Moderna rises after $6 million in insider purchases revealed

Moderna’s share price is spiking after the company disclosed early Wednesday that CEO Stephane Bancel and Board Director Paul Sagan have purchased $6 million worth of the company’s stock.

According to the filings, Bancel acquired 160,314 shares for a total of $5 million, while Sagan bought 31,620 shares for $1 million. The executives purchased the shares at about $31 per share.

Moderna shares have fallen more than 20% since the start of the year. The vaccine maker has struggled to keep up with investor expectations after its Covid vaccine revenue dried up. Moderna did receive money from the government to develop a bird flu vaccine, which excited investors, though that grant is reportedly being reevaluated.

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Hyunsoo Rim2h

Intel trades higher on TSMC investment talks and report on new Trump administration plans to boost US chip production

Intel has approached TSMC about potential investments or manufacturing partnerships, the Wall street Journal reported, a day after Bloomberg reported that Apple was also in talks with the struggling chipmaker.

The outreach comes as Intel ramps up efforts to secure outside backers, following a $5 billion investment from Nvidia, a $2 billion injection from SoftBank, and an $8.9 billion (~10%) stake taken by the US government — which, so far, has paid off handsomely for Uncle Sam.

Separately, WSJ also reports that the Trump administration is mulling plans to force chip companies to equalize domestic production and imports or face tariffs. The potential measures could be beneficial for companies that have a large US foundry footprint or are in the process of boosting production stateside. As such, this report may also be buoying shares of Intel this morning, as well as fueling a rally in GlobalFoundries.

CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been seeking partners to turn the chipmaker around, as Intel trails rivals in AI chips and struggles to set up its supply chain. Earlier this year, Tan met with Apple CEO Tim Cook and TSMC chief C.C. Wei about "a partnership or joint venture," per the WSJ.

Intel's shares closed Thursday up 8.9%, reaching their highest level in more than a year, and were extending their gains in pre-market trading Friday, up 5%. TSMC is down ~2% pre-market.

Luke Kawa, Nia Warfield

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S&P 500’s losing streak extends to three

The longest run in the red for the benchmark US stock index in over a month.

Bears awaken from hibernation at the zoo in Thale

Luke Kawa17h

Retail traders are dumping Bloom Energy after near 300% rally, says JPMorgan

Retail traders are swarming for the exits in fuel cell company Bloom Energy, causing what was once a near 300% year-to-date rally to sour.

JPMorgan strategists led by Arun Jain flagged that Bloom’s net imbalance — the balance of buying versus selling among retail traders — was exceptionally negative as of 11 a.m. ET, even worse than during its double-digit drop on Wednesday.

The fuel cell company, which counts Oracle among its customers, eclipsed a market cap in excess of $20 billion earlier this week despite generating less than $2 billion in sales over the past year.

Wall Street began to sound some alarm bells about the extent of Bloom’s run this week, with Jefferies downgrading its rating for the stock to “underperform” from “hold” on Wednesday while Bank of America analysts wrote, “We are still not buying into BE’s AI hype.”

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Investors are growing bullish on weed stocks. But why?

We spoke to ATB Capital Markets analyst Frederico Gomes about why institutional investors are growing bullish on cannabis.

J. Edward Moreno19h

Matt Phillips19h

Duolingo rises as executives talk up China opportunity

Duolingo posted a solid gain Thursday, the latest in a series of relatively light-on-news moves in the stock this month as it has regained some attention among options-trading retail investors.

There was a story in China’s official China Daily where executives laid out their plans for the language-learning app’s push into the People’s Republic, which has been a focus of Wall Street analysts on recent post-earnings conference calls.

China, where the company began doing business in 2018, is Duolingo’s fastest-growing market for its language-learning app. It’s also the largest source of test takers for its Duolingo English Test proficiency exam business, a recent focus for management spotlighted in its recent Duocon product announcements.

It’s hard to say if the China Daily story is the reason for today’s upswing in the stock, but given the necessities of working within a country controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, a relatively favorable story appearing in its international propaganda organ suggests a relatively healthy working relationship is developing there.

Duolingo to expand local team, products

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