All eyes on Biden’s “Build Back Better” speech
U.S. stock futures were pointing to a muted open for Wall Street on Wednesday ahead of President Biden’s speech later in the day in Pittsburgh, where he will announce details of his infrastructure plan, which is widely expected to include some tax hikes.
Multiple media reports suggest the president will unveil a spending package worth as much as $4 trillion, paid for by permanently hiking the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.
Biden hopes to take a more collaborative and deliberate approach with congressional lawmakers than his administration did on the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package he recently signed into law.
By 5:35 a.m. ET, futures for the blue-chip Dow fell 27.5 points, or 0.08% to 32,897.5. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures moved up 16.75 points, or 0.13% to 12,895 while the S&P 500 futures were little changed.
Germany halts AstraZeneca vaccine over concerns of blood clots
On the Covid-19 front, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that her government plans to ban the use of Oxford/AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN)’s vaccine for people under the age of 60 starting Wednesday.
The decision, which was announced by the chancellor late Tuesday, comes after cases of rare blood clots in people recently vaccinated.
“These are findings that we cannot ignore. We all know that vaccination is the most important tool against the coronavirus — that we have different vaccines at our disposal is our good fortune,” Merkel said, according to Bloomberg.
Germany was one of several European countries that halted use of the vaccine earlier this month amid concerns of blood clots. However, many countries resumed use of the jab after it was declared safe by the European Medicines Agency.
As of this writing, AstraZeneca stock was trading 0.16% lower to $49.59 a share in the pre-market trading session Wednesday.
Coursera prices IPO at $33 a share, for a $4.3 billion valuation
Coursera priced its initial public offering on Tuesday at $33 a share, selling 15.73 million shares raising $519 million and valuing the online education provider at about $4.3 billion.
On its website, Coursera describes itself as a California-based online course provider that has been operating since 2012. Coursera partners with over 200 universities and firms “to bring flexible, affordable, job-relevant online learning to individuals and organizations worldwide.”
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) are the lead book-running managers for the IPO. Coursera shares will begin trading on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “COUR.”
Chewy surges 10% on upbeat Q4 earnings
Shares of Chewy (NASDAQ: CHWY) soared in pre-market hours Wednesday after the company posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter results late Tuesday.
The pet food retailer reported earnings of 5 cents per share, beating analysts’ expectations for a loss of $10 cents a share. Revenue came in at $2.04 billion, also surpassing forecasts of $1.96 billion.
As of this writing, Chewy stock was indicated 10.03% higher to $88.44 a share in the pre-market trading session.
