Retail Sales Soar

There’s a lot of news this morning. Let’s start with jobless claims which fell to a new pandemic low of 576,000. That’s down from last week’s report of 769,000. The report is still very bad but at least things are moving in the right direction.

This morning’s retail sales report was off the charts. Last month, retail sales rose by 9.8%. This is what happens when you keep people locked up, then release them and give them stimulus checks. Wall Street had been expecting a gain of 6.1%. The number for February was revised upward to a decline of 2.7%.

The critical bar and restaurant industry saw a 13.4% surge, thanks to the increasing relaxing of restrictions as Covid vaccines accelerate to a pace of more than 3 million a day. Sporting goods spending was the highest percentage gainer at 23.5%, followed by clothing and accessories at 18.3% and motor vehicle parts and dealers at 15.1%.

March’s retail sales report was another sign that consumers overall are willing to spend, even though increasing amounts of stimulus checks are going towards savings rather than spending.

Yesterday, the S&P 500 lost 0.41%. That was the index’s worst day in the last three weeks, and it’s not that bad. The stock market is up again to a new all-time high this morning. The S&P 500 has been as high as 4,163.30 this morning. Before yesterday, the S&P 500 had risen seven times in nine sessions.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) is having a good day. Our Buy Lister said it’s buying PPD for $17.4 billion. That’s $47.50 per share.

From Bloomberg:

The drug-testing field has become a hotbed of activity as companies worldwide seek to roll out new Covid-19 drugs and vaccines, even as they continue to develop new cancer therapies and other treatments. With Covid-19 case numbers remaining high worldwide, and rising concern about future pandemics, the value of CROs is growing.

PPD has worked with Gilead Sciences Inc. on studies of the Covid drug remdesivir and on research involving Roche Holding AG’s Actemra as an arthritis treatment, according to its website. PPD also offers laboratory services.

What Bloomberg Intelligence says:

“ PPD is one of the largest contract research organizations, with scale in clinical, preclinical and central lab end-markets. The marriage of PPD with Thermo’s Patheon manufacturing unit would create a compelling end-to-end offering for biopharma customers, with compelling financial metrics.”

Posted by on April 15th, 2021 at 10:48 am


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