The Moderna Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine (Melissa Phillip/Getty Images)

Moderna rises after RFK Jr. vaccine panel’s less-draconian-than-expected Covid recommendation

While ACIP’s vote means less people may be able to access Moderna’s vaccine than before, it’s less severe than the outright ban some were expecting.

J. Edward Moreno

Moderna rose more than 5% on Monday after a federal vaccine panel adopted a recommendation for the COVID-19 vaccine that is significantly narrower than before but not as draconian as some investors were pricing in.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Friday voted to end the universal guidance that all people receive a Covid shot and now recommends people consult with a doctor before getting it. However, in a significant development, the committee did not vote to require patients to obtain a prescription in order to receive the vaccine.

Moderna, which was tapped by the first Trump administration to quickly develop an immunization for Covid in 2020, still makes nearly all of its revenue from the vaccine.

While ACIP’s vote means less people may receive Moderna’s vaccine than before, it is not an outright ban, which some were expecting. The panel was handpicked by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine critic.

The meeting was “marked by confusion over processes, technical difficulties and passionate disagreement among members and other experts in attendance,” according to NPR. The panel also postponed a key vote on whether to delay infants’ first hepatitis B vaccine.

Meanwhile, Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, is down on a report from the Washington Post that HHS plans to link the ubiquitous over-the-counter painkiller to autism.

Max Knoblauch1h

Chinese EV maker Nio sinks as a surge of orders for its new SUV create a 6-month backlog

Shares of Nio are falling Monday on the bittersweet news that its latest SUV (the ES8, priced to compete with Tesla’s Model Y) is too popular.

According to Chinese media reports, up to 50,000 ES8 orders may have been placed in the vehicle’s first 36 hours, surpassing Nio’s 40,000-vehicle production cap for this year.

Customers now ordering the ES8 won’t receive their vehicle for 24 to 26 weeks, or six months.

Nio CEO William Li said that the ES8’s production capacity will reach 15,000 units by December.

Nio Says ES8 Orders Placed Today Face 6-Month Wait

Customers now ordering the ES8 won’t receive their vehicle for 24 to 26 weeks, or six months.

Nio CEO William Li said that the ES8’s production capacity will reach 15,000 units by December.

Jon Keegan, Nate Becker

Nvidia jumps on plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as part of data center expansion

Shares of Nvidia vaulted on the news, as CEO Jensen Huang says the new project would involve 4 million to 5 million GPUs.

Matt Phillips3h

US toys with making the world’s worst investment

Argentinian government bonds are up big today on reports that the US is considering some sort of a bailout for the chronically messy Latin American economy currently led by Trump-allied right-wing populist Javier Millei.

The country’s foreign minister knocked down previous reports that Argentina was negotiating a $30 billion loan with the US.

But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just came out saying that “all options” are being considered to stabilize the country’s currency, which plunged as Millei’s attempt to radically remake the economy with deep spending and tax cuts has shown signs of sputtering amid a series of government corruption scandals. Bessent even went so far as to say Argentina is a “systemically important” US ally, using a term of art that’s often bandied about when bailouts are in the offing.

For the record, lending Argentina US taxpayer money seems a bad idea.

The country has defaulted on foreign loans nine times, giving it one of the world’s worst credit histories. In fact, it’s defaulted three times since 2000, including in 2019, after the last attempt to “reform” the country lured in foreign lenders once again.

Bessent Says ‘All Options’ on Table to Steady Milei’s Argentina

For the record, lending Argentina US taxpayer money seems a bad idea.

Max Knoblauch4h

BYD dips following report that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire dumped its entire stake after 17 years

Berkshire Hathaway has fully exited its stake in the world’s largest EV maker, BYD, sending shares of the Chinese auto giant down on Monday.

A CNBC report over the weekend highlighted the change, which was disclosed back in March in a quarterly filing by subsidiary Berkshire Hathaway Energy. Berkshire confirmed that it sold its full position.

Buffett’s fund first invested in BYD in 2008 at the urging of then Vice Chair Charlie Munger, who died in 2023. Berkshire acquired nearly 10% of the company for $232 million at the time.

Berkshire’s position peaked at $9 billion in June 2022, before it began selling its shares — including a 76% cut last July. Analysis by Business Insider found that the fund made approximately $7 billion from its investment, a return on investment of more than 30x.

Luke Kawa4h

Wedbush boosts price target on Oklo — a pre-revenues nuclear power AI play — to $150

Oklo is the 449th-largest stock in the US coming into this week, boasting a market cap above that of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dollar Tree, or Halliburton.

It also happens to have generated zero sales, making it the largest pre-revenue stock listed on US exchanges, per an equity screen run on Bloomberg.

(Hat tip to @SilbergleitJr on X, who drew this to our attention.)

Oklo is in the nuclear power business, and has positioned itself as a potential power provider to help facilitate the AI boom.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives boosted his price target on the stock to a whopping $150 from $80 on Sunday, citing “incremental confidence in the company’s nuclear growth strategy as the AI Revolution hits its next stride of growth.” It’s also on his Ives AI 30 list of stocks that, in his view, offer the most exposure to the AI boom.

“Given the recent focus on nuclear energy following the Trump Administration Executive Order we view this as ‘just the start’ of the nuclear focus for energy in the US over the coming year with OKLO leading the sector,” he added. “Our time spent in the Beltway last week with meetings on the Hill gave us incremental confidence that the push for nuclear energy in the US is now underway and positions OKLO very well for this wave of spending/growth/regulatory approval.”

The company announced that it’s holding a groundbreaking ceremony for its Idaho-based “first Aurora powerhouse” today, which will be attended by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Governors Bradley Little (Idaho) and Spencer Cox (Utah), US Senators Mike Crapo and James Risch, Congressman Mike Simpson, Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief Bradley Crowell, and the Department of Energy’s Michael Goff and Robert Boston, to name a few.