Stocks – Novavax, Merck Rise in Premarket on Vaccine News

(C) Reuters.

By Geoffrey Smith

Investing.com — Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Tuesday, May 26th. The broader market is set to open sharply higher amid hopes for a quick economic rebound as the coronavirus recedes in the northern hemisphere.

• Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) stock rose 13.3% to $52.25 after the company said it had begun clinical testing on humans for its experimental anti-coronavirus vaccine. It’s now tripled in the last three weeks.
• Hopes for Novavax’s drug rest largely on the fact that it is a “subunit” vaccine, a more tried and trusted form of drug than the mRNA vaccines under developed by Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) partner BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX).
• Merck (NYSE:MRK) stock rose 3.7% after it announced two initiatives to catch up in the race to develop a vaccine against the Covid-19 virus.
• The company is buying Austrian-based Themis Bioscience, and will also work together with the IAVI research institute, whose experimental vaccine uses the same technology that is the basis for Merck’s Ebola virus vaccine.
• Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (NYSE:FCAU) stock rose 7.6% after the company made progress over the weekend on getting state support from Italy.
• Intesa Sanpaolo (OTC:ISNPY), Italy’s largest domestic bank, is expected to approve a 6.9 billion euro ($7.6 billion) state-backed loan at a board meeting Tuesday that will be channeled largely to FCA’s suppliers in Italy. Direct support from the government proved politically impossible for FCA due to its extensive non-Italian operations and its tax-efficient Dutch holding company structure.
• Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) stock rose 7.0% as investors rotated back into cyclical stocks, despite the fact that its Latin American partner airline LATAM (NYSE:LTM) filed for bankruptcy protection over the weekend.
• Delta had bought a 20% stake in LATAM, the largest carrier in the region, for $1.9 billion last year. LATAM ADRs fell 41% in premarket.