more than 12x as compared to the periods prior to the campaign launch. As a result of these efforts, we are seeing strong traction for the adoption of our technology and solutions to address the demands of a new world, with new priorities. This is evidenced by the response that we have received from existing, new and potential customers, such as a global hotel chain and a major U.S. telecommunications company, as well as new partners, such our recently announced collaboration with Lenovo as part of its ecosystem of Think IOT Back to Work Solutions. (...) we are encouraged by a robust sales pipeline generated by the focus and efforts made during Q2 that significantly exceeds our historical sales pipeline opportunities when compared to recent quarters. (...) during these unprecedented times we have been able to raise funds through the use of our at-the-market facility and reduce our debt, allowing us to significantly strengthen our balance sheet, ending with approximately $39M of cash and cash equivalents as of June 30, 2020. (...) we recently announced that we acquired an exclusive global license for the marketing, distribution, and development of statistical engineering software. We anticipate that this transaction will enhance our shareholder value, not only because it is expected to increase our top line by approximately $3.5M on an annual basis and be accretive but also because it will greatly expand our global customer base (...)".

09:06 EDT Emergent BioSolutions enters collaboration with two others to evaluate COVID-HIG - The Mount Sinai Health System, Emergent BioSolutions and ImmunoTek Bio Centers announced that they will collaborate to develop, manufacture and conduct clinical trials to evaluate Emergent's COVID-19 hyperimmune globulin product, COVID-HIG, including a post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, study on health care providers at high risk of COVID-19 infection and other high-risk populations, with $34.6M in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense's, or DOD, Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense, or JPEO-CBRND. Located in New York City, one of the early epicenters of the outbreak, Mount Sinai has experience treating more than 10,000 COVID-19 cases and was among the very first in the United States to initiate a convalescent plasma program in late March. Mount Sinai developed a serological assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, one of the first to receive emergency use authorization from the FDA. The collaborators will establish plasma collection capabilities at Mount Sinai through an extension of ImmunoTek's FDA-approved establishment license and the transfer of technical know-how to Mount Sinai. Plasma from recovered donors will support the development and manufacture of COVID-HIG for evaluation of the product candidate in clinical trials, and for potential emergency use or broader patient use as allowed by the FDA. Mount Sinai and Emergent will evaluate COVID-HIG in a post-exposure prophylaxis study in individuals at high risk of exposure to COVID-19, such as front-line health care workers and military personnel. The clinical research program is designed to assess whether prophylaxis with COVID-HIG could help protect individuals at high risk of exposure and limit the spread of disease. Under the agreement with the JPEO-CBRND, Emergent will collaborate to collect convalescent plasma to manufacture COVID-HIG for use in a clinical study under a potential Expanded Access Program to support military personnel. Emergent will support ImmunoTek and Mount Sinai in other regulatory and compliance efforts related to plasma collection and supply, as well as activities leading up to an investigational new drug application submission to the FDA.

09:02 EDT MySize opens new subsidiary in Moscow, Russia - My Size announced it has opened a new subsidiary in Moscow, Russia in order to meet the growing demand for its measurement solutions and gain a stronger foothold in the fast-growing Russia and CIS markets. The company has also hired a new senior sales executive, Yossi Milstein, to lead business development and operations for BoxSize and MySizeID within the Russian and CIS markets.

08:49 EDT Guardion Health Sciences submits patent application to protect GlaucoCetin - Guardion Health Sciences announced that it has submitted a formal patent application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office seeking to protect its proprietary formula, currently marketed by Guardion as GlaucoCetin. GlaucoCetin provides nutritional support to help manage certain underlying conditions related to eye disease. The company previously submitted a provisional patent to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on June 11, 2019. The invention relates to a nutritional formula designed to reverse mitochondrial dysfunction in nerve cells.

08:47 EDT Yatra, Zaggle partner to offer expense automation solutions - Yatra Online and Zaggle, a leading FinTech start-up, have announced their partnership to deliver streamlined, integrated expense automation solutions for corporates and SMEs in India. This partnership, will enable Yatra to deliver an efficient expense management system and corporate card program along with its existing online travel solution.

08:45 EDT Dyadic International announces 2 new fully funded collaborations - Dyadic International announced that it has entered into new fully funded collaborations with two of the leading global animal health companies to demonstrate the C1 technology platform for expression and production of therapeutic proteins for companion and farm animal diseases. "We are very pleased to announce two new animal health-related research agreements with global leaders. Our efforts in animal health reinforce our highly targeted business development approach to large and growing, global markets. The regulatory pathway in animal health is much shorter with the cost of goods being a much more critical issue when compared to human vaccines and drugs. We believe our C1 technology platform is well-positioned to enable our collaborators to bring more products to market, help speed commercialization, deliver larger quantities at lower cost and be manufactured at flexible commercial scales, to improve animal health", said Mark Emalfarb, Dyadic's CEO.

08:41 EDT Senmiao Technology's auto business to receive $7M investment - Senmiao Technology's Chinese variable interest entity has secured a RMB50M, approximately $7M, investment from Hongyi Industrial Group, an affiliate of the largest shareholder of Chengdu Road & Bridge Engineering, a construction engineering company. This investment was not made in Senmiao directly, but rather into Jinkailong Automobile Leasing, which Senmiao controls through its majority owned subsidiary, Hunan Ruixi Financial Leasing. Jinkailong is the entity through which Senmiao operates its automobile transaction and related services business. Senmiao intends to use the capital investment for the expansion of Jinkailong's Auto Business in Chengdu. Hongyi has agreed to make a capital contribution to Jinkailong of approximately $7.0M over the coming months in consideration of a 27.03% equity interest in Jinkailong. As a result of the investment, the ownership of the current shareholders of Jinkailong will be proportionally diluted, although Senmiao will continue to control Jinkailong. The JKL Investment Agreement provides performance targets for Jinkailong during a three-year performance commitment period following the closing of the transaction. Failure to meet certain performance targets will trigger the redemption right of Hongyi. One of these performance targets is that Jinkailong become public though an IPO or be merged with a public company within three and a half years following the closing.

08:37 EDT Digital Ally receives purchase order from Danville Police Department - Digital Ally announced it has received a purchase order from Danville Police Department for 26 FirstVu HD body cameras, 16 DVM-800 in-car systems and 23 VuLink auto-activation devices.

08:35 EDT Hoth Therapeutics development partner initiates animal testing on HaloVax SAV - Voltron Therapeutics announced it has initiated preclinical animal testing of the first construct of its HaloVax self-assembling vaccine, or SAV, against COVID-19. Voltron will take two different vaccines, with differing sets of targets into preclinical testing, in order to identify the best balance of immune responses for prevention of this pandemic pathogen. HaloVax is being developed in conjunction with Hoth Therapeutics. The vaccine is built on a base of a heat shock protein that activates the cellular portion of the immune system; this is different from most other vaccine efforts, which have used adjuvants such as alum. The second portion of the vaccine consists of peptides derived from the COVID-19 virus, which are bound to the heat shock protein via Avidin and Biotin. This enables rapid iteration and up-to-date data informed changes in the peptide sequences to enable swift production and accommodate potential changes in the pathogen itself. The selected immunogenic peptides complete the customized COVID-19 vaccine.

08:33 EDT Slack Technologies acquires Rimeto, terms not disclosed - Slack Technologies said in a release, "Slack Technologies is excited to announce that we have acquired Rimeto. Rimeto has reimagined the business directory over the last four years, much in the same way we have reimagined business communication. Rimeto's advanced profile and directory features will be integrated into Slack directly, but we will also continue to offer Rimeto as a standalone product and support their existing enterprise customers. Rimeto is a powerful cultural tool that can help strengthen employee ties to each other and to their work. If there's one thing we've heard over and over from our customers and employees alike during the pandemic, it's that people are struggling to stay connected. We all want to understand the people we work with and have context around their lives. Employees with weak social ties to their colleagues aren't as happy or productive as employees at companies with a thriving, healthy culture. But the typical enterprise directory certainly doesn't help; it's about as valuable today as a phone book and usually less informative. Rimeto offers an enterprise wide, searchable directory, automatically integrating information from across your company to deliver rich profiles of every employee, their skills, experience, and current projects. It's a natural fit with Slack. Channels make it easy to find the information you need and understand what your team is working on. Now we're going to make it just as easy to find the people you need and understand the humans you're working with. The traditional enterprise directory includes pretty limited information, usually what you'd find on a business card, and search is limited the same way. How do you find somebody running a project if you don't know their name or title? You can't. But Rimeto lets you search across every attribute - whether you're looking for a project leader or everyone who worked with a specific customer, an expert on sales cycles in a particular region, or just want to understand the new member of your team a little better, it's all there and it's all searchable."

08:31 EDT Kroger selects Dentsu Aegis Network as media agency of record - Kroger announced that it has selected Dentsu Aegis Network as its first integrated media agency of record after a competitive pitch process.

08:26 EDT CURE Pharmaceutical manufacturing facility earns NSF cGMP certification - CURE Pharmaceutical announced that its 25,000 square foot manufacturing facility has earned NSF International, cGMP certification for the manufacture of dietary supplements. This certification is issued only after material and facility analysis and gives suppliers, retailers, regulators and consumers assurance that products manufactured by CURE meet the standards for safety, quality, sustainability and performance. The NSF cGMP certification for manufacturing facilities of dietary supplements enables manufacturers to become independently certified by NSF as complying with cGMP requirements as listed in Section 8 of NSF/ANSI Standard 173. These requirements are consistent with the published cGMP regulation for dietary supplements as defined in 21 CFR Section 111, which is published by the FDA.

08:23 EDT Atreca, Xencor to collaborate on T cell-engaging bispecific antibodies - Atreca (BCEL) and Xencor (XNCR) announced that the companies have entered into a collaboration and license agreement to research, develop and commercialize T cell-engaging bispecific antibodies as potential therapeutics in oncology. Bispecific antibodies that direct T cells to tumor cells, by simultaneously binding CD3 on T cells and a target on tumor cells, have the potential to drive tumor cell killing. This collaboration will leverage Xencor's XmAb engineering platform to design and manufacture CD3 bispecific antibodies and Atreca's ability to generate novel antibody-target pairs through its discovery platform, including its Immune Repertoire Capture, or IRC, technology. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will engage in a three-year discovery program. Atreca will provide antibodies against novel tumor targets from which Xencor will engineer XmAb bispecific antibodies that also bind to the CD3 receptor on T cells. Up to two joint programs will be mutually selected for further development and commercialization, with each partner sharing 50% of costs and profits. Each company will lead development, regulatory and commercialization activities for one of the joint programs. In addition, the agreement allows for each partner to pursue up to two programs independently, with a mid-to high-single digit percent royalty payable on net sales. Atreca and Xencor began working together in 2019 under a material transfer agreement to accelerate this new collaboration agreement.

08:15 EDT ViaSat eliminates Ka-band spped limits for in-flight connectivity - Viasat has removed internet speed limits delivered to the aircraft across all of its business aviation Ka-band service plans. Additionally, the company has doubled its minimum committed internet speed to the aircraft for the same Ka-band service plans. Ka-band customers also have the option to subscribe to Viasat Unlimited Streaming, which allows passengers to access online media services without impacting monthly data allowances. The Viasat Ka-band business aviation IFC solution uses Viasat's Global Aero Terminal 5510, which taps into the ViaSat-1, ViaSat-2 and European Ka-band satellite platform, and is expected to be forward-compatible with Viasat's next-generation satellite systems.

08:13 EDT DTS Sound Unbound launches on Xbox One - DTS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xperi Holding (XPER), announced that DTS Sound Unbound, an application with premium DTS audio solutions, featuring DTS Headphone:X, is now available on Microsoft's (MSFT) Xbox One and will be compatible with Xbox Series X when it launches this holiday. DTS said in a release, "DTS solutions take immersive gaming to the next level with ultra-realistic, 3D audio that renders clear, rich and dynamic audio for the most engaging gaming experiences optimized by DTS audio technology for headphones. DTS Headphone:X delivers a clear competitive edge to gaming enthusiasts of all skill levels and is designed to amplify engagement with multichannel titles available on Xbox One. Already built into millions of devices around the world, DTS Headphone:X includes integrated surround sound technology that renders sounds from above, below and close to the gamer with exceptional localized sound cues for truly immersive play."

08:12 EDT Titan Pharmaceuticals urges stockholders to vote in favor of share increase - Titan Pharmaceuticals issued a statement urging its stockholders to vote for an amendment to its certificate of incorporation that will provide additional shares for potential financings as and when needed to support efforts to expand the use of Probuphine - buprenorphine - implant and fund other product development efforts, as well as to pursue potential strategic corporate opportunities. The majority of Titan stockholders who have submitted their votes have voted in favor of the amendment proposal; however, more votes are needed to meet the required threshold for approval under Delaware law. Executive Chairman Marc Rubin stated, "We recently announced a co-promotion partnership with Indegene for commercialization of Probuphine that focuses on countrywide, multichannel digital marketing programs to rapidly expand product awareness and help increase the use of Probuphine for the treatment of Opioid Use Disorder in eligible patients. The implementation of this partnership has already begun and we expect to see positive results over the next six to nine months. However, as previously disclosed, our current cash resources are only sufficient to fund our operations through Q3 of this year and with only 5M authorized shares remaining, approval of the proposed amendment is critical to continue operations beyond the next three months. Importantly, we will need to use some of the newly authorized shares to provide us with the cash runway required to make our co-promotion program with Indegene a success," added Dr. Rubin.

08:11 EDT Luokung Technology establishes business partnership with BYD Auto Industry Co. - Luokung Technology announced it has established business partnership with BYD Auto Industry Co., Ltd. to provide location-based information and commercial marketing services for BYD, which offers BYD car users with more intelligent, accurate, safe, convenient and personalized mobile internet local location business services to improve the user experience of intelligent and connected.

08:08 EDT ATIF Holdings acquires 6.56% of AeroCentury through common stock purchase - ATIF Holdings (ATIF) announced it has acquired approximately 6.56% of ownership stake in AeroCentury (ACY) by purchasing 101,367 shares of common stock of AeroCentury for an average of $2.80 per share through various open market transactions.

08:05 EDT Daxor signs new distribution agreement with AMD for BVA-100 - Daxor has signed a new distribution agreement with American Medical Depot, or AMD, one of the nation's government healthcare distributors. As part of the agreement, the two parties are set to provide Daxor's BVA-100 diagnostic blood test to government facilities across the United States, driving forward the use of BVA to help guide precise, individualized volume management in a wide variety of medical conditions including heart failure and COVID-19 related symptoms.

08:04 EDT PTC Therapeutics says first patient dosed in Phase 1 trial for PTC857 - PTC Therapeutics announced that the first subject in the Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating PTC857 in healthy volunteers has been dosed. PTC857, discovered through PTC's Bio-e platform, is an investigational small molecule drug that inhibits 15-Lipoxygenase, an enzyme that is a key regulator of the oxidative stress, protein aggregation and inflammation response pathways that underpin neurodegenerative disease pathology. The first indication planned for PTC857 is Parkinson's disease caused by a mutation in the GBA gene, which is one of the most common genetic subtypes of Parkinson's disease.

08:03 EDT CVS Health introduces new app feature for reading 'talking' prescription labels - CVS Pharmacy announced that it has developed Spoken Rx, a new feature of the CVS Pharmacy app that can read a specific type of label for patients with visual impairments and those who cannot read standard print labels. Spoken Rx is the first in-app prescription reader application to be developed by a national retail pharmacy. By the end of 2020, 1,500 CVS Pharmacy locations will be equipped to affix special RFID labels to prescription vials. When the RFID labels are scanned by Spoken Rx in the CVS Pharmacy app, which can be accessed by users using Siri or Google Assistant on their phones, prescription label information will be spoken out loud. This information, which is important for patient safety and adherence, currently includes patient name, medication name, dosage and directions and will be enhanced to include additional information over the months to come. Spoken Rx will be available in all CVS Pharmacy locations by the end of 2021. Enrollment in the program is seamless and can be done either over the phone or in store where a pharmacist can ensure the patient's app is appropriately set up for the service. Spoken Rx is free to CVS Pharmacy patients and the app will read prescription label information aloud in either English or Spanish.

08:01 EDT IBM to acquire WDG Automation, terms not disclosed - IBM announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Brazilian software provider of robotic process automation WDG Solucoes Em Sistemas E Automacao De Processos LTDA, referred to as "WDG Automation." The acquisition further advances IBM's comprehensive AI-infused automation capabilities, spanning business processes to IT operations. Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in Q3.

07:40 EDT Kitov Pharmaceuticals to be granted patent for CM24 from EPO - Kitov Pharmaceuticals (KTOV) announced receipt of a notification from the European Patent Office, or EPO, to grant a patent for Kitov's application entitled "Humanized antibodies against CEACAM1." The patent covers protein and DNA sequences pertaining to humanized antibodies capable of specific binding to human CEACAM1 molecules, including its lead monoclonal antibody, CM24, pharmaceutical compositions comprising these antibodies, as well as methods for their use in treating and diagnosing cancer and other conditions. Kitov is currently advancing preparations to initiate a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of CM24 in combination with nivolumab in patients with non-small cell lung cancer, and in combination with nivolumab in addition to standard of care chemotherapy in patients with pancreatic cancer. The trial will be conducted under a clinical collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers (BMY) and is expected to begin in the second half of 2020.

07:35 EDT Abeona Therapeutics restarts patient enrollment in VIITAL study of EB-101 - Abeona Therapeutics announced recent updates on its clinical programs, highlighted by the restart of patient enrollment in the company's pivotal Phase 3 VIITAL study of EB-101, its autologous, gene-corrected cell therapy, for the treatment of recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, or RDEB. Enrollment in the VIITAL study at Stanford University Medical Center was paused in March in order to redirect healthcare resources to COVID-19 patients and to ensure the safety of study participants and site staff. Abeona also announced that two ongoing MPS III Phase 1/2 clinical trials of its investigational adeno-associated virus, or AAV-based gene therapies, ABO-102 and ABO-101, have continued to treat patients, with additional enrollment expected in the programs in the coming weeks. In June, the tenth patient was dosed in cohort 3 of the ABO-102 Transpher A study for MPS IIIA, bringing the total to 16 patients. The company previously reported in May that additional patients were treated in dose cohort 3 of the Transpher A study and the ABO-101 Transpher B study for MPS IIIB, bringing the total enrollment in the Transpher B study to nine children to date.

07:32 EDT Palatin reinitiates enrollment of Phase 2 study with PL9643 for dry eye disease - Palatin Technologies reinitiated enrollment of its Phase 2 study with PL9643 for the treatment of dry eye disease, or DED. After pausing patient recruitment during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, Palatin has commenced patient recruitment in its PL9643 Phase 2 clinical study in subjects with dry eye disease. Patient enrollment is currently expected to be complete within the next 30-45 days, with data readout targeted for Q4. This Phase 2 study is a multi-center, randomized double-masked, placebo-controlled study evaluating the safety and efficacy of PL9643 ophthalmic solution compared to placebo for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. The study is designed to enroll up to 150 participants.

07:17 EDT GCP Applied Technologies announces $125M sale of Massachusetts headquarters - GCP Applied Technologies announced the $125M sale of its Alewife Park, Cambridge, Massachusetts corporate headquarters to IQHQ. The agreement was finalized on July 2 with closing expected to take place in late July or early August. The terms of the sale include an 18-month, rent-free lease-back to GCP for the entire site which GCP will continue to occupy while reviewing its options for relocation. GCP has the option to further extend the lease for an additional six months, for a total of up to two years occupancy at the current site.

07:11 EDT Facebook Oversight Board won't get started until 'late fall' - The Facebook Oversight Board has announced that it won't officially launch until later this year, saying via Twitter: "We understand many people are eager for the Board to officially begin our task of providing independent oversight of Facebook's content decisions. We share this urgency, but the Board won't be operational until late Fall. Our first members were announced in May 2020 and the Board is currently focused on the critical steps required to stand up a new institution. We don't expect the Board to regularly share opinions outside of our decisions on content and policy recommendations to Facebook. Our focus is on building a strong institution that will deliver concrete results over the long-term. Many of the issues of concern today - are within the Board's scope and we are committed to focusing on these matters as soon as we are operational." Reference Link

07:08 EDT Cubic awarded $9M contract by NAVWAR - Cubic announced its Cubic Mission Solutions, or CMS, business division was awarded a sole source, five year contract worth approximately $9M, from Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, or NAVWAR, for the production of Communication Data Link System -Technical Refresh, or CDLS-TR, equipment. Cubic said in a release, "Under the contract, Cubic will deliver its Sharklink system for use on two CVN aircraft carriers. Sharklink is a high-performance, surface data terminal that supports secure, long range high data rate communications with airborne and shipboard platforms. This contract is a follow-on to the development contract which Cubic was awarded in 2017. The initial Sharklink systems are currently being installed on the USS Nimitz and USS Carl Vinson."

07:04 EDT Village Farms partners with Dutch enterprise for potential legal cannabis market - Village Farms has executed a definitive agreement with DutchCanGrow, a Netherlands-based cannabis enterprise, to become one of six equal shareholders in DCG owning just under 16% each, with a seventh shareholder owning 5%. DCG is pursuing the opportunity to become one of a limited number of licensed cannabis growers - up to a maximum of 10 - when the Dutch government permits the first legal recreational cannabis market in Europe under its 10-city Experiment to Investigate Closed Cannabis Supply Chains. If successful, DCG plans to construct and operate a specialized cannabis greenhouse facility in the Netherlands and develop, produce and market a variety of cannabis products to supply this new legalized market. Under the WECG, which will be in effect for a minimum of four years following a one-year preparation period, all coffee shops in the 10 selected cities will be legally required to purchase all of their cannabis exclusively from the approved, federally licensed producers. The supply requirement for the current scope of the WECG is estimated to be approximately 65,000 kilograms of dried cannabis annually.

06:59 EDT NGL Energy Partners signs long-term water transportation agreement - NGL Energy Partners signed a new long-term produced water transportation and disposal agreement with a super major producer. The new agreement is with a producer operating in Loving County within the core of the Delaware Basin and includes a fifteen-year acreage dedication. The Partnership plans to use its existing infrastructure and disposal capacity to service this new contract.

06:48 EDT Golden Minerals begins drilling at Rodeo Gold project in Mexico - Golden Minerals has commenced drilling at its Rodeo gold and silver property in Durango, Mexico. Golden Minerals plans to drill approximately 20 holes to better define the high-grade core of the Rodeo deposit. The upcoming drill program will expand on the historic drilling campaigns that tested multiple gold-quartz veins and breccias of the Rodeo low sulfidation vein system. The objectives of the drilling program are to provide greater detail on the gold mineralization at Rodeo and to provide sample material for metallurgical and geotechnical testing. Rodeo is an open pit gold project approximately 80 kilometers west of the company's Velardena Properties and processing mills. Golden acquired the Rodeo property subject to a royalty interest due to La Cuesta International in 2Q15, prior to which exploration by other companies identified a gold-bearing system exposed at the surface.

06:46 EDT GP Strategies confirms Adam Stedham as new CEO - GP Strategies announced that its board appointed Adam Stedham as the CEO of the company, after serving on an interim basis since June 9, following the announcement that Scott Greenberg was stepping down from his role as CEO of the company.

06:33 EDT MSC Industrial not providing guidance - MSC Industrial said in its Q3 earnings release, "Given the ongoing unprecedented uncertainty and lack of visibility going forward, we will continue not giving quarterly EPS guidance, and will continue providing monthly updates following our month-end close on average daily sales developments, as well as comments on the business trends that we have seen over the course of the month."

06:28 EDT NanoViricides announces safety results from drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2 - NanoViricides announced that safety and tolerability of the drug candidates it is developing against SARS-CoV-2 to treat COVID-19 spectrum of diseases was observed in an animal model. The company said the nanoviricides drug candidates tested in this safety/tolerability study have previously shown strong effectiveness against lung infection by a SARS-CoV-2 like coronavirus, namely, hCoV-NL63, in an animal study as previously reported by the company. Three different drug candidates at three different dosage levels and vehicle control were administered to separate groups of mice intravenously in the Safety-Tolerability study. Clinical observations and gross post-mortem studies have been completed. The tested drug candidates were safe and well tolerated, thereby clearing the path for further development towards a treatment for SARS-CoV-2 infection that has caused the current COVID-19 pandemic. Nanoviricides are designed to act by a novel mechanism of action, trapping the virus particle. Antibodies, in contrast, only label the virus for other components of the immune system to take care of. It is well known that the immune system is not functioning properly at least in severe COVID-19 patients. Additionally, it is well known that viruses escape antibody-drugs via mutations. The company's "nanoviricide" drug candidates, in contrast, are designed to be broad-spectrum, and therefore virus escape by mutations is expected to be unlikely. In this Safety/Tolerability Study, there were no clinical signs of immune or allergic reactions such as itching, biting, twitching, rough coat, etc. Further, there were no observable changes in any organs including large intestine or colon on post mortem in gross histology. The only reportable changes observed were, in the high dosage groups of two of the three drug candidates tested, associated with the non-absorption of water, in the colon. This is consistent with the clinical observation of very loosened stools in the same groups. In clinical usage, the drug candidates are not anticipated to be administered in such high levels. The objective of this study was to discover the dosage level at which such an effect may occur. Sixteen mice in each group were administered one of the three drug candidates at one of the three dose levels, and additionally, one group was administered vehicle control, for seven days by daily tail-vein intravenous infusion in this blinded study with additional evaluations on eighth day. This non-GLP safety/tolerability study was conducted under GLP-like conditions. The company believes that loose or very loose stools at very high dosages in such a study is an expected and acceptable side effect of the polyethylene glycol, or PEG, moiety, which forms the backbone of the nanoviricides drug candidates. PEG is used prior to colonoscopy in humans to promote loose stools and internal cleaning of the intestines, by causing non-absorption of water. The company has previously reported that these drug candidates have shown strong effectiveness in a lethal lung infection model in rats using a coronavirus that uses the same ACE2 receptor as SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19, namely hCoV-NL63. The company has found that hCoV-NL63, which causes a milder disease than SARS-CoV-2, causes substantially similar clinical pathology in this efficacy animal model as has been reported for SARS-CoV-2 associated lung infections in humans. In this previously reported lethal direct-lung-infection model efficacy study, animals in all groups developed lung disease which later led to multi-organ failures, a clinical pathology resembling that of the SARS-CoV-2. Reduction in loss of body weight at day seven was used as the primary indicator of drug effectiveness. Rats were infected directly into lungs with lethal amounts of hCoV-NL63 virus particles and then different groups were treated separately with five different nanoviricides drug candidates, remdesivir as a positive control, and the vehicle as a negative control. The treatment was intravenous by tail-vein injection once daily for five days, except in the case of remdesivir wherein it was by tail-vein injection twice daily. In this efficacy study, animals treated with the five different nanoviricides showed significantly reduced body weight loss. The body weight loss in female animals ranged from only 3.9% to 11.2% in the different nanoviricide-treated groups, as compared to 20% in vehicle-treated control group, and 15.2% in a remdesivir-treated group. The body weight loss in male animals ranged from 8% to 10.9% in the different nanoviricides-treated groups, as compared to 25% in the vehicle-treated control group, and 18.6% in remdesivir-treated group. Smaller numbers mean less loss in body weight compared to starting body weight in the group, and indicate greater drug effectiveness. The effectiveness of nanoviricide drug candidates in the lung-infection model is consistent with the effectiveness observed in cell culture studies against infection of both hCoV-NL63, which was used in the efficacy study, and hCoV-229E, another circulating coronavirus that uses a distinctly different receptor, namely APN. Prior to filing for human clinical trials, NanoViricides plans on requesting a pre-IND Meeting with the FDA for regulatory guidance.

06:06 EDT American Finance Trust reports 83% of rent due in Q2 has been received - American Finance Trust announced that 83% of the original cash rent due for Q2 has been received as of July 6, including 94% of the original cash rent due in the company's single-tenant portfolio.

06:04 EDT Global Net Lease reports 98% of rent due in Q2 has been received - Global Net Lease announced that 98% of the original cash rent due for Q2 has been received as of July 6, including 99% of the original cash rent due from the company's assets in the United Kingdom and 100% of the original cash rent due from the company's assets in the rest of Europe.

06:02 EDT KKR to acquire Global Atlantic Financial Group - KKR & Co. and Global Atlantic Financial Group announced the signing of a strategic transaction where KKR will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Global Atlantic, a leading retirement and life insurance company. After closing, Global Atlantic will continue to operate as a separate business with its existing brands and management team. Under the terms of the agreement, KKR will pay Global Atlantic shareholders an amount equal to 1.0x Global Atlantic's Book Value as of the date of closing, subject to an equity roll-over for certain existing shareholders. As of March 31, 2020, Global Atlantic's Book Value was approximately $4.4B. KKR expects to fund the acquisition, net of equity roll-over participation, from a combination of cash on hand, proceeds from potential minority co-investors and the issuance of new debt and/or equity by KKR. The investment in Global Atlantic will be held on KKR's balance sheet and through a proprietary vehicle established for others to invest alongside KKR's balance sheet, not in any client funds. Upon close, Global Atlantic will continue to be run by its existing senior leadership team led by Allan Levine, Global Atlantic's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. The transaction, which is expected to close in early 2021, is subject to required regulatory approvals and certain other customary closing conditions.

05:28 EDT BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank collaborate on new API-enabled FX solution - BNY Mellon (BK) and Deutsche Bank (DB) said in a release, the companies "have jointly developed a new API-enabled foreign-exchange, or FX, solution that can dramatically improve confirmation times for restricted emerging-market currency trades. The digital solution, initially being applied to custody FX transactions in Korean Won, aims to reduce the pre-trade lifecycle to seconds from hours, minimizing the operational burden and manual intervention that can be prevalent in emerging-market custody FX. The solution is already live in Korea, with the Indonesian Rupiah and the Indian Rupee targeted next. Subsequently, it will be progressively rolled out to a broad range of restricted currencies, which are linked to investors' underlying equity or fixed-income transactions. Leveraging existing bots between the two banks for instantaneous communication to help eliminate market frictions, the solution can also bring trade remediation closer to the time of execution. The resulting benefits can also reduce price slippage for clients between the FX leg of a transaction and the equity or fixed-income security trade. Digital innovation in FX markets is accelerating in emerging markets, particularly in Asia, because securities denominated in those currencies are increasingly being included--or more heavily weighted--in emerging-market indices and exchange-traded funds, or ETFs."

05:23 EDT Allstate to acquire National General for $34.50 per share