Benzinga Before The Bell: Snap's Dismal Earnings, Amazon's Healthcare Foray, Robinhood Moves 41B Dogecoin Into Single Wallet And Other Top Financial Stories Friday, July 22

Reuters

Prominent British Sports Retailer JD Sports Sees Profits At Par With Last Year Thanks To Robust Demand

• Leading British sportswear retailer JD Sports Fashion PLC JDSPY expects annual profit to be in line with last year’s performance thanks to solid demand for athleisure apparel and sportswear.
• JD, which offers Nike, Inc NKE, adidas AG ADDYY, Puma, and in-house brands, said total sales for the five months of the year in its like-for-like businesses remain 5% up year-on-year.
• JD said earnings in the current year would reflect a more normalized trading pattern with 35% - 40% of the profits generated in the first half.

Bavarian Nordic’s Monkeypox Vaccine Gets Thumbs Up From EU Regulator

• The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) adopted a “positive opinion” recommending Bavarian Nordic A/S’s BVNRY smallpox vaccine, Imvanex, be authorized to include protection against monkeypox on its label.
• The vaccine is approved for use against monkeypox in the U.S. and Canada, where it is marketed as Jynneos and Imvamune, respectively. It is only authorized for use against smallpox in Europe.
• But the company has supplied the vaccine to several EU countries during the current monkeypox outbreak for “off-label” use, Reuters reported.

Honda Slashes Production In Japan Citing Supply Chain Issues

• Honda Motor Co Ltd HMC will cut production in Japan by 30% in August as supply chain constraints remain a major hurdle, Reuters reported.
• Two lines at the auto major’s Suzuka plant in western Japan will slash production by about 10% this month and by about 30% in early August.
• Honda’s assembly plant in Saitama prefecture will also undergo a production cut.

Wall Street Journal

Samsung Weighs Massive US Ambitions As CHIPS Bill Gathers Momentum

• Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd SSNLF floated the prospect of investing ~$200 billion in 11 new chipmaking plants in Texas over the next two decades, the Wall Street Journal reports citing Texas Comptroller filings.
• Samsung could invest ~$170 billion toward nine new chip manufacturing facilities in Taylor and roughly $25 billion in Austin.
• The filings did not indicate specific plans.

Bloomberg

Thailand Plans To Implement Stricter Regulations On Crypto-Asset Platforms

• After a bitcoin selloff saddled retail investors with significant losses and brought down businesses, Thailand aims to tighten supervision of digital asset companies, Bloomberg reported citing the country’s top regulator.
• Most current rules governing digital assets were passed in 2018, but the Securities & Exchange Commission is looking to modify them, according to Secretary-General Ruenvadee Suwanmongkol.
• She stated, without getting into specifics, that proposals include stricter requirements for the management and licensing of cryptocurrency custodians.

Elon Musk’s Giga Texas Head Could Exit Tesla Over ‘Suspicious’ Glass Order Probe Linked To ‘Secret Project:’ Report

• A key Tesla Inc TSLA executive who runs the automaker’s Giga Texas factory is reportedly expected to leave the Elon Musk-led company after a procurement-related investigation.
• Omead Afshar’s role in procuring a difficult-to-obtain glass is under probe, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
• An internal investigation began after the purchase of the glass was deemed suspicious. The probe is led by Tesla’s acting head of legal, David Searle, according to the sources.

Amazon, Alibaba, Others Miss Registration Deadline In Indonesia

• Companies including Amazon.com Inc AMZN and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA missed a deadline to register in Indonesia.
• Other companies missing the deadline included Roblox Corp RBLX, Microsoft Corp MSFT LinkedIn Corp, and PayPal Holdings, Inc PYPL.
• The companies have five working days to comply to help them continue their services in the country.

Benzinga

Coinbase Was Already Investigating Insider Trading, Says CEO

• Coinbase Global Inc COIN CEO Brian Armstrong said that his company had begun investigating inside trading on its platform much before three of its former employees were charged with fraud.
• On Thursday, former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi and two of his associates were arrested on charges related to insider trading.
• The Department of Justice said the case was the first crypto insider trading scheme on record.

Tesla Supplier’s Cheaper LFP Batteries To Also Power Ford’s EVs In Coming Years: What Investors Should Know

• Ford Motor Company F announced on Thursday plans to source battery capacity and raw materials en route to its electric vehicle production goal of a 600,000 annual rate by 2023 and 2 million by 2026.
• As part of the plan, Ford said it would tap heavily into Tesla, Inc. TSLA battery supplier CATL.
• Ningde, China-based CATL will provide full lithium-phosphate battery (LFP) packs for Ford’s Mustang Mach-E models meant for North America, starting in 2023, the U.S. automaker said. The world’s largest battery manufacturer will also supply LFP batteries for Ford’s F-150 Lightning EV, beginning in 2024.

Robinhood Moves All 41B Dogecoin Into Single Wallet: What Could It Mean?

• Popular retail stock and cryptocurrency brokerage Robinhood Markets Inc HOOD has moved all its Dogecoin DOGE/USD into a single wallet.
• A series of transactions picked up by blockchain wallet tracker Dogecoin Whale Alert found Robinhood has moved all 41 billion DOGE it holds to one address.
• The new wallet address now holds 31% of all DOGE supply. According to data from BitInfoCharts, the total value of these 41 billion DOGE coins was worth $2.8 billion at the time of writing.

Largest US Pension Fund With Apple As Top Holding Posts First Annual Loss Since 2009 Financial Crisis

• California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has posted a loss for the fiscal year 2021-22, the biggest U.S. pension fund said in a statement.
• : On a preliminary basis, the fund generated a net return of a negative 6% on its investments for the 12-month period ended June 30, it said. This marks the first loss for CalPERS since the global financial crisis of 2009.
• At the end of the period, CalPERS’ assets stood at $440 billion, down from $469 billion at the end of the previous fiscal. This represents a reversal from the 21.3% return it earned In the fiscal year 2020-21.

Daimler Truck Begins Production Of eEconic Electric Truck

• Daimler Truck Holding AG DTRUY has begun the Daimler production of Mercedes-Benz eEconic, its second electric model for municipal use.
• The second model of the battery-electric Mercedes-Benz trucks will roll off the production line in Wörth, following the series launch of the eActros for urban distribution transport in October 2021.
• The first vehicle from series production will be handed over to Urbaser A/S, a company operating in the waste disposal sector in Denmark.

Snapchat Parent’s Co-Founders Agree To $1 Annual Paycheck After Dismal Q2 Numbers

• Snapchat parent Snap Inc SNAP co-founders Bobby Murphy and Evan Spiegel have agreed to serve in their respective executive roles for a compensation of $1 per year.
• Murphy and Spiegel entered into “new long-term employment agreements” with Snap to serve as chief technology officer and chief executive officer, respectively, at least through Jan. 1, 2027, for $1 per year, according to an investor letter.
• The duo will receive no equity compensation, but the board agreed to issue a stock split in the form of a dividend of one Class A share for each outstanding share should the Class A share price reach $40 within the next 10 years.

Amazon Scores Brownie Points With Rivian EV Partnership

• Rivian Automotive, Inc RIVN electric delivery vans co-developed with Amazon.com Inc AMZN have started delivering packages for the latter.
• This rollout marks the beginning of thousands of Amazon’s custom electric delivery vehicles in over 100 cities by the end of 2022 and 100,000 across the US by 2030.
• The vehicles are the product of Amazon’s partnership with Rivian, forged in 2019 when Amazon co-founded and became the first signatory of a commitment to reach net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040.

Amazon Bets Almost $4B On Primary Health Care Provider To Deepen Its Presence In Healthcare

• Amazon.com Inc AMZN will acquire 1life Healthcare Inc (One Medical) ONEM for $18 a share in an all-cash deal valuing the primary health care provider at roughly $3.9 billion.
• Neil Lindsay, SVP of Amazon Health Services, said that with the One Medical acquisition, Amazon hopes to reinvent the “healthcare experience,” from how people book appointments to the experience of being seen by a physician.
• “We see lots of opportunity to improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days,” Lindsay said. “We love inventing to make what should be easy easier, and we want to be one of the companies that helps dramatically improve the healthcare experience over the next several years.

Photo by Souvik Banerjee from Pixabay