Author: Press Room

The Biden administration unveiled Tuesday a $1.1 billion program aimed at providing Covid-19 vaccines and treatments to the uninsured at no cost after the federal supply is exhausted. The two-part initiative would utilize pharmacies, local health departments and federally supported health centers to provide Covid-19 care, according to a fact sheet distributed by the White House. The funds should support the program through December 2024. Americans can currently receive Covid-19 vaccines and certain treatments at no charge because the federal government purchased them for distribution to the public. But when that supply is exhausted, the products will shift to the…

Goldman Sachs Group said Tuesday it was exploring the sale of GreenSky, the company’s lending platform. Goldman Sachs (ticker: GS) Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call that the bank was “initiating the process to explore the sale of GreenSky,” which makes home improvement loans and other loans. “We believe GreenSky is performing well with first-quarter originations and loans up over 25% year over year and awaited FICO on total originations of over 780. Given our current strategic priorities, however, we may not be the best long-term holder of this business,” the CEO added. Goldman…

Nektar Therapeutics NKTR, -5.67% shares rallied late Monday after the biotech drug maker said it was cutting staff by 60% in San Francisco, where the company is based, and shifting its focus to immunology drugs in a partnership with Eli Lilly & Co. LLY, -0.66%. Nektar shares popped as much as 7% in the extended session, after they closed the regular session up 6.3% at 98 cents a share. The 60%-cut figures a reduction of about 88 employees in San Francisco, resulting, as the company stated, in a staff of about 55 employees. At the end of 2022, Nektar reported…

A long-established report card grading air quality around the country has uncovered worrisome takeaways. For one, the American Lung Association, which issues the grades, finds that lung cancer among non-smokers is on the rise, with pollution considered a likely contributor.Second, communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air and the serious pulmonary conditions and other medical concerns that come with it. And third, severe wildfires in recent years made outdoor life in the scenic U.S. West, where population is on the rise, increasingly difficult and dangerous. The lowest grades for air quality cropped up largely in western states. In…

Former President Donald Trump is back on Instagram for the first time since the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.  His comeback post: pushing a second wave of his Trump Digital Trading Cards non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. The first series of Trump NFTs was released last December, almost a month after he launched his 2024 presidential campaign, for $99 apiece. All 44,000 sold out in less than a day, and appeared to generate almost $4.4 million in total revenue — although, as Forbes reported, Trump’s financial disclosure forms show he personally pocketed between $100,000 and $1 million from…

© Reuters Manchester United shares fall on report the Glazers are lean towards staying with minority investment By Sam Boughedda Manchester United Ltd (NYSE:) shares dropped Friday after a report by the Express said the Glazers are leaning towards staying with minority investment. The article states that insiders close to the situation told the publication that after two rounds, and no preferred bidder, some inside the club believe the Glazers do not want to lose their overall control of the club and believe the family will remain in charge but will welcome minority investment. Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Thani of…

By Ambar Warrick Investing.com — Gold prices fell slightly in Asian trade on Wednesday, but hovered around key levels as markets awaited more cues on U.S. monetary policy from a string of upcoming Federal Reserve speakers and reports.  The yellow metal retook the $2,000 level on Tuesday as the and U.S. Treasury yields cooled after a recent recovery rally. But further gains were held back by growing uncertainty over the path of U.S. interest rates, with recent hawkish signals from Fed speakers having spooked markets.  Still, gold remained relatively well bid amid fears of an economic slowdown this year, as…

By Peter Nurse Investing.com – The U.S. dollar stabilized in early European trade Wednesday, with traders trying to work out the likely path of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy by digesting economic data and comments from policy makers. At 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT), the , which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded 0.1% higher at 101.510, rebounding after the previous session’s 0.4% slide. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, that he favored continued interest-rate hikes to counter persistent inflation, potentially lifting the all the…

By Noor Zainab Hussain, Manya Saini and Saeed Azhar (Reuters) -Wells Fargo & Co’s profit surpassed expectations for the first quarter on Friday as it earned more from higher interest rates, even while executives forecast tighter monetary policy would dampen economic activity. The bank also reported a $643 million increase in the allowance for credit losses, including for loans on commercial real estate, credit cards and cars. Analysts have warned of further weakness in the commercial real estate (CRE) market as widespread remote working emptied offices in major cities. Wells Fargo (NYSE:) executives detailed the bank’s exposure to CRE at…

Key News Asian equities were mostly lower overnight except for Japan, despite an overwhelmingly positive economic release coming out of China. China logged better-than-expected GDP growth in the first quarter of 2023 and retail sales were also unexpectedly strong. Some analysts are calling the release an indication of a continuous, rather than a sporadic, recovery. One broker used the word “revenge spending” to describe what is going on. Meanwhile, industrial production was lower than expected, likely due to slowing global demand as a potential recession looms in the US and Europe. Though not in the headline release, online retail sales…