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    Shares of cash-strapped Nikola nosedive on report of potential sale

    Shares of Nikola closed Thursday down 27.8% after a report that the embattled electric truck maker is exploring options to sell parts or all of the business.
    Bloomberg News reported the potential sale Thursday afternoon and noted other possibilities under consideration include bringing on partners and raising new funds.
    Nikola warned investors on its third-quarter conference call that the company only had enough cash to support its business into the first quarter of 2025 but not beyond.

    U.S. Nikola’s logo is pictured at an event held to present CNH’s new full-electric and Hydrogen fuel-cell battery trucks in partnership with U.S. Nikola event in Turin, Italy, on Dec. 3, 2019.
    Massimo Pinca | Reuters

    DETROIT — Shares of Nikola closed Thursday down 27.8% after a report that the embattled electric truck maker is exploring options to sell parts or all of the business.
    The stock closed Thursday at 85 cents apiece after hitting a new 52-week low of 76 cents prior to the end of trading.

    Bloomberg News reported the potential sale Thursday afternoon and noted other possibilities under consideration include bringing on partners and raising new funds.
    The report comes three months after Nikola warned investors on its third-quarter conference call that the company only had enough cash to support its business into the first quarter of 2025 but not beyond. Nikola reported $198 million in cash to end the third quarter.

    Stock chart icon

    Nikola stock nosedives.

    Nikola CEO Steve Girsky, a major stakeholder in the company, on the earnings call said the company was “actively talking to lots of potential different partners who value what we do and value what we’ve built.”
    Girsky, a former bank analyst and General Motors executive, took Nikola public through his special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in June 2020. It was a catalyst for more EV companies to go public through SPACs.
    Much similar to Nikola, most, if not all, have failed to live up to their initial expectations. Many, including Nikola, were the center of federal investigations, scandals and executive upheavals.
    Nikola did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the Bloomberg report.

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    UnitedHealthcare taps company veteran Tim Noel as new CEO following Brian Thompson killing

    UnitedHealthcare tapped Tim Noel, a company veteran, as its new CEO following the fatal, targeted shooting of its former top executive, Brian Thompson, in Manhattan in December. 
    Noel served as the head of Medicare and retirement at UnitedHealthcare, the largest private health insurer in the U.S. and the insurance arm of UnitedHealth Group.
    The company is still reeling from the murder of Thompson, which unleashed a torrent of pent-up anger and resentment toward the insurance industry and renewed calls for reform.

    UnitedHealthcare signage is displayed on an office building in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 19, 2023.
    Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images

    UnitedHealthcare on Thursday tapped company veteran Tim Noel as its new CEO following the targeted killing of its former top executive, Brian Thompson, in Manhattan in December. 
    Noel was the head of Medicare and retirement at UnitedHealthcare, the largest private health insurer in the U.S. It is the insurance arm of UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s biggest health-care conglomerate based on revenue and its more than $480 billion market cap. 

    Noel, who first joined the company in 2007, “brings unparalleled experience to this role with a proven track record and strong commitment to improving how health care works for consumers, physicians, employers, governments and our other partners,” UnitedHealth Group said in a statement.
    The company is still reeling from the murder of Thompson, which unleashed a torrent of pent-up anger and resentment toward the insurance industry, renewed calls for reform and reignited a debate over health care in the U.S.
    Amid concerns about physical safety, companies across the industry have beefed up security for their executives and removed their photos and much of their personal information from their websites. That includes UnitedHealth Group, which appears to no longer have an executive leadership page.
    Luigi Mangione, who was charged in the deadly shooting of Thompson, is currently being held without bond in Brooklyn, New York. Mangione, 26, faces charges including murder and terrorism, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
    Noel oversaw a part of UnitedHealthcare’s business that includes Medicare Advantage plans, which have been the source of skyrocketing costs for insurers. 

    Medicare Advantage, a privately run health insurance plan contracted by Medicare, has long been a key source of growth and profits for the insurance industry. But medical costs from Medicare Advantage patients have jumped over the past year as more seniors return to hospitals to undergo procedures they had delayed during the Covid-19 pandemic. 
    UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare and retirement unit serves one-fifth of Medicare beneficiaries, or nearly 13.7 million patients, according to a fact sheet from the company. 
    UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty said on an earnings call last week that the profit-driven U.S. health-care system “needs to function better” and be “less confusing, less complex and less costly.”
    Witty said members of the system benefit from high prices, noting that lower prices and improved services can be good for customers and patients but can “threaten revenue streams for organizations that depend on charging more for care.” However, Witty did not address to what extent UnitedHealth Group benefits from that model. 
    In its first quarterly results since the killing, UnitedHealth Group reported fourth-quarter revenue that missed Wall Street’s expectations due to weakness in its insurance business.
    The company’s 2024 revenue rose 8% to $400.3 billion, and it expects revenue to climb again this year to a range of $450 billion to $455 billion.
    — CNBC’s Bertha Coombs contributed to this report.

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    Trump just took a shot at Bank of America. Here’s what he’s talking about

    President Donald Trump on Thursday accused the CEOs of Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase of refusing to serve conservatives.
    Both banks deny the accusations, which Trump and others in his orbit have repeated in recent months.
    The accusations may have roots in allegations from state attorneys general last year.

    U.S. president Donald Trump appears on a giant screen as he addresses global elites via video conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, 2025.
    Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images

    President Donald Trump on Thursday accused the CEOs of the two largest American banks of refusing to serve conservatives, reviving a 2024 campaign talking point that the two companies deny.
    Speaking via video to an assembly held at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump lashed out at Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as part of a Q-and-A session.

    “I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America,” Trump said.
    “You and Jamie and everybody, I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong,” Trump said.
    Moynihan, who was among a few executives selected to ask the president questions during the Q-and-A, did not immediately respond to the accusation.
    Both banks deny refusing service to conservatives.
    “We serve more than 70 million clients, we welcome conservatives and have no political litmus test,” a Bank of America official said in an email.

    “We have never and would never close an account for political reasons, full stop,” a JPMorgan spokeswoman said in a statement. “We follow the law and guidance from our regulators and have long said there are problems with the current framework Washington must address.”
    In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, caused in part by shoddy lending standards at major banks, U.S. regulators increased pressure on lenders to purge clients in industries considered higher risk for money laundering or fraud. That meant that payday lenders, pawn shops, firearms dealers and those involved in pornography had their accounts revoked, often with little notice or explanation as to why.
    As recently as October, Trump singled out Bank of America, repeating claims that it discriminates against conservatives.
    The accusations may have roots in allegations from state attorneys general last year. In April, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent a letter to Moynihan, accusing the bank of canceling the accounts of “multiple religious groups with mainstream views in the last three years.”
    In a May letter in response to Kobach, Bank of America said accounts are de-banked for reasons including a change of stated purpose of the account, the expected level or type of activity on the account or failure to verify certain documentation required by law.
    One account highlighted by Kobach was de-banked because it engaged in debt collection services, which was inconsistent with the Bank of America division that was servicing the account, according to the bank’s response.
    “We would like to provide clarity around a very straightforward matter: Religious beliefs or political view-based beliefs are never a factor in any decisions related to our client’s accounts,” the bank said in that letter. “Bank of America provides banking services to non-profit organizations affiliated with faith-based communities throughout the United States. We have banking and investing relationships with approximately 120,000 faith-based clients in the United States.”
    Influential people in Trump’s orbit have continued to claim that banks are discriminating based on religion or politics.
    In November, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the venture capital firm that bears his name, told podcaster Joe Rogan that dozens of startup founders had been de-banked in recent years. Andreessen has said he advises Trump on technology matters.
    Bank of America shares were up more than 1% on Thursday, with JPMorgan shares higher as well.
    The banking industry is seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the election of Trump, in large part because of expectations he would kill Biden-era regulatory efforts to force banks to hold tens of billions of dollars in additional capital against losses, make annual stress tests less opaque and drop efforts to cap credit card and overdraft limitations.

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    Return-to-office policies are ‘creeping up,’ researcher says. Many workers would rather quit

    About half of workers say they’d rather quit than return to the office full-time, according to a Pew Research Center poll.
    Big companies like Amazon, AT&T, Boeing, Dell Technologies, JPMorgan Chase, UPS and The Washington Post have initiated return-to-office mandates for at least some employees.
    Workers value hybrid work similarly to an 8% raise, by one estimate.

    Justin Paget | Digitalvision | Getty Images

    Many workers hate the prospect of returning to the office five days a week — so much so that they’d quit their jobs if told to come in full-time.
    To that point, 46% of workers who currently work from home at least sometimes would be somewhat or very unlikely to stay at their job if their employer scrapped remote work, according to a recent poll by Pew Research Center.

    Yet, employers have reined in remote work.
    About 75% of workers were required to be in the office a certain number of days per week or month as of October 2024, up from 63% in February 2023, Pew found.
    “There’s a certain creeping up” of return-to-office policies, said Kim Parker, director of social trends research at the Pew Research Center.

    Companies like Amazon, AT&T, Boeing, Dell Technologies, JPMorgan Chase, UPS and The Washington Post have called at least some employees back to the office five days a week. President Donald Trump signed an executive action on Monday calling federal employees back to their desks “as soon as practicable.”
    Similar to the Pew survey, a poll conducted by Bamboo HR found that 28% of workers would consider quitting due to a return-to-office mandate.

    The data “underscores how comfortable people have become with this arrangement, and how it really fits in with their lifestyle,” Parker said.
    Workers consistently cite a better work-life balance as a “huge benefit” of remote work, Parker said.
    Indeed, they see the financial value of hybrid work as being equivalent to an 8% raise, according to research by Nick Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University who studies workplace management.

    Economists say remote work is here to stay

    Maskot | Maskot | Getty Images

    Many economists think that the higher prevalence of remote work, relative to the pre-pandemic era, has become an entrenched feature of the U.S. labor market.  
    “Remote work is not going away,” Bloom previously told CNBC.
    That’s largely because it boost profits for companies: Workers quit less often, meaning employers save money on recruiting and other functions tied to attrition, Bloom said. Meanwhile, data shows that productivity doesn’t suffer in hybrid work arrangements, he said.
    More from Personal Finance:How to know if a rental listing is a scamNow is an ‘ideal time’ to reassess your retirement savingsHow climate change is reshaping home insurance costs
    More than 60% of paid, full workdays were done remotely in early 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic — up from less than 10% before the pandemic, according to WFH Research, a project run jointly by researchers from MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago and Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.
    That share has fallen by more than half. However, it has leveled out between 25% and 30% for about two years, according to WFH Research data.

    About 31% of employers reduced remote work opportunities in 2024, down from 43% in 2023, according to according to a ZipRecruiter survey. Yet, another 33% expanded remote work, up from 32% the prior year.
    Companies that imposed RTO mandates have annual rates of employee turnover that are 13% higher than those that have become “more supportive” of remote work, ZipRecruiter said.
    “The ability to work from anywhere remains a top priority for many professionals,” according to a 2024 poll by consulting firm Korn Ferry of 10,000 workers in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, Middle East, Australia and India.

    Companies may want workers to quit

    Some businesses force workers back to the office precisely because they want workers to quit, experts said. It’s a stealthy way of reducing headcount without having explicit layoffs, they said.
    “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome,” Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Trump tapped to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency, wrote in a November op-ed. (Ramaswamy has since bowed out of that role.)
    Of course, there are also tradeoffs to remote work for businesses and workers.
    About 59% of employers cite concerns that remote work harms company culture, according to ZipRecruiter.

    About half of workers — 53% — who work from home at least part-time say it “hurts” their ability to feel connected with co-workers, Pew found in a 2023 poll.
    “It’s the one big downside we’ve seen consistently,” Parker said.
    “That seems to be a tradeoff: You get the work-life balance but lose some connectivity with coworkers,” Parker said.
    Even if workers quit, they may not be able to find a job.
    The labor market remains strong, with low unemployment and low levels of layoffs, meaning workers have good job security, according to economists. However, companies have also pulled back on hiring, making it a challenging environment for job seekers. More

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    Store closures hit highest level since pandemic — see who is shutting down the most locations

    Store closures in the U.S. spiked in 2024 and are expected to rise to about 15,000 this year, according to Coresight Research, a retail advisory group.
    The striking numbers reflect the stark divide between retailers that are gaining market share, such as Walmart and Costco, and those that have lost ground or filed for bankruptcy, such as Big Lots and The Container Store.
    Competitive dynamics, not declining consumer demand, is to blame, according to John Mercer, Coresight’s head of global research.

    Shoppers seek closeout sale discounts at Party City in Stamford, Conn. July 3, 2023. 
    Tyler Sizemore | Albany Times Union | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images

    Store closures in the U.S. last year hit the highest level since the pandemic — and even more locations are expected to shutter this year, as shoppers’ dollars increasingly go to a few industry winners, according to an analysis by Coresight Research.
    Major retailers, including Party City and Macy’s, closed 7,325 stores in 2024, according to the retail advisory group’s data. That’s the sharpest jump since retailers in the U.S. shuttered almost 10,000 stores in 2020, the year when the Covid pandemic began.

    So far this year, closures continue to climb. Retailers have already announced 1,925 store closures so far in 2025 — and that was only as of Jan. 10. The five retailers that have announced the most closures this year are Party City, Big Lots, Walgreens Boots Alliance, 7-Eleven and Macy’s, respectively.
    The retail advisory firm projects that retailers will close about 15,000 stores this year as some legacy brands shrink and file for bankruptcy protection, or liquidating companies shutter locations.
    The striking numbers reflect the stark divide between retailers that are gaining market share and those that have lost ground. Amazon, Costco and Walmart have gotten bigger as shoppers seek value and convenience. On the other hand, some smaller chains and specialty retailers have struggled to keep doors open or been forced to downsize.
    A spike in bankruptcies contributed to the high number of closures in 2024. According to Coresight’s data, there were 51 retail bankruptcies in 2024, up from 25 in 2023. Some of those, such as Party City, have most of their closures taking place in 2025.

    Consumer spending has stayed strong — but a larger share of the dollars has gone to fewer retailers. Holiday sales increased 4% year over year to $994.1 billion for Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, according to the National Retail Federation, the industry’s major trade group. That total excludes auto dealers, gas stations and restaurants.

    That’s about in line with pre-pandemic holiday spending, which rose an average of 3.6% from 2010 to 2019.
    The number of jobs in the industry also did not appear to fall despite the closures. Employment in the retail trade “changed little” last year, after the industry added about 10,000 jobs per month in 2023, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said earlier this month.
    Specialty retailers in particular have struggled: In December, The Container Store filed for bankruptcy protection. Big Lots’ new owner is in the middle of an effort to keep some stores open, after the discount retailer said in December that it would start going-out-of-business sales across all stores. Fabrics and craft retailer Joann filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month for the second time in a year.
    But it wasn’t just specialty stores. Last year, the highest number of closures came from Dollar Tree-owned Family Dollar, CVS Health, Conn’s, rue21 and Big Lots, respectively. Conn’s, a home goods and furniture retailer, and rue21, a teen apparel retailer, closed all stores after the parent company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2024.
    John Mercer, Coresight’s head of global research, said competitive threats, not a decline in demand, is to blame.
    “Demand may be strong among consumers, but where is some of that increased demand going? Where is it being channeled to?” he said.
    Mercer said the retailers that are shuttering stores tend to fall in three categories: They are closing all locations as part of a liquidation, such as Party City; shutting down many of their stores after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, such as The Container Store; or trimming back their footprint as they adapt to fast-changing consumer preferences, such as drugstores Walgreens and CVS and legacy department store Macy’s.
    Macy’s, for example, is in the middle of closing about 150 of its namesake stores across the country by early 2027. The department store operator has been shuttering roughly 50 of those per year, since it made the announcement in early 2024. It is opening a limited number of shops that are smaller, off-mall versions of its namesake stores and new locations of its better-performing brands, Bloomingdale’s and beauty chain Bluemercury.

    Some newcomers are chipping away at legacy retailers’ sales, Mercer said. Coresight estimates that Chinese e-commerce companies Shein and Temu pulled in a combined roughly $100 billion in sales last year, with the majority of that coming from outside of the U.S.
    For example, more Americans are turning to sites like Temu for party balloons and storage tubs, which may have contributed to the bankruptcy filings of Party City and The Container Store last year, he said.
    Even a small percentage drop in sales can be a blow to retailers’ stores, which come with high fixed costs like leases and labor, Mercer said.
    Some unique factors have widened the gap between store openings and closures, according to David Silverman, a retail analyst at Fitch Ratings. When a major mall anchor like Macy’s closes, he said that can lead smaller retailers to exit, as well. As some stores in mall or strip shopping centers shutter, they’re also getting replaced by fitness studios, urgent care clinics or apartments instead of another retail store.
    He added that population shifts during the Covid pandemic changed retailers’ store traffic patterns and shook up where they may want to be located.
    “Most companies are not adding a significant number of square footage and even the ones that until recently were adding a lot, like the dollar stores, are rethinking their footprints,” he said.
    Silverman said he expects more stores will continue to close than open in the U.S., as retailers’ growth comes from online sales and as larger companies take a bigger share of the market. Some of those, such as Walmart, add a lot more volume with one store than specialty retailers get from the dozens of locations they close, he added.
    Investors will soon get an update on which retailers are outperforming and underperforming. Most major retailers will deliver their holiday-quarter results starting in mid-February.
    Some retailers, including Kohl’s and Macy’s, announced their own plans for store closures before they shared full quarterly results. Kohl’s said earlier this month that it will close 27 underperforming stores by April, along with shuttering an e-commerce fulfillment center in San Bernardino, California, in May.

    There’s some hopeful news for the retail industry, however: Store openings also accelerated last year in the U.S. to 5,970 — the highest number since Coresight began tracking store openings and closures in 2012. The firm anticipates that will stay about flat in 2025, with an estimated 5,800 stores opening.
    Last year, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, 7-Eleven, Mexican convenience store Oxxo and Five Below tallied the most store openings.
    So far this year, the top five retailers in terms of announced store openings in the U.S. are Aldi, JD Sports, Burlington Stores, Pandora and Barnes & Noble, respectively.

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    Shein exec says tariffs shouldn’t affect its cheap clothes — as long as they’re applied ‘equally’

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    Shein executive chairman Donald Tang suggested that the company’s ultralow prices will not be affected by tariffs as long as new tariffs are “applied equally.”
    President Donald Trump had suggested tariffs as high as 60% on imports from China but has since softened that stance and said it could be closer to 10%.
    When asked if Shein will still be able to provide its ultralow prices if tariffs take effect, Tang did not address whether the company would raise prices.

    A view of a Shein pop-up store at a mall in Singapore on April 4, 2024.
    Edgar Su | Reuters

    Shein’s ultracheap clothes can remain affordable as long as proposed tariffs from President Donald Trump are “applied equally,” the company’s executive chairman Donald Tang said Thursday. 
    “Affordability is a big anchor. … It’s the whole package of it, it’s a value for [your] money,” Tang told CNBC’s Sara Eisen during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

    On the campaign trail, Trump had proposed tariffs as high as 60% on imports from China, where Shein primarily manufactures its clothes. He has since softened that stance and has suggested a 10% tariff instead. 
    When asked if Shein will still be able to provide its ultralow prices if tariffs take effect, Tang did not address whether the company would raise prices, but suggested that it would still be able to remain competitive as long as China does not see higher tariffs than other regions. 
    Imports from China already face tariffs, but critics say Shein has been able to avoid them by shipping its packages directly to consumers, which has shielded it from duties under a trade law called the de minimis provision. The so-called “loophole” allows packages valued under $800 to enter the U.S. with less scrutiny and without paying import duties and processing fees.
    Last fall, the Biden administration announced new steps to curtail use of the de minimis provision by issuing a new rule proposal that would bar the exemption for products that are subject to U.S.-China tariffs. The move was aimed at companies such as Shein and competitor Temu, which have been blamed for the surge in de minimis shipments in recent years.
    On Monday, Trump effectively endorsed Biden’s de minimis policy. In a trade memorandum issued during Trump’s first day in office, he instructed incoming Cabinet officials to assess the total import duties the U.S. stood to lose because of “the current implementation of the $800 or less, duty-free de minimis exemption,” and directed them to “recommend modifications as warranted.”

    While it is not totally clear what they will recommend, the language strongly suggests that Trump plans to pick up where Biden left off in the bid to end de minimis exemptions.
    The fast-fashion company has been on a meteoric rise over the past few years and had been planning for a U.S. initial public offering but ultimately scrapped those plans and turned to London when political sentiment soured on the Chinese-born company. 
    When asked about its plans for a London public offering, Tang declined to comment but explained why the company wants to be public. 
    “Being a public company embraces the very universal and unique mechanism for accountability,” he said, adding that public trust is “crucial” for long-term growth.

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    A norovirus vaccine could be on the horizon as cases rise

    Moderna is testing a norovirus vaccine in a phase three trial, with results available as soon as this year.
    Norovirus cases are on the rise this winter, with outbreaks already up more than 30% by December, per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
    The stomach bug is highly contagious and spreads easily in nursing homes, daycares, cruise ships and other places where people are in close quarters. It’s especially dangerous for seniors.

    A researcher works in the lab at the Moderna Inc. headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.
    Adam Glanzman | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Norovirus is raging across the U.S. this winter. Moderna might soon have a vaccine for it. 
    A large phase three trial of the shot is underway, with results expected as soon as later this year or 2026. Moderna needs to see a certain number of cases before it can analyze the data and determine how well its vaccine works, putting the timeline in flux. The 25,000-person study is enrolling ahead of schedule, said Doran Fink, Moderna’s clinical therapeutic area head for gastrointestinal and bacterial pathogens. 

    “I don’t know if it’s directly attributable to the increased incidence of norovirus this season, but we clearly have a lot of interest in participation in this trial,” Fink said. 
    Norovirus is a nasty stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhea. It’s highly contagious and can spread easily in nursing homes and daycares, and on cruise ships. It’s generally a seasonal illness that’s more common in the winter months. 
    This winter has been especially brutal. Twice as many norovirus tests are coming back positive this January than the same time last year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Norovirus outbreaks were up 36% so far this season as of Dec. 11, according to the CDC. 
    There’s currently no vaccine for norovirus. Like flu, there are many types of norovirus, making immunizing against it a challenge.
    Moderna’s vaccine candidate targets the three genotypes that the company says typically cause most infections. It works by showing the immune system something that looks like norovirus but isn’t infectious, so the body can learn how to fight back if the real thing hits.

    The company’s vaccine candidate does not include the genotype that’s causing the bulk of this year’s infections. One of the study’s goals is to see whether the vaccine protects against more types of norovirus than the shot specifically targets, Fink said. He said mRNA vaccines offer an advantage because they can easily be tweaked, if needed. 
    Moderna’s goal isn’t to prevent people from getting norovirus entirely. That’s a high bar for any vaccine, and one that’s especially difficult to achieve with norovirus because the symptoms start within 12 to 24 hours of exposure, Fink said. Instead, the goal is to make people feel a little less awful and keep them from needing to see a doctor or go to the hospital if they do get it. 
    The company sees the main opportunity in vaccinating seniors who are particularly vulnerable to norovirus complications like dehydration. People 65 and up make up the majority of the estimated 900 Americans who die from norovirus complications in the U.S., according to the CDC. 
    Moderna also sees health-care workers, daycare workers and other teachers who are exposed to young children as possible target populations, Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stephane Bancel said last week at the JP Morgan Health Care Conference. People going on cruises is another possibility, he said, since the virus can spread easily on ships where people are living in tight quarters. 
    Investors are questioning whether Moderna can make the shot a commercially viable opportunity – if, of course, the vaccine works, said RBC analyst Luca Issi. He sees the shot being used mostly to protect people living in nursing homes or going on cruises. 
    At this point, Moderna isn’t testing the vaccine in children, who are also vulnerable to norovirus. But if the shot works in adults, Moderna would be obligated to study it in children, Doran said. More

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    Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick says bank will work with U.S. regulators on offering crypto

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    Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said his bank will be working with U.S. regulators to examine whether it can deepen its involvement in cryptocurrency markets.
    Pick was asked about his views on digital currencies under the pro-crypto Trump administration.
    “For us, the equation is really around whether we, as a highly regulated financial institution, can act as transactors,” Pick said.

    Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick said Thursday that his bank will be working with U.S. regulators to examine whether it can deepen its involvement in cryptocurrency markets.
    Pick was asked about his views on digital currencies under the pro-crypto Trump administration. On Tuesday, the acting head of the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an effort to develop a regulatory framework for the nascent asset class.

    “For us, the equation is really around whether we, as a highly regulated financial institution, can act as transactors,” Pick told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
    “We’ll be working with Treasury and the other regulators to figure out how we can offer that in a safe way,” Pick said.
    Morgan Stanley, a juggernaut in the wealth management industry, has been repeatedly ahead of its peers when it comes to crypto. It was the first major U.S. bank to offer bitcoin funds to its rich clients in 2021, and last year it took the lead on offering bitcoin exchange-traded funds. That’s because the firm’s financial advisors were getting questions from clients about bitcoin exposure, sources told CNBC at the time.
    But under the Biden administration, banks were prohibited from getting deep into the asset class; their trading desks dabbled in bitcoin derivatives but couldn’t own the “physical” bitcoin. It’s a point that Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon reiterated this week.
    “At the moment, from a regulatory perspective, we can’t own” bitcoin, Solomon told CNBC’s Sorkin. “If the world changes, we can have a discussion about it,” he said.

    ‘Escape velocity’

    When it comes to bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency that traces its origin to the 2008 financial crisis, its staying power through volatile trading and industry scandals over the years may prove critical, according to Morgan Stanley’s Pick. One bitcoin now trades for more than $100,000.
    “The broader question is whether some of this has come of age, whether it’s hit escape velocity,” Pick said. “You know, time is the friend [of crypto]; the longer it trades, perception becomes reality.”
    Earlier this week, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan also signaled a willingness to embrace crypto if regulators allowed it, saying it would be another form of retail payments for customers of the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets.
    “If the rules come in and make it a real thing that you can actually do business with, you’ll find that the banking system will come in hard,” Moynihan said. “We have hundreds of patents on blockchain already, we know how to enter the field.”

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