Stockwinners Market Radar for July 10, 2020 - Earnings, Upgrades downgrades, option trades, Best Stock Advisory Service

17:42 EDT Harte-Hanks announces suspension of trading, commences delisting procedures - Harte Hanks announced the company was notified by the NYSE on July 9 that the NYSE had determined to commence proceedings to delist the company's common stock as a result of the company's failure to comply with the continued listing standard to maintain either (i) at least $50M in stockholders' equity or (ii) at least $50M in total market capitalization on a 30-trading day average basis. While the company has the ability to appeal the decision by the NYSE, Harte Hanks' board has determined that it is in the best interest of the company and its shareholders to immediately begin trading on the OTCQX Best Market. The company will remain subject to the public reporting requirements of the SEC following the transfer to the OTCQX and expects the common stock will trade under the symbol "HRTE". The transition to the over-the-counter markets will not affect the company's business operations.

17:33 EDT W&T Offshore CEO buys 346K shares of common stock - In a regulatory filing, W&T Offshore disclosed that its CEO Tracy Krohn bought 346,358 shares of common stock on July 8th in a transaction total of $740K.

17:22 EDT Harte Hanks trading halted, news pending

16:35 EDT Ra Capital reports 10.8% passive stake in Vaxcyte - In a regulatory filing, Ra Capital Management disclosed a 10.8% stake in Vaxcyte, which represents about 5.49M shares. The filing does not allow for activism.

16:22 EDT Universal Health announces settlement of health care facilities probe - Universal Health announced that it has finalized definitive settlement agreements resolving the civil aspects of investigations of its behavioral health care facilities conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, or OIG-HHS and various state attorneys general. Pursuant to the terms of the settlement agreements, which were consistent with the agreement in principle previously announced in July, 2019, on July 9, the company made net aggregate payments of approximately $117.3M, which is net of approximately $9.7M of aggregate funds previously withheld from us, and before accrued interest and related fees, costs and individual claims due to or on behalf of third-parties amounting to approximately $6.2M in the aggregate. The final aggregate settlement amounts, together with accrued interest and related fees and costs, did not differ materially from the reserves previously established in connection with this matter. The company denies the allegations raised in this matter and the settlement does not constitute a finding of improper conduct or failure to provide appropriate care and treatment in accordance with governing rules and regulations or an admission of facts or liability by the company or any of its subsidiary behavioral health facilities. As a condition of this settlement, UHS has entered into a corporate integrity agreement, or CIA, with the OIG-HHS. Notwithstanding, UHS already has a compliance program in existence which includes elements required by the CIA.

16:17 EDT W. R. Berkley sees Q2 net catastrophe losses roughly $145M before tax - W. R. Berkley Corporation announced that it expects to report net catastrophe losses in the second quarter of 2020 of approximately $145M, before tax. The company's loss estimate includes $85M for COVID-19 related losses, $20M for losses related to civil unrest and $40M primarily attributable to severe weather-related events in the U.S. The estimated COVID-19 losses in the second quarter of 2020 follow an updated thorough review and analysis of existing and potential exposures in light of newly available information, and represents the company's best estimate of its ultimate losses resulting directly from the pandemic and the consequent economic crisis. It comprises losses primarily from contingency and event cancellation policies, workers' compensation, professional liability and other liability-related products, as well as commercial property-related business interruption coverages. It also includes other potentially exposed lines of business as well as defense costs and other loss adjustment expenses. A substantial portion of the losses are classified as incurred but not reported reserves, in recognition of the high level of uncertainty in the estimates given the unprecedented nature of this event. Notwithstanding these events, the company expects to report a modest underwriting profit for the quarter. The company also anticipates that net premiums written in the second quarter of 2020 will be comparable to the second quarter of 2019, despite the economic downturn. The industry's fundamental need for pricing to reflect rising loss costs drove the acceleration of rate increases through the first quarter of 2020. That momentum is continuing and is further reinforced by the magnitude of industry losses for recent events. The company's average rate increases excluding workers' compensation in the second quarter of 2020 were approximately 13%.

16:09 EDT Westell Technologies board approves plan to terminate Class A common stock - Westell Technologies announced that a special committee of independent directors has recommended, and its board has approved, a plan for a proposed transaction whereby the company would effect a reverse/forward stock split of the company's shares of Class A common stock and Class B Common Stock, in conjunction with terminating the company's public company reporting obligations and delisting the Company's Class A common stock from Nasdaq. It is expected that this transaction would be effectuated late in Q3 or early in Q4, subject to stockholders approving the proposed transaction at the annual meeting. The company is taking these steps to avoid the substantial cost and expense of being a public reporting company and to focus the company's resources on enhancing long-term stockholder value.

16:02 EDT Verizon recommends shareholders reject mini-tender offer from Ponos Industries - Verizon received notice of a "mini-tender" offer by Ponos Industries and recommends that its stockholders reject the unsolicited offer. Pursuant to the offer, which is dated June 26, Ponos is offering to purchase up to 2M shares of Verizon common stock at $60.00 per share. While this price is above the current market price of Verizon common stock, the offer is conditioned upon the closing price of Verizon's shares exceeding the $60.00 offer price. The offer expires on July 30, unless extended. Verizon is not associated with Ponos or its "mini-tender" offer.

15:42 EDT Gap to compensate vendors for finished goods, goods in production - In an update on Gap Inc. inventory decisions posted on its corporate website, Gap stated: "Gap Inc. will work collaboratively with its vendors to compensate them in full for finished goods and goods in production that were canceled or subject to pack and hold. While we have extended payment terms on certain orders, in the immediate term we are providing low cost financing to our vendor partners, and are working with our banking partners to increase the amount of funds available within the program as we move forward." Reference Link

15:13 EDT Tesla shares rise above $1,500 a month after hitting $1,000 for first time - At time of writing, shares of Tesla are up $113.11, or about 8%, to $1,507.39. For reference, Tesla shares topped $1,000 for the first time one month ago, on June 10.

14:30 EDT Amazon delays video game 'New World' release to spring 2021 - Amazon said that it will be changing the launch date of its upcoming video game "New World" to spring 2021 from August 25. "I'm proud of the hard work the team has done, making the game ready for launch with the features we intended for release," studio director Rich Lawrence said. "We also have a list of features that we planned to start working on once we were in live development, as that is part of operating an MMO. When we examined the feedback we received over the last several months from our Alpha audience, we saw that players like the game, and they would like to see even more of it. In particular, we want to ensure that the most dedicated players have plenty of middle and endgame experiences as they venture through Aeternum. We want our players to feel completely immersed in the game, and know that our studio stands for quality and lasting gameplay you can trust - and that means added time to get things where we want them before we fully release. As a result, we will be changing our launch date - and correspondingly, our final beta test - to spring 2021. We don't make the decision lightly, and we have urgency about getting the game to you as quickly as possible at the best quality -- with some additions that will make the experience even better." The Fly notes that Amazon late last month moved its free-to-play multiplayer shooter "Crucible" to closed beta following its release for download on May 20, 2020. Reference Link

13:56 EDT Genius Brands gives up gains after Disney-focused blog pulls POW! report - Shares of Genius Brands (GNUS), which had spiked earlier this afternoon following a blog post claiming that Disney (DIS) planned to acquire a 5% stake in POW! Entertainment for an undisclosed amount, are back to flat for the session at $2.40 per share after the website, DisneyGuide, pulled the web page with the report from its site. Genius announced on July 6 that the company and Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment inked a deal to create Stan Lee Universe, a joint venture that will assume worldwide rights across media to Lee's post-Marvel intellectual property. Reference Link

13:21 EDT Square acquires Stitch Labs, will sunset products in 2021 - Square announced that it acquired Stitch Labs, an operations management platform for commerce brands. Stitch Labs has a "strong background in building key tools for businesses such as inventory and order management, channel management, and fulfillment solutions. The team will join our Seller organization, where we're eager to learn from their experience and expertise to help us better serve sellers," Square said in a statement. It added, "While Stitch Labs won't take on any new customers, Stitch Lab's products will continue to operate for existing customers until Spring 2021. Longer term, we plan to sunset Stitch Labs's products so the team can focus on building out Square tools, and we'll work with existing customers to ensure that they have the resources and options they need to be successful transitioning off the platform."

13:11 EDT HBO Max gives series commitment to original drama set in 'Batman' universe - WarnerMedia's HBO Max announced that it has given a series commitment to an original DC drama set in the Gotham City police department from "The Batman" filmmaker Matt Reeves, "Boardwalk Empire" creator Terence Winter, "The Batman" producer Dylan Clark, and Warner Bros. Television. The television series to be written by Winter is set in the world Reeves is creating for "The Batman" feature film and will build upon the motion picture's examination of the anatomy of corruption in Gotham City, ultimately launching a new Batman universe across multiple platforms. This marks the first television project for Reeves under his recently announced overall deal with the Warner Bros. Television Group. Matt Reeves said, "This is an amazing opportunity, not only to expand the vision of the world I am creating in the film, but to explore it in the kind of depth and detail that only a longform format can afford - and getting to work with the incredibly talented Terence Winter, who has written so insightfully and powerfully about worlds of crime and corruption, is an absolute dream." Reference Link

13:00 EDT Baker Hughes reports U.S. rig count down 5 to 258 rigs

12:45 EDT Shyft jumps after Amazon confirms 2,200 truck order to Reuters

11:28 EDT Cocrystal says eligible to receive up to $156M in payments, royalties from Merck - In presentation slides, Cocrystal Pharma (COCP) said it has recognized revenue of $6.56M in 2019 and is "eligible to receive up to $156 million in milestone payments and royalties (undisclosed) on product sales" from its exclusive license and collaboration agreement with Merck (MRK) to discover and develop certain proprietary influenza A/B antiviral agents. In the same presentation slides, Cocrystal said it is "aggressively pursuing" development of novel antiviral therapies for the treatment of COVID-19 infections and gave an update on its planned next steps. Reference Link

10:32 EDT Penn National reopens Plainridge Park Casino, Hollywood Casino Bangor - Penn National Gaming announced that 37 of its 41 gaming and racing properties have resumed operations, representing approximately 90% of the Company's regional gaming and racing portfolio in 17 of the 19 states in which it operates. Penn National said in a release, "The most recent property reopenings include Plainridge Park Casino in Massachusetts which reopened on July 8 and Hollywood Casino Bangor in Maine which is reopening today." CEO Jay Snowden said, "With the reopening of our casinos in Massachusetts and Maine this week, 90 percent of our industry-leading regional gaming footprint has now resumed operations. Our property and Corporate management teams have worked diligently with our regulators and local and state public health officials to create a safe environment in our properties that protects our team members and our guests, while continuing to highlight the entertainment experience our guests have come to know and enjoy. We look forward to the reopening of all 41 of our properties nationwide in the coming weeks."

10:05 EDT FDA concerned about ocular toxicity into meeting on GSK's belantamab - In briefing documents for its July 14 meeting discussing GlaxoSmithKline's belantamab mafodotin, the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee said, "The concerns and uncertainties regarding the ocular toxicities raises questions about the overall benefit-risk profile of the belantamab mafodotin in the proposed patient population. The FDA seeks input from the committee on whether the demonstrated benefit of belantamab mafodotin outweighs the risks in the proposed patient population with multiple myeloma...Given the incomplete data regarding the reversibility of ocular toxicity, there is uncertainty at this time whether the dose modification strategy proposed by the Applicant is sufficient to mitigate the risk of ocular toxicity with belantamab mafodotin...Overall, considering the frequency and severity of ocular toxicity associated with belantamab mafodotin, the lack of clear mitigation strategies, and incomplete data regarding reversibility and severity, there is uncertainty whether the proposed dose modification strategy is sufficient to mitigate the risks. Although the efficacy results from DREAMM-2 suggest a benefit with belantamab mafodotin in the proposed population of patients with RRMM, it is not clear whether the benefit outweighs the risks of ocular toxicity." Shares of GlaxoSmithKline are down 1% to $39.79 in morning trading. Reference Link

10:00 EDT Studio City falls -5.0% - Studio City is down -5.0%, or -78c to $14.75.

10:00 EDT Greenbrier rises 11.7% - Greenbrier is up 11.7%, or $2.54 to $24.27.

10:00 EDT Matson rises 22.8% - Matson is up 22.8%, or $6.25 to $33.61.

09:50 EDT Jumia Technologies falls -5.5% - Jumia Technologies is down -5.5%, or -44c to $7.60.

09:50 EDT Greenbrier rises 10.8% - Greenbrier is up 10.8%, or $2.34 to $24.06.

09:47 EDT Matson rises 23.1% - Matson is up 23.1%, or $6.32 to $33.68.

09:25 EDT Carnival: Raised over $10B through series of financing transactions since March - Since the pause in guest operations, the company has taken significant actions to preserve cash and secure additional financing to maximize its liquidity. While maintaining compliance, environmental protection and safety, the company significantly reduced ship operating expenses by transitioning ships into paused status. The company also reduced its administrative expenses, non-newbuild capital expenditures by $1.3B for 2020 and expects to reduce its newbuild capital expenditures by over $600M for 2020, (net of export credit facilities). Additionally, since March, the company has raised over $10B through a series of financing transactions, including transactions that have occurred in the last three weeks, as follows: Borrowed an aggregate principal amount of $2.8B in two tranches under a first priority senior secured term loan facility on June 30, 2020; Negotiated Debt Holiday amendments, deferring certain principal repayments otherwise due through March 2021. In addition, the company has $8.8B of committed export credit facilities that are available to fund ship deliveries originally planned through 2023. Carnival Corporation & plc CFO and Chief Accounting Officer David Bernstein noted, "Quickly recognizing the financial situation, we took swift action to improve our liquidity by reducing expenses and leveraging our strong balance sheet to complete several capital transactions".

09:21 EDT Kingstone Insurance Company credit ratings downgraded to B++ from A- at AM Best - AM Best has downgraded the Financial Strength Rating to B++ (Good) from A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating, or ICR, to "bbb" from "a-" of Kingstone Insurance Company, or KICO. AM Best said in a release, "Concurrently, AM Best has downgraded the Long-Term ICR to "bb" from "bbb-" for Kingstone Companies, or KINS, the insurance holding company of KICO. AM Best also has downgraded the Long-Term Issue Credit Rating, or Long-Term IR, to "bb" from "bbb-" on KINS' $30M, 5.50% senior unsecured notes due 2022; and the indicative Long-Term IRs to "bb" from "bbb-" for senior unsecured notes and to "bb-" from "bb+" for the subordinated notes of the shelf registration of KINS. The outlook of these Credit Ratings is negative. The ratings downgrade of KICO reflects its balance sheet strength, which AM Best categorizes as adequate, as well as its strong operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. These rating actions are driven by a revision in KICO's catastrophe reinsurance program effective July 1, 2020, which significantly reduces the amount of reinsurance protection previously contemplated and purchased. Accordingly, KICO's risk-adjusted capitalization as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio deteriorated considerably, resulting in AM Best's revised assessment of capitalization to the adequate level. The negative outlooks previously reflected deterioration in underwriting performance over the past two years and corresponding declines in policyholders' surplus. These trends were influenced by execution issues from significant growth, weather-related losses and reserve strengthening in commercial lines. Lastly, the ratings for the holding company, KINS, reflect its moderate financial leverage and historically favorable interest coverage, which fall within the guidelines for the ratings."

09:18 EDT Carnival sees future capacity moderated by phased re-entry of its ships - Carnival provided a business update and additional financial information for the second quarter ended May 31. In the face of the global impact of COVID-19, the company paused its guest cruise operations in mid-March. The company expects to resume guest operations, with ongoing collaboration from both government and health authorities, in a phased manner. Specific brands and ships are expected to return to service over time to provide guests with unmatched joyful vacations in a manner consistent with the company's highest priorities, which are compliance, environmental protection and the health, safety and well-being of its guests, crew and the communities its ships visit. The company expects future capacity to be moderated by the phased re-entry of its ships, the removal of capacity from its fleet and delays in new ship deliveries. As previously announced, the company intends to accelerate the removal of ships in fiscal 2020 which were previously expected to be sold over the ensuing years. The company sold one ship during June 2020 and has agreements for the disposal of five ships and preliminary agreements for an additional three ships, all of which are expected to leave the fleet in the next 90 days. These agreements are in addition to the sale of four ships, which were announced prior to fiscal 2020. In total, the 13 ships expected to leave the fleet represent a nearly nine percent reduction in current capacity. The company currently expects only five of the nine ships originally scheduled for delivery in fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021 will be delivered prior to the end of fiscal year 2021. In addition, the company expects later deliveries of ships originally scheduled for fiscal 2022 and 2023. Carnival Corporation & plc President and CEO Arnold Donald noted, "We have been transitioning the fleet into a prolonged pause and right sizing our shoreside operations. We have already reduced operating costs by over $7 billion on an annualized basis and reduced capital expenditures also by more than $5 billion over the next 18 months. We have secured over $10 billion of additional liquidity to sustain another full year with additional flexibility remaining. We have aggressively shed assets while actively deferring new ship deliveries. We are working hard to resume operations while serving the best interests of public health with our way forward informed through consultation with medical experts and scientists from around the world." Donald added, "We will emerge a leaner, more efficient company to optimize cash generation, pay down debt and position us to return to investment grade credit over time providing strong returns to our shareholders."

09:09 EDT Leaf Group holders issue letter regarding recent call with Independent Committee - Investors owning over 40% of the issued and outstanding shares of Leaf Group issued a letter to the Company's board expressing their concerns and disappointment around a recent call with the two members of the board's Independent Committee as well as the Company's outside counsel. The letter says, "We were disappointed in our perfunctory conversation yesterday with the two members of the so-called Independent Committee of Directors, Deborah Benton and Beverly Carmichael, and the Company's outside counsel, Joe Johnson from Goodwin Procter LLP. This conversation was intended to allow us - owners of 40% of the outstanding stock of the Company - to explain our concerns regarding the performance of the business, the CEO's blatant mismanagement and conflicts, and Leaf's failure to conduct a bona fide strategic alternatives process. Instead, from the start it was clear to us that the Committee had agreed to the call simply to "check the box" of having engaged with us, rather than out of any real desire to listen to the perspectives of a large portion of the Company's shareholders. As owners of 40% of the stock, we are deeply troubled by the performance of the Company and its CEO. On the call, we reiterated our view that the only path to unlock shareholder value is the removal of Sean Moriarty as CEO, refreshing the Board with directors chosen by shareholders and the initiation of a legitimate strategic process to consider the sale of the Company or its Media and Marketplace businesses... We were also surprised that the Committee has rejected the opportunity, as a supposedly independent group of directors, to avail itself of independent, outside advice. Rather, the Committee has elected to use the Company's incumbent counsel, Goodwin Procter, which has long served at the pleasure of the current CEO... The Committee's position relies on the faulty premise that it somehow understands the views of the other 60% of holders and that those other shareholders would wholesale disagree with our perspectives. This mythical 60% of shareholders, we are expected to believe, are pleased with a negative 43% shareholder return over the last year. They are, apparently, satisfied that shareholders have lost 60% of their capital during Mr. Moriarty's tenure as CEO. We doubt that. The Committee told us, effectively, that even though owners of 40% of the Company were gravely concerned about the management and strategic direction of the Company, the Board knows better and is comfortable that the "silent majority" is supportive of a value-destroying CEO and failed strategy. We cannot think of another Board that has been so confident in its views in the face of such significant value destruction and substantial, public shareholder opposition to the status quo... Given the cavalier conduct of the Committee and this Board in response to our concerns about the management and strategy of the Company, we do not believe shareholders should trust the incumbent directors to make critical decisions about the leadership or strategy of the Company or its Board composition. While the Committee admitted there are legitimate concerns regarding the independence of the Board, it appears to believe the Board can be trusted to fix these problems on its own, without shareholder input. To the contrary, we believe that shareholders must be given a direct voice in the composition of the Board and the leadership of the Company. Our conviction on this critical point has only grown, given the dismissive attitude of the Committee toward our legitimate concerns... Rather than seeking a better path forward for the Company - one that could garner the support of our group and other shareholders - the purpose of the Committee appears to be to offer a veneer of credibility to the Board's misguided attempts to retain Leaf's underperforming CEO, defend the failed strategic alternatives process and deflect claims that substantial conflicts of interests involving members of management and the Board have been a disservice to shareholders. With respect to the latter, we call upon the Board to immediately disclose publicly the conflicts of interest of which it is aware that involve Board members and Mr. Moriarty. We believe the Company's shareholder base deserves to know. It was our sincere hope to have a productive dialogue with the Board and the Committee. It appears, however, the Board is only interested in protecting the status quo and is using the so-called Independent Committee as a device to provide the Board a shield. The Board should instead exercise independent business judgment and remove the Company's underperforming CEO, refresh the Board with shareholder input and restart the strategic alternatives process."

08:52 EDT Gilead up 2% to $76.30 after remdesivir shows 62% reduction in mortality risk

08:41 EDT Gilead announces additional data on remdesivir for treatment of COVID-19 - Gilead Sciences announced additional data on remdesivir, an investigational antiviral for the treatment of COVID-19, adding to the available body of knowledge on treatment outcomes with remdesivir. Gilead said in a release, "The data are being presented at the Virtual COVID-19 Conference as part of the 23rd International AIDS Conference and include a comparative analysis of the Phase 3 SIMPLE-Severe trial and a real-world retrospective cohort of patients with severe COVID-19. In this analysis, remdesivir was associated with an improvement in clinical recovery and a 62 percent reduction in the risk of mortality compared with standard of care - an important finding that requires confirmation in prospective clinical trials. Separate subgroup analyses from the Phase 3 SIMPLE-Severe trial, including an evaluation of the safety and efficacy of remdesivir across different racial and ethnic patient subgroups treated in the United States, found that traditionally marginalized racial or ethnic groups treated with remdesivir in this study experienced similar clinical outcomes as the overall patient population in the study. Gilead is also presenting new analyses of the company's compassionate use program, which demonstrated that 83 percent of pediatric patients and 92 percent of pregnant and postpartum women with a broad spectrum of disease severity recovered by Day 28. No new safety signals were identified with remdesivir across these populations. To further the understanding of these results in individual patient cases, Gilead recently announced the initiation of a global, open-label Phase 2/3 trial to evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of remdesivir in pediatric patients from birth to less than 18 years of age. Gilead is also collaborating on a study for pregnant women. Due to the current public health emergency, the FDA has issued an Emergency Use Authorization for remdesivir for the treatment of hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19. In the United States, remdesivir is an investigational drug that has not been approved by the FDA, and the safety and efficacy of remdesivir for the treatment of COVID-19 has not been established... This comparative pre-planned analysis included 312 patients treated in the Phase 3 SIMPLE-Severe study and a separate real-world retrospective cohort of 818 patients with similar baseline characteristics and disease severity who received standard of care treatment in the same time period as the SIMPLE-Severe study... The results of this comparative analysis add to the previously presented National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, or NIAID, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, which showed that remdesivir shortened time to recovery by an average of four days as compared to placebo. In the NIAID study, patients taking remdesivir trended toward lower mortality compared with those in the placebo group, but this result did not reach statistical significance."

08:33 EDT China Rapid Finance to change ticker symbol to 'SOS,' effective July 20 - China Rapid Finance announced that the company's ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange will change from "XRF" to "SOS," effective at the start of trading on July 20. There is also a proposed change in the company's name from "China Rapid Finance Limited" to "SOS Limited," which is pending approval at the company's annual general meeting of shareholders to be held on July 17. If approved at the meeting, the effective date of the name change shall also be July 20. In conjunction with the name change, the company's CUSIP will change from "16953Q204" to "83587W106."

08:31 EDT ReTo Eco-Solutions selected to install wastewater treatment solution in Beijing - ReTo Eco-Solutions announced it was selected to install and maintain an eco-friendly, state-of-the-art wastewater treatment solution in Beijing. The project is part of the high visibility Yanqing to Chongli Expressway, which was built to link the Yanqing district of Beijing and the Chongli district of Zhangjiakou, two competition zones for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Construction of the initial station has been completed and is now in the testing phase.

08:06 EDT Aleafia Health provides update on growth initiatives - Aleafia Health provided a corporate update on strategic growth initiatives. The company is nearing the launch of new Cannabis 2.0 products to broaden its product portfolio in both the medical and adult-use markets. Following quality assurance testing of formulations and packaging design, the first production run of Kin Slips, cannabis infused sublingual strips, is expected to commence this month. The category market leader in California, Kin Slips provides health and wellness conscious consumers with a consistent, smoke-free cannabis experience, with formulas targeting specific need states and an expected onset of 10-15 minutes. The company also expects to commence the sale of universal 510 vape cartridges in the next two to three months, followed by confectionery edibles in the form of soft chews and lozenges, and other new formats. At June 30, active, registered patients with the company's wholly owned subsidiary, Emblem Cannabis, increased to 13,285, from 10,983 patients at March 31. During Covid-19, the company has continued to improve and scale its contactless, patient ecosystem. Patients are able to see their physician virtually, order products and have them delivered to their home in the same day, utilizing the direct-to-door AssureHome Delivery offered exclusively to Emblem patients. Planting at the Port Perry outdoor cultivation site is completed, utilizing the entire crop of starter plants originally propagated at the Niagara Facility. The company expects to benefit from a significantly larger cultivation footprint along with improved infrastructure relative to the 2019 season. The site now has 66 fully planted acres, relative to 13 acres planted in 2019. Drying and irrigation infrastructure has also significantly scaled up. Construction of an additional 30,000 square feet of indoor drying and storage buildings and site-wide underground irrigation has been completed. In 2019, the company produced 12,747 kgs of outdoor dried flower at an all-in cash cost to harvest of 10c per gram. Upon licensing in March, the Niagara Facility was primarily utilized for the propagation of starter plants destined for the Port Perry outdoor cultivation site. Since the completion of the outdoor propagation crop, the Niagara Facility is now being used for normal course cannabis production, with the first of what will be perpetual, daily harvests expected in approximately eight weeks. The Niagara Facility provides the company with a stable, consistent inventory of high-quality dried flower products.

08:04 EDT Amneal launches generic Fluphenazine following ANDA approval by FDA - Amneal Pharmaceuticals announced that it has received Abbreviated New Drug Application, or ANDA, approval from the FDA for a generic version of Fluphenazine Hydrochloride Tablets USP, 1 mg, 2.5 mg, 5 mg, and 10 mg. Fluphenazine Hydrochloride is the generic version of Prolixin for treatment of schizophrenia. Amneal immediately initiated commercialization activities across all dosages.

08:01 EDT Royal Caribbean acquires remaining interest in Silversea Cruises - Royal Caribbean Group has purchased the remaining shares of Silversea Cruises, "a pioneer and leader in ultra-luxury and expedition cruising." The move to full ownership comes two years after Royal Caribbean Group acquired a two-thirds share of the cruise line in July 2018. Manfredi Lefebvre d'Ovidio, who took over the company from his late father, will serve as chairman of Silversea. Roberto Martinoli will remain the brand's president and CEO. The remaining one-third stake held by Heritage Cruise Holding Ltd. was paid for in the form of 5.2M shares of Royal Caribbean Group common stock, which represents about 2.5% of the total common stock.

07:02 EDT Anixa Biosciences' CAR-T cancer therapy gets Intention to Grant notice from EPO - Anixa Biosciences announced that the European Patent Office has issued an Intention to Grant notice for the first European patent covering Anixa's novel CAR-T cancer treatment technology, which has been licensed from The Wistar Institute and is being developed at the Moffitt Cancer Center. The patent is titled "METHODS AND COMPOSITIONS FOR TREATING CANCER," and the inventors are Drs. Jose Conejo-Garcia and Alfredo Perales-Puchalt. Dr. Conejo-Garcia is the Chair of the Department of Immunology at Moffitt Cancer Center and Dr. Alfredo Perales-Puchalt, formerly of The Wistar Institute, is currently Vice President of R&D at Geneos Therapeutics. The patent is assigned to The Wistar Institute and Anixa Biosciences' majority-owned subsidiary, Certainty Therapeutics, is the exclusive, world-wide licensee.

06:47 EDT Express says 95% of stores open, showing sequential improvement - Express provided an update on its current business and latest store reopening plans. "While the recovery of our industry will clearly take some time, our strategic transformation remains on track. The majority of our stores are now reopened, traffic and sales have steadily improved and our e-Commerce demand was positive in the month of June," said Tim Baxter, CEO. "We are encouraged by our customers' response to the new Express product vision and brand positioning, and remain focused on what we can control as we continue to drive the Expressway Forward strategy and advance towards our long term objective of profitable growth." "As we began the first quarter and launched our strategic transformation, we had significantly reduced our inventory levels in order to reposition our assortments to reflect our new product edit for the Spring season," Baxter continued. "At the onset of the pandemic, we further reduced receipts by more than $100M which negatively impacted our ability to do that. We will continue to take the decisive and appropriate actions necessary to ensure sufficient liquidity throughout the duration of the pandemic and resulting economic uncertainty." As of July 5th, the company has reopened approximately 95% of its stores and expects to open the remaining stores in the coming weeks. All openings have been in accordance with the latest federal and state guidelines, and with adherence to recommended health and safety protocols. As part of the reopening process, the Company has enabled ship from store capabilities in over 330 locations to support online demand. In addition, the Company has enabled buy online pick-up in store capabilities in over 275 stores and plans to have all retail stores enabled by the end of the third quarter. With each successive wave of store openings, sales and traffic improved steadily week over week through the third week in June, with sales outpacing traffic due to higher conversion levels. Comparable sales for open stores sequentially improved from down over 50% in early May to approximately negative 15% by the third week in June. Traffic also improved, from approximately negative 65% in early May to approximately negative 30% by the third week in June. As COVID-19 cases began to spike in several states in late June, the company saw declines in both sales and traffic in Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, which were significant enough to impact total results. Results in stores have been negatively impacted by multiple factors, including reduced mall traffic due to COVID-19 and the cancellation of June and July product, the latter causing the assortments to not yet be fully reflective of the company's new vision but deemed prudent in order to effectively manage liquidity. The company has continued to see improvement in online sales and traffic on its website and mobile app which reflects positive consumer response to the new product. Digital demand has improved throughout the quarter and delivered a positive comp in June due to an increase in both traffic and conversion. Digital penetration to the total has remained elevated even as stores have reopened.

06:38 EDT Tenneco appoints Kevin Baird as COO - Tenneco announced that its board has appointed Kevin Baird as COO, effective August 3. Tenneco said in a release, "In this role, Mr. Baird joins the executive leadership team and will lead and support critical strategic and operations initiatives that deliver margin expansion and cash generation improvements. Baird joins Tenneco from Guardian Industries, a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries, Inc., where he served since 2014 as President and Chief Executive Officer of its Guardian Glass business."

06:31 EDT InnSuites Hospitality Trust receives NYSE American notice of non-compliance - InnSuites Hospitality Trust received notice from NYSE Regulation on July 1, that the Trust is not in compliance with continued listing standards of NYSE American Exchange because IHT has not yet filed its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2020. NYSE Rules require that listed companies timely file all periodic reports. The Trust is working diligently to file the delinquent report as soon as possible, has contacted NYSE Regulation, and now believes that it will be able to file the annual report on or before July 20. The notice from NYSE Regulation has no immediate effect on the listing or trading of the Trust's shares.

06:13 EDT Greenbrier provides COVID-19 business update - Greenbrier said in its Q3 release, "The COVID-19 pandemic has crystalized Greenbrier's strategy for the balance of fiscal 2020 and into fiscal 2021. Most importantly, we are protecting our employees from its spread within the work environment. Since forming an incident response team to address the then-emerging crisis in late February, we have worked diligently to protect employees from the spread of COVID-19 while working in Greenbrier facilities. To date, a small fraction of our total workforce of over 13,000 employees have tested positive. We are very pleased that all affected employees have or are expected to recover. Community spread of COVID-19 has increased in recent weeks in many areas where we operate, requiring additional vigilance and employee communications. We are working toward maintaining a low incident rate of COVID-19 among our employees by remaining focused on their health and enhancing the preventative and remedial actions of the rapid response teams across the company. We are also preserving the near-term and longer-term financial health of Greenbrier in response to the economic consequences of the pandemic. Maintaining cash flow and liquidity are essential components of Greenbrier's current operating strategy. We have addressed our cost structure by reducing operating expenses and capital expenditures. Selling and administrative expenses for the quarter were $49 million and we expect further reductions in the fourth fiscal quarter. We have also executed a temporary restructuring of the GIMSA joint venture to improve profitability and cash flow for the partners. Depending on production scheduling, this restructuring alone could provide over $40 million of cash to Greenbrier through the first half of fiscal 2021 with an accompanying boost to earnings. Greenbrier continues its manufacturing rationalization programs across our North American production network in response to current levels of demand. In the first three quarters of the year, we closed 11 rail productions lines and continue adjusting capacity to align with the demand outlook. As a result of these actions, total employment in North America has been reduced by about 40%, or about 5,300 employees, including both staff and production employees at the end of the third quarter. Despite these pressures, Greenbrier's Manufacturing business delivered a total of 5,900 units in the quarter. Based on current backlog, we are left with minimal open production capacity for the remainder of both the fiscal and the calendar year. We expect its recovery will be a leading indicator of the broader economic recovery, post-pandemic. Greenbrier is focused on the safety of our employees, generating strong cash flow to maintain liquidity, and sizing our business to fit the lower demand environment. Achieving these priorities will ensure Greenbrier emerges strongly from today's challenges."

06:06 EDT WhatsApp now supports more than 50M WhatsApp Business app users - Facebook's WhatsApp said in a blog post that it has more than 50 million users of its business app world-wide each month. WhatsApp said more than 2 billion people use its app, and more than 40 million people view a business catalog on the platform each month. WhatsApp also said it has added a feature that allows users to scan a QR code and chat directly with a business and for businesses to share product catalogs on WhatsApp as links. Reference Link

05:32 EDT Barrick Gold serves notice of dispute over Porgera Mine - Barrick Gold announced that its subsidiary, Barrick PD Australia, an investor in the Porgera Mine, has given notice to Papua New Guinea, or PNG, that a dispute has arisen under the Bilateral Investment Treaty, or BIT, between PNG and Australia. Barrick said in a release, "Barrick PD asserts that the dispute arises out of the PNG Government's decision not to extend the Porgera Special Mining Lease, or SML, in violation of the terms of the BIT and international law governing foreign investment. Barrick PD, as an investor, seeks to recover damages it has already suffered and damages it may suffer in the future by virtue of PNG's wrongful refusal to grant an extension of the Porgera SML. If the dispute cannot be resolved through consultations and negotiations, Barrick PD has elected to refer the dispute to arbitration before the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Barrick continues to advocate for a negotiated solution to an extension of the Porgera mining lease on terms that would be beneficial to all stakeholders."