Dow plunged 807 finishing near session lows, decliners over advancers better than 4-1 & NAZ tumbled a unusually big 598 (5%). The MLP index was off 2 to the 121s & the REIT index dropped 6 to the 359s. Junk bond funds drifted lower & Treasuries continued in demand. Oil settled down small change in the 41s & gold lost 5, finishing at 1939 (more on both below).
![Live 24 hours gold chart [Kitco Inc.]](https://www.kitco.com/images/live/gold.gif?0.2180338269244485)
White House coronavirus advisor Dr Anthony Fauci said that he is confident an approval for a coronavirus vaccine won’t be motivated by politics. The
Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has been “very explicit” that it is going
to make a decision based on data from clinical trials, Fauci said. The trial results will also be reviewed by the Data & Safety Monitoring Board, an independent group of experts who monitor
patient safety & treatment data, he said. “We
can have some confidence and some faith in what the FDA is saying,”
said the director of the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious
Diseases. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) has asked governors and health departments< to
prepare to distribute a vaccine as soon as Nov 1. In a letter dated
Aug 27, CDC Director Dr Robert Redfield said states will soon receive
permit applications from medical supply company McKesson (MKC),
which HHS tapped to help distribute the vaccine. He said they may need
to waive some licensing & permit requirements that could delay the
process. The deadline — just 2 days before the federal elections
— raised concerns among public health experts & scientists that
approval of a vaccine will be politically motivated & the White House
may be pressuring regulators to get a vaccine to the market ahead of
Nov 3. Earlier today, Health & Human Services Secretary Alex Azar insisted that the gov's Nov 1 deadline for states had nothing to do with the presidential election. “It
has nothing to do with elections. This has to do with delivering safe,
effective vaccines to the American people as quickly as possible and
saving people’s lives,” Azar said. “Whether it’s
Oct. 15, whether it’s Nov. 1, whether it’s Nov 15, it’s all about saving
lives but meeting the FDA standards of safety and efficacy.” The
FDA has said it would authorize a coronavirus vaccine so long as it is
safe & at least 50% effective. The flu vaccine, by comparison,
generally reduces the risk of getting influenza by 40-60% compared
with people who aren't inoculated, according to the CDC. Dr Stephen
Hahn, the FDA's commissioner, previously said the agency won't authorize
a vaccine that's not safe, even if it is fairly effective. “We’re
going to be very, very, very carefully looking at those safety data and
we’re going to be transparent about what we’ve seen,” he said on Jul 30.
Fauci says he has ‘confidence’ coronavirus vaccine approval won’t be political
Campbell Soup (CPB) saw “unprecedented demand” for products in the three months thru Jun as customers loaded up on food & beverages while sheltering at home amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The food products manufacturer had adjusted EPS of 63¢, in its fiscal Q4, as net sales
rose 18% to $2.1B. The results outpaced the 60¢ & $2.08B of revenue that was expected. “This quarter concluded a year that
furthered our strategic plan and solidified a significantly strengthened
foundation that we will build upon going forward as we begin fiscal
2021,” CEO Mark Clouse said. Sales from the meals & beverages unit, which includes soared 28%
from a year ago, bolstered by an 18% jump in US retail business
which includes soups, V8 beverages, Prego pasta sauces, & Campbell's pasta. Soup sales, which saw an 11-point bump from an
extra week, gained 52% in the US, helping offset weakness in food
services. Net snack sales, meanwhile, increased 11%, helped by the
extra week, the sale of the company's European chips business &
foreign exchange. Excluding those items, net sales climbed 7% amid
stronger demand for food purchases for in-home consumption, including
Goldfish crackers & Snyder's of Hanover pretzels. For the full year, profit was $1.63B as sales rose 7% year-over-year to $8.7B. Looking
ahead, CPG sees Q1 net sales up 5-7% from last
year's $2.18B. Adjusted EPS are expected to
increase by 13-18% to 88-92¢. The stock declined 3.89 (7%).
If you would like to learn more about CPG, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/CPG?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Campbell Soup sees 'unprecedented demand' during coronavirus lockdowns
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), a Dow stock & Dividend Arisotcrat, potential coronavirus vaccine prevented severe illness in a small
group of Syrian golden hamsters, the company announced. JNJ
researchers vaccinated hamsters with a single dose & then exposed the
rodents to the virus 4 week later, the company added. The vaccine elicited neutralizing antibodies, which researchers
believe are necessary to build immunity to the virus, in hamsters who
got the vaccine. The hamsters also appeared to lose less weight than
hamsters that did not get a vaccine & didn't experience severe
clinical disease, like pneumonia & mortality. The results were published in the medical journal Nature Medicine. “This
pre-clinical study further validates our confidence in our SARS-CoV-2
vaccine candidate,” JNJ's Chief Scientific Officer Paul Stoffels
said. “With our Phase 3 trials planned to start this
month, we remain committed to expanding our manufacturing and
distribution capabilities to enable global access to our SARS-CoV-2
vaccine candidate should it prove to be safe and effective in humans.” The
promising results in hamsters do not necessarily mean the vaccine will
provide the same level of protection in humans. But JNJ researchers
noted the findings are important as Covid-19 is known to progress into
severe disease in some humans. The stock dropped 4.45 (3%).
If you would like to learn more about JNJ, click on this link:
club.ino.com/trend/analysis/stock/JNJ?a_aid=CD3289&a_bid=6ae5b6f7
Johnson & Johnson says coronavirus vaccine prevents severe illness in hamsters
Gold futures fell to settle at their lowest level in a week,
as some traders look to the precious metal to cover losses in other
assets on the heels of a drop in US benchmark stock indices. US stock indices traded sharply lower, poised to erase their
gains for the week. Major losses in the stock market can send traders
scrambling to cover losses by selling other assets, such as gold. Dec gold fell $6 (0.4%) to settle at $1937 an ounce. That
was the lowest finish for a most-active contract since Aug 27. Prices declined 1.7% yesterday. Gold had struggled for direction early today, pressured by a fall in
weekly US jobless claims, but had also found some support from data
showing a monthly jump in the US trade deficit. Initial jobless claims fell by 130K to a seasonally adjusted 881K last week. Gov data, however, revealed that the trade deficit jumped 18.9% in Jul owing to a big snapback in imports.
Gold prices settle at 1-week low as U.S. stock market tumbles
Oil futures declined, with prices for the global Brent crude benchmark marking their lowest settlement since Jul as concerns remained over the outlook for demand. Oil prices saw even steeper losses early today as the US stock market sold off sharply on the heels of a tech selloff. West Texas Intermediate crude for Oct delivery edged down by 14¢ to settle at $41.37 a barrel, paring losses after trading as low as $40.22. The US benchmark was down a 2nd straight session, holding ground at the lowest finish in a month. Nov Brent, the global benchmark, declined 36¢ (0.8%) to $44.07 a barrel. That marked the lowest front-month contract settlement since Jul 31. Yesterday, the Energy Information Administration reported a hefty 9.4M-barrel weekly drop in US crude supplies, along with a fall of 4.3M barrels in gasoline inventories, but that failed to provide a lift to oil prices as demand remained weak. Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico region has seen a significant recovery since the hurricane made landfall on Aug. 27. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement estimated that 16.3% of current oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was shut in, rebounding from about 84% around the time Laura reached the Gulf Coast. Traders looked to the latest US economic data for hints on the outlook for energy demand. Today that data were mixed, with a decline in weekly jobless claims & a jump in the trade deficit in Jul. A closely followed index of non-manufacturing companies — retailers, banks, airlines, health-care providers & the like — fell in Aug.
Oil prices fall, with Brent at lowest finish since July on prospects for weak demand
Sep selling hit an overbought market hard today. There was no special news driving the selling. The Dow & especially NAZ had spectacular runs off their lows in late Mar, so profits were taken. Sep has the reputation for being the toughest month in the stock market & that scenario might be played out this year. Times are tough for the economy & fighting the virus. Those fears may make investors nervous.
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