Raphael Stevens

Getting America vaccinated will go a long way toward helping the country return to some sort of normal.Already, employers such as Instacart, Target, Trader Joe’s, Chobani, Petco, Darden Restaurants, McDonald’s and Dollar General are among a growing list of companies giving workers time off and extra money to get vaccinated for Covid-19.Kroger is awarding employees $100 in store credit in addition to a one-time $100 payment for taking the vaccine. Publix said it will give associates a $125 gift card to use in the store after they get both doses. For its part, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is offering anyone — employed or not — with proof of a Covid vaccination a free doughnut.More from Personal Finance:New batch of $1,400 stimulus payments is comingHere’s what workers miss the most about office lifeWhen will you be able to get vaccinated at work?And, The Greenhouse of Walled Lake, a marijuana dispensary in Walled Lake, Michigan, is giving anyone over the age of 21 with proof of vaccination a free pre-rolled joint. The “Pot for Shots” promotion is a “way of saying thank you for helping to end this pandemic and getting us back to normal,” the dispensary said.Nearly one-quarter of employed Americans who probably or definitely won’t get vaccinated would consider getting their shot if offered a cash bonus or stipend, according to a report by the Society for Human Resource Management.And yet, as of the most recent tally, 88% of organizations are unsure or have no plans to offer any incentives to encourage vaccinations.More than 9 in 10 workers said their employer is not providing incentives, or don’t know whether they might be, the report also found.But that’s likely to change, according to Amber Clayton, director of the Society for Human Resource Management’s Knowledge Center.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsAs vaccines become more available, and employers try to get back to business, we will see more businesses offering incentives, she said.While a glazed doughnut is unlikely to tip the scales, “they are making a statement and supporting vaccinations,” Clayton said.  A separate survey by Blackhawk Network found that this strategy could be effective. More than two-thirds of workers said they would accept a monetary incentive ranging from as little as $10 to as much as $1,000. One-third said they would get vaccinated for a $100 or less.Most said money was the best motivator, with paid time off a distant second choice. Blackhawk Network polled more than 2,000 adults in January.If your business is offering a freebie or perk for proof of vaccination, please email me about it at [email protected] to CNBC on YouTube. More

Penn National Gaming CEO Jay Snowden told CNBC on Tuesday the company is seeing a strong recovery at its properties as Covid vaccines are making people feel more comfortable returning to casinos.”What we’re seeing right now in the business … is revenues and volumes that I haven’t seen in years. The month of March has been incredible, ” Snowden said in an interview on “Squawk Box.”Penn National, which this week joined the S&P 500, has 41 gaming and racetrack properties in 19 states. After facing casino closures in the early days of the coronavirus, Snowden said the reopening in the spring and summer of 2020 proved to be mixed — attendance was low compared to non-pandemic levels, but engagement from those who ventured in was high.”We saw really high spend per visit when people came, but the visitation was still way down year over year because those that were 65-plus years old weren’t coming back,” Snowden said.As of Monday evening, just over 69% of U.S. residents aged 65 and up have received at least one Covid vaccine dose and 42.5% of that population have been fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Nearly 25% people in America have received at least one shot, including 13.5% of the entire population who have been fully vaccinated.Three vaccines have been approved for emergency use in the U.S. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines each require two shots for full immunity protection. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is a single dose.Increasing vaccination rates in the U.S., running at about 2.5 million shots per day, is seen as key to helping the economy continue to dig out of its pandemic-induced recession, allowing for people to resume activities that they otherwise shied away from during the health crisis. Penn National is observing those effects, Snowden said.”What we’re seeing now is the spend per visit was still much higher than it was pre-Covid, but visitation levels now in the month of March look a lot like they did in 2019, so you have those two things working together,” he said. “We had one of the biggest weekends this last weekend that we have seen in years.” However, even with Covid immunity protection increasing from vaccinations and high levels of prior infection, the seven-day average of new cases rose by 5% or more in 27 states, as of Sunday, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.Penn National also has a partnership with Barstool Sports to offer the Barstool Sportsbook app, enabling online betting in three states so far — Pennsylvania, Michigan and, most recently, Illinois — with hopes of launching in more states this year.Through the Barstool Sportsbook, Snowden said there’s been a lot of interest in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, known as March Madness, which has seen a lot of bracket-busting upsets in the early rounds.”All the wagers that took place on Super Bowl, we almost surpassed that amount in Pennsylvania and Michigan … on the first day of March Madness,” Snowden said. “We blew past, almost doubled, what we saw for Super Bowl within the first two days of March Madness.” More

Could the reopening trade’s success come at a cost?Bank of America analysts brought that question into focus on Monday in a note upgrading Booking Holdings and downgrading Pinterest and Snap, citing changing tides on the interest rate front that could put a crimp on stay-at-home stocks’ valuations.”This is not a call that Snap or Pinterest will miss estimates,” the note said. “This is a call that stocks could be range bound and we have better reopening ideas.”Booking Holdings finished trading down nearly 2.5% on Monday, backing off its all-time high set Wednesday. Pinterest fell nearly 1%. Snap lost less than half of 1%.”We’re … bullish on the reopening trade, but I guess where we would disagree with the report is that we don’t think it comes at the expense of some of these higher-growth companies,” Oppenheimer technical analyst Ari Wald told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Monday.Instead, it’s likely to come at the expense of higher-dividend-paying, lower-volatility sectors, leaving Pinterest and Snap as the long-term winners, he said.As for Booking Holdings, “it has mostly been trading in a very wide range — aside from that Covid collapse — between about $1,600 and $2,200 for much of the last four years,” Wald said.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwards”Now, a year after the important market bottom, entering this second year of the bull market, we’re seeing more stocks start to break out, Booking included, breaking above the upper end of that range,” he said. “It can be considered more positive than not, as long as that breakout holds at $2,200 support.”Booking closed at $2,231.89 on Monday.Challenges remain on both sides of Bank of America’s call despite improving estimates around the reopening, Chantico Global founder and CEO Gina Sanchez said in the same interview.”About 20% of travel is business related and 80% is leisure. Booking has about the same percentages in their revenues,” she said. “If you assume that their entire revenue base is going to experience that kind of boost in 2021 and 2022, then Booking actually looks cheap. But if you assume that 20% of their revenue portfolio is going to lag, then actually, it just may be fairly valued.”Pinterest and Snap’s fates will most likely hinge on the investing landscape, said Sanchez, also chief market strategist at Lido Advisors.”The bigger challenge there … really comes with their profitability and whether or not they can really build profitability,” she said. “The fly in the ointment is that interest rates are going up. And as interest rates go up, investors are really weighing valuations and I think fundamentals are coming into play.”While Sanchez anticipated that investors will favor “growth at a reasonable price rather than pure value,” high-growth companies will still have to prove themselves, she said.”There has to be some growth, but I do actually think that profitability will matter, and so, there, I agree with Bank of America,” she said.Disclaimer More

An employee draws up a syringe and a container with the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, in Schwaz, Austria.JOHANN GRODER | AFP | Getty ImagesLONDON — The European Union is “facing a serious situation” in rolling out Covid-19 shots, but it is “highly unfair” to accuse the bloc of vaccine nationalism, the region’s trade chief told CNBC on Tuesday.Since the start of its vaccination program, the EU has faced a slew of criticism, including for being too slow to approve vaccines and blocking exports of Covid-19 shots.At the same time, delivery issues with the AstraZeneca vaccine have hit deployment of shots during the first quarter and there are concerns in Brussels about whether contractual commitments will be fully respected in the next three months.”Clearly we are facing a serious situation in vaccine rollout. We need to speed up the vaccination, we need to speed up both vaccine production and supply,” Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU’s trade chief, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe.The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has been working with different pharmaceutical firms to boost vaccine production across the member states. The institution wants to see 70% of the adult population in Europe vaccinated by the end of the summer.However, meeting this target will depend on whether firms deliver the amount of vaccines that the bloc is expecting, as well as member states’ ability to distribute the shots among their populations.AstraZeneca has already cut its delivery numbers twice for the first quarter, and said it will be distributing less than half of the original target for the second quarter too.We think it is highly unfair to accuse the EU, which is one of the largest vaccine exporters, of vaccine nationalism.Valdis DombrovskisEuropean Commission Executive Vice PresidentGiven how important the AstraZeneca shot is for the EU’s vaccination program, European officials are considering whether they should impose tougher restrictions on exports. They could, for instance, prevent shots produced in the EU to being sent elsewhere, in particular to the U.K. where the vaccination rate is significantly higher than among the 27 countries.This has sparked accusations that the EU is practicing vaccine nationalism.”We think it is highly unfair to accuse the EU, which is one of the largest vaccine exporters, of vaccine nationalism,” Dombrovskis said.The EU reported last week that it had exported 41 million doses of Covid-19 shots to 33 countries since the end of January, with the U.K. being the biggest recipient. At the same time, the EU has said it is not seeing the same level of reciprocity from other parts of the world.However, the EU also stopped a shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines to Australia earlier this month due to the delivery issues with the pharmaceutical firm.The legislation that allowed the EU to stop this shipment is due to expire at the end of the month. As a result, EU officials are considering whether to extend and toughen these laws going forward.”What is important right now is companies actually honoring their contracts, because the problem we are facing, especially with one company that is not honoring the contract, that the vaccine supplies are way behind of what has been agreed,” Dombrovskis said.In the next three months, the European Union is expecting 55 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson shot, 200 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 35 million from Moderna and another 70 million from AstraZeneca. More

LONDON — A U.S. health agency said Tuesday that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information in trial results of its Covid-19 vaccine, potentially casting doubt over published efficacy rates.The announcement came just one day after the findings of a large U.S. trial showed that the vaccine was safe and highly effective and throws into question whether AstraZeneca can seek U.S. clearance for the vaccine next month as planned.The Data Safety Monitoring Board “expressed concern that AstraZeneca may have included outdated information from that trial, which may have provided an incomplete view of the efficacy data,” the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said in a statement.”We urge the company to work with the DSMB to review the efficacy data and ensure the most accurate, up-to-date efficacy data be made public as quickly as possible.”The NIAID said it was notified of the concerns late Monday, along with AstraZeneca and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Led by White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, the NIAID is part of the National Institutes of Health.Fauci told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Tuesday that the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot is “likely a very good vaccine.” However, he added, the DSMB became concerned that the data in AstraZeneca’s public statement “were somewhat outdated and might, in fact, be misleading a bit.”In response, AstraZeneca said that the figures published Monday “were based on a pre-specified interim analysis with a data cut-off of 17 February.””We will immediately engage with the independent data safety monitoring board (DSMB) to share our primary analysis with the most up to date efficacy data. We intend to issue results of the primary analysis within 48 hours,” the company said in a statement.Shares of AstraZeneca slipped nearly 1% during Tuesday trading in London and were down 2% in premarket trading in New York.U.S. trial results showed that the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford is 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness and 100% effective against severe disease and hospitalization.The findings were welcomed as “surprisingly positive” and “good news for the global community.” It was thought the trial data could help to bolster public confidence after a flurry of countries had temporarily suspended their use of the vaccine amid safety concerns.U.S. criticismAstraZeneca said it planned to prepare for the primary analysis to be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization before mid-April.Data from the late-stage human trial study was based on more than 32,000 volunteers across 88 trial centers in the U.S., Peru and Chile.”It is not unknown for a DSMB to disagree with investigators over interpretation of trial results,” said Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.”It is usually done in private, so this is unprecedented in my opinion,” he added. “It does not leave me concerned particularly unless they had found a safety issue that was being hidden, which does not appear to be the case.”The rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had been halted in several countries after reports of blood clots in some vaccinated people. Health experts sharply criticized the precautionary measure, citing a lack of data, while analysts expressed concern about the impact on vaccine uptake as the virus continues to spread.Germany, France, Italy and Spain are among those to have resumed use of the shot after Europe’s drug regulator said its initial investigation of possible side effects concluded the shot is safe and effective, adding the benefits of administering the vaccine still outweigh the risks.AstraZeneca said Monday that the independent DSMB had found no increased risk of blood clots.Ruud Dobber, executive vice president of AstraZeneca’s biopharmaceuticals business unit, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday that it was “very pleasing to see that even with a magnifying glass the Data Safety Monitoring Board didn’t see any imbalance between the vaccinated group and the placebo group.””So, that gives us a lot of confidence,” he added.Late last year, AstraZeneca faced criticism from U.S. health experts over the results and methods used in its phase 3 vaccine trials.Analysts at U.S.-based health care and biotech investment bank SVB Leerink said at the time that they believed the vaccine would “never be licensed in the U.S.”AstraZeneca pushed back against the criticism, saying the studies “were conducted to the highest standards” and that more data would follow. More

A rendering of Lockheed Martin’s 400 series satellite buses, which range from 400 kg to 800 kg in weight.Lockheed MartinLockheed Martin’s space division on Tuesday announced a strategic interest agreement with satellite start-up Omnispace, “to explore jointly developing 5G capability from space.””This really stems from a common vision of a global 5G network, which enables users to seamlessly transition between the satellite [and the] terrestrial network,” Omnispace CEO Ram Viswanathan told CNBC.Viswanathan highlighted Lockheed Martin’s “depth of expertise” in a variety of markets, most notably with a wide swath of customers from the Department of Defense.”Their appetite never dulls and the kind of need they have for communications across the board,” Lockheed Martin Space executive vice president Rick Ambrose told CNBC. “Omnispace has a very powerful vision of how to offer the service … [and] how you get it down to a mobile device.”Ambrose said the two companies have been interacting for about a year. The strategic interest agreement further cements the pair working toward a hybrid network that combines the reach of a global satellite network, known in the industry as a constellation, with the capacity of mobile wireless carrier networks.The partnership puts the companies in the widening field of space-based data communications, with potential competitors including Elon Musk’s SpaceX consumer-focused Starlink broadband service, satellite-to-smartphone specialist AST & Science, and the enterprise-focused networks of OneWeb and Telesat.Viswanathan recognized the other players building low Earth orbit satellite communications constellations, but differentiated Omnispace as offering a “direct to device capability” — rather than the “expensive and bulky” ground terminals that are required for users to connect to other space-based networks.”We’re able to deliver the mobile communications capability to a standardized 5G base handset or terminal, and as you can imagine that starts to open up an array of applications,” Viswanathan said.Omnispace last month raised a fresh round of venture capital, with investors led by Fortress Investment Group putting in $60 million. The Virginia-based company has raised $140 million to date since its founding in 2012, according to Pitchbook. Ambrose said its “too early to tell” whether Lockheed Martin will itself invest in Omnispace, but noted that the companies will “be exploring multiple options” as the partnership expands.The next step for Omnispace will be to deploy a “proof concept” of its technology in space. But while Omnispace is not yet finished with designing its full system, Viswanathan said it will have a “dramatically lower cost than” other satellite communications constellations, which estimate anywhere from $5 billion to more than $10 billion to fully deploy. More