Raphael Stevens

Athens City-County Health Department Director of Nursing, Crystal Jones, 52, loads syringes with the vaccine on the first day of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty ImagesLONDON — Europe’s medicines regulator on Wednesday said it still believes the benefits of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine outweigh the risks of side effects following reports of extremely rare blood clotting.It comes shortly after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked states to temporarily pause using J&J’s vaccine “out of an abundance of caution” after six cases of a blood clotting disorder were detected among more than 6.8 million doses of the shot.All six cases occurred in the U.S. in women, aged between 18 and 48, with symptoms developing six to 13 days after they received the shot. The FDA said one woman died as a result of blood clotting complications and another is in a critical condition.The European Medicines Agency said it is currently investigating all the reported cases and will decide whether regulatory action is required.”The EMA is currently expediting this evaluation and currently expects to issue a recommendation next week,” Europe’s medicines regulator said in a statement.”While its review is ongoing, EMA remains of the view that the benefits of the vaccine in preventing COVID-19 outweigh the risks of side effects.”South Africa has halted its rollout of the shot, while J&J said it would “proactively delay” deliveries of its vaccine to Europe, which started last week.The vaccine was authorized in the EU on March 11, but the widespread use of the shot has not yet started.”Right now, these adverse events appear to be extremely rare,” the FDA said on Tuesday in a joint statement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19 vaccine safety is a top priority for the federal government, and we take all reports of health problems following COVID-19 vaccination very seriously.”Last week, Europe’s medicines regulator said it found a possible link between the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford and rare blood clotting issues. AstraZeneca has not received authorization for use in the U.S.The Oxford-AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines work in similar ways and both use an adenovirus, a common type of virus that typically causes mild cold symptoms. More

A Falcon 9 rocket launches the company’s 14th Starlink mission on Oct. 18, 2020.SpaceXElon Musk’s SpaceX added more money to its most recent equity raise, according to a securities filing on Wednesday.SpaceX held a second close of about $314 million, adding to the $850 million that CNBC reported the company raised in February. The amendment brings the round’s new total equity raised to $1.16 billion, which the company raised at a valuation of about $74 billion.Strong demand for the company’s shares centers around its ambitious Starship and Starlink projects.Starship is the next-generation rocket that Musk’s company is developing, designed to be more powerful than even the Saturn V rockets that carried astronauts to the moon. Starlink is a global satellite network, which SpaceX is beginning to use to bring high-speed internet to customers. More

A Falcon 9 rockets launches a Starlink mission on January 20, 2021.SpaceXPrivate investment in space companies hit $1.9 billion in the first quarter, according to a report on Wednesday by New York-based firm Space Capital.”The trend towards larger late-stage deals continued in Q1, with the top 10 rounds accounting for 77% of total investment,” Space Capital managing partner Chad Anderson wrote in the report.”At the early-stage, we’re seeing larger deal sizes at higher valuations and looser terms as VCs push to deploy the historical amounts of capital they raised in 2020,” he noted.The quarterly Space Capital report divides investment in the industry into three technology categories.The first, infrastructure, includes what many would consider space companies, such as firms that build rockets and satellites.The other two categories are application and distribution. The former includes space-dependent services, like ride hailing or navigation, while the latter represents terrestrial-based technologies that connect to space-based networks.In total, Space Capital tracks 1,480 companies with $186.7 billion in cumulative global equity investment since 2012 across its three categories.The broad analysis of the space economy reflects Anderson’s underlying thesis, and a phrase—increasingly repeated in the industry—he coined to represent it: “In the same way that every company today is a technology company, every company of tomorrow will be a space company.”Space infrastructure ‘very likely’ to break above $10 billion this yearSpace CapitalThe bulk of the investment in the space infrastructure segment went to rocket builders and satellite companies, with $1.1 billion and $900 million, respectively.SpaceX’s $850 million raise and OneWeb’s $400 million financing were two “mega-rounds” leading the segment, Space Capital highlighted, followed by the raises of unicorns ABL Space and Axiom Space.Anderson thinks it’s “very likely” that space infrastructure investment exceeds $10 billion this year, which would top 2020’s record $8.9 billion.The satellite broadband communications efforts of OneWeb, Amazon, and Telesat are expected to raise additional capital “throughout the rest of this year,” Anderson said.He noted that Jeff Bezos hasn’t yet “put any new cash into Blue Origin so far,” and Elon Musk’s “SpaceX is going to need additional capital as they continue to push on their big initiatives, Starlink and Starship.”Anderson also said that investments in satellite companies, which make up about half of the deal activity in space infrastructure since 2012, directly affect the applications layer of companies that Space Capital tracks.”It’s all of the data that’s coming off the satellites driving that $150 billion [total equity investment since 2012] in applications,” Anderson said.More space SPACs expectedThe 16th Electron launch in November 2020, when the company recovered the rocket after splashdown for the first time.Rocket LabSpace Capital is tracking eight space deals with SPACs, or special purpose acquisition companies, that are expected to close and “more exits are on the way,” the report said.Seven of these companies are in the space infrastructure segment and, in all, the close of the SPACs will add nearly $3 billion in cash to company balance sheets.A SPAC or special purpose acquisition company is a shell company that raises money from investors via an initial public offering and then uses the capital to buy a private company and take it public, usually within two years.”We welcome the access to additional capital that SPACs offer for infrastructure companies, but are cautious that valuations and growth targets may be out of reach for companies that don’t have a defensible data angle,” Space Capital said.A defensible data angle means a company is offering a service beyond launching rockets to orbit, Anderson said. He gave Rocket Lab, which is merging with SPAC Vector Acquisition, as an example. Last year, the company expanded its business into spacecraft system services.”We’ve seen SpaceX again leading in this way. They’re a launch business first, but the main driver of their valuation is their satellite communications services business [called Starlink], and so many other things that they’re doing,” Anderson said.The PIPEs, or private investments in public equity, of these SPACs are going to also boost the second quarter’s investment totals, which Anderson says “is going to be massive.”He believes there are three companies “that are highly likely” to announce SPAC mergers in the coming months, and expects about a dozen space SPAC deals in total for the year.Enjoyed this article?For exclusive stock picks, investment ideas and CNBC global livestreamSign up for CNBC ProStart your free trial now More

In this articleKSSCustomers leave a Kohl’s store on November 12, 2015 in San Rafael, California.Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesKohl’s said Wednesday it has reached an agreement with a group of activist investors who have been pushing to seize control of the retailer’s board.Two new independent directors that were nominated by the investors, Margaret Jenkins and Thomas Kingsbury, will join Kohl’s board at the close of its 2021 annual shareholders meeting, it said. Jenkins was previously chief marketing officer of the restaurant chains Denny’s and El Pollo Loco, and Kingsbury previously served as the CEO of Burlington Stores.Kohl’s, with support from the investors, will also name an additional independent director, Christine Day. Day served as CEO of the athletic apparel chain Lululemon from 2008 to 2013.The group of investors — Macellum Advisors, Ancora Holdings, Legion Partners Asset Management and 4010 Capital — has a combined 9.5% stake in Kohl’s.The activists originally nominated nine candidates to Kohl’s board, but last month reduced that figure to five. The investors have been arguing for Kohl’s to slash its executive compensation, cull inventory levels and consider selling some of its noncore real estate.”We are pleased to have been able to reach this constructive resolution with the company, and we are confident these changes will help further our shared goal of creating long-term value for shareholders,” the group said in a statement Wednesday.Kohl’s said it has received notice from current board member Steve Burd that he will retire at the end of August. Frank Sica, the current chair, is expected to retire next year.Kohl’s has also expanded its share buyback plan to $2 billion.Its shares rose more than 1% in early trading. Kohl’s stock is up nearly 50% year to date. The company has a market cap of $9.7 billion, which has grown to be larger than Macy’s and Nordstrom’s. More

In this articleIBE-ESThe proposed hydrogen project will be located near Whitelee Windfarm, a major facility near Glasgow, Scotland.Billy Currie Photography | Moment | Getty ImagesScottishPower has submitted plans to develop a major “green” hydrogen facility that it says will use the U.K.’s largest electrolyzer.In a statement earlier this week the energy company, a subsidiary of Spanish utility Iberdrola, said the project would be located near Glasgow, Scotland.It’s envisaged that the development will use a 20 megawatt (MW) electrolyzer and be powered by a 40 MW solar farm and a battery storage scheme of 50 MW.On Monday, ScottishPower said the project would also use wind power and be able to produce as much as 8 metric tons of green hydrogen every day. If authorities approve the plans, the facility could start supplying the commercial market before the year 2023.Described by the International Energy Agency as a “versatile energy carrier,” hydrogen has a diverse range of applications and can be deployed in sectors such as industry and transport.It can be produced in a number of ways. One method includes using electrolysis, with an electric current splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen. If the electricity used in the process comes from a renewable source such as wind or solar then some call it “green” or “renewable” hydrogen.The project planned for Scotland will be situated near the U.K.’s largest onshore wind farm, the 539 MW, 215 turbine Whitelee facility.ITM Power will deliver the electrolyzer while ScottishPower Renewables will provide the wind and solar power. Industrial gas company BOC will handle the development’s engineering and operations.While the vast majority of today’s hydrogen generation is based on fossil fuels, the last few years have seen a number of companies develop projects centered around green hydrogen production.In March, for example, it was announced that a major green hydrogen facility in Germany had started operations. The “WindH2” project, as it’s known, involves German steel giant Salzgitter, E.ON subsidiary Avacon and Linde, a firm specializing in engineering and industrial gases.The same month also saw Danish energy company Orsted outline proposals to construct a large-scale offshore wind farm in the North Sea and link it to renewable hydrogen production on the European mainland.Under the plans, Orsted would develop a 2 gigawatt (GW) offshore wind facility and 1 GW of electrolyzer capacity.The company claims this would result in “one of the world’s largest renewable hydrogen plants to be linked to industrial demand.” More