GE HealthCare Technologies Inc. Prices Upsized Secondary Offering of 15M Shares

 GE HealthCare Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: GEHC) (the “Company” or “GE HealthCare”) announced today the pricing of the previously announced secondary underwritten public offering (the “Offering”) of 15,000,000 shares of its common stock (the “GEHC Shares”) at a public offering price of $86.00 per share. The Offering was upsized from the previously announced offering size of 10,000,000 GEHC Shares. GE HealthCare is not selling any shares of common stock and will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the GEHC Shares in the Offering or from the debt-for-equity exchange (as described below).

Prior to the closing of the Offering, GE Aerospace (General Electric Company) is expected to exchange the GEHC Shares for indebtedness of GE Aerospace held by Morgan Stanley Bank, N.A. and Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. (together, the “MS Lenders”), affiliates of Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, the selling stockholder in the Offering by designation of the MS Lenders. Following the debt-for-equity exchange, if consummated, Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, as the selling stockholder in the Offering, intends to sell the GEHC Shares to the underwriters in the Offering. The selling stockholder in the Offering has granted the underwriters an option to purchase 2,250,000 additional shares of GE HealthCare common stock for settlement on or before September 30, 2024.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are acting as the lead joint book-running managers for the Offering. The Offering is expected to close on September 16, 2024, subject to customary closing conditions.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240912168889/en

EU break-up order to Google unlikely for now, sources say

 EU antitrust officials are considering an order to Alphabet unit Google to stop its anti-competitive practices in its adtech business but will not issue a breakup order as they had originally warned, people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

A break-up order could come at a later stage if Google continues its anti-competitive practices, they said, pointing to a precedent setting case involving Microsoft two decades ago. They said the European Commission's decision could evolve.

An EU decision however is unlikely to come before EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager leaves office in November because of the complexity of the case although it is still a theoretical possibility, they said.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/ALPHABET-INC-24203373/news/Exclusive-EU-break-up-order-to-Google-unlikely-for-now-sources-say-47868971/

Delta seeks to delay resuming four daily US flights to China

 Delta Air Lines on Friday asked the U.S. Transportation Department to allow it to delay resuming four daily flights to China, citing ongoing challenges in the market.

The U.S. air carrier currently operates daily flights to Shanghai from Seattle and Detroit, but asked for approval to not reinstate two other daily flights to Shanghai and two daily Beijing flights. Last week, United Airlines asked DOT for permission not to operate 6 of its 9 daily flights to China.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/DELTA-AIR-LINES-INC-49285/news/Delta-seeks-to-delay-resuming-four-daily-US-flights-to-China-47869950/

Intel qualifies for $3.5 billion in grants to make chips for US military: Bloomberg

 Intel Corp has officially qualified for as much as $3.5 billion in federal grants to make semiconductors for the U.S Department of Defense, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter, after the chipmaker reached a binding agreement with U.S officials.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/INTEL-CORPORATION-4829/news/Intel-qualifies-for-3-5-billion-in-grants-to-make-chips-for-US-military-Bloomberg-News-reports-47870316/

OpenAI's stunning $150 billion valuation hinges upending corporate structure, sources say

 OpenAI's new financing round is expected to come in the form of convertible notes, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, who said its $150 billion valuation will be contingent on whether the ChatGPT-maker can upend its corporate structure and remove a profit cap for investors.

The details of the conditions of the $6.5 billion funding, which have not been previously reported, shows how far OpenAI, the most valuable AI startup in the world, has come from a research-based non-profit, and the structural changes it's willing to make to attract ever more investment to fund its expensive pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI).

The outsized funding round has seen strong investor demand and could be finalized in the next two weeks, given the rapid growth of OpenAI's revenue, sources added.

Existing investors such as Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures, as well Microsoft are expected to participate. New investors including Nvidia and Apple also plan to invest. Sequoia Capital is also in talks to come back as a returning investor.

If the restructuring is unsuccessful, OpenAI would need to renegotiate its valuation with investors at which their shares will be converted at, likely at a lower number, sources told Reuters, who requested anonymity to discuss private matters. 

OpenAI declined to comment. 

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/MICROSOFT-CORPORATION-4835/news/Exclusive-OpenAI-s-stunning-150-billion-valuation-hinges-upending-corporate-structure-sources-say-47870687/

What Declining Bitcoin Activity Means

 As global markets wobble, Bitcoin faces sharper drops, notable ETF outflows, and cooling activity. However, miners remain committed, driving the network's competitiveness forward.

Amid the global stock market slide and the mounting concerns about a possible U.S. economic slowdown, the Bitcoin market is interesting to observe. This new type of asset, often praised for its portfolio diversification potential, is generally uncorrelated with traditional markets, sometimes reacting to broader macroeconomic events, and other times following its own logic.

Last Tuesday’s stock market slump was mirrored by the BTC price, but with a bigger amplitude. While the S&P500 dropped 3.7%, Nasdaq100 5%, BTC plunged 12%. Since then, all have recovered about half of their losses.

Bitcoin’s sharper decline could be attributed to its lower market depth and liquidity, or else by its relative immaturity compared to the stock market. However, there may also be factors related to the Bitcoin blockchain and its use, which has been rather sluggish lately.

Institutional investors are showing signs of unease too, with outflows from Bitcoin spot ETFs reaching $643 million last week and matching the largest recorded outflow set in March this year (data: Coinshares).

Is it a temporary slowdown to address the overall macro fears, or does this situation signal a deeper trend? Bitcoin miners seem to have an answer to this, as their industry gets ever more competitive despite the languishing revenues.

Bitcoin activity cooling off

The recent Coinglass report sheds light on some of the most important characteristics reflecting the state of Bitcoin – the transfer activity. For Bitcoin to fulfill its ambition as an alternative currency, it must not only serve as a reliable store of value (quality ensured by its scarcity and independence), but also a practical means of exchange. In other words, BTC price increase must be accompanied by increased real-world adoption, i.e. people using bitcoin as money.

The Glassnode chart shows that after a strong spring, bitcoin settlement volume is beginning to fall towards its yearly average. The network is currently processing and settling around $6.2 billion worth of transactions per day, marking a cooling off from the previously recorded high of $10 billion.

Trading appetites are decreasing too, with monthly average exchange volume falling well below the yearly and marking a weak momentum. Another useful metric to assess Bitcoin activity is network value to transactions (NVT), and its signaling indicator called “NVT Golden Cross.” This metric compares short- and long-term trends in NVT and predicts local tops and bottoms (values over ‘2.2’ : short signal, values under ‘-1.6’ : long signal).

CryptoQuant analyst Burak Kesmeci reads the current NVT golden cross chart in a rather pessimistic way: “The NVT Golden Cross metric is struggling to surpass its previous peak and is unable to do so. Subsequently, Bitcoin price has been declining. All of this indicates that the current uptrend is losing momentum.”

 

However, we can also note that while the indicator is showing higher lows, Bitcoin price is making lower lows. Such a divergence could indicate a possible bullish signal, suggesting that underlying network activity is strengthening.

 

Miners push on

Miners are crucial to the Bitcoin blockchain, providing the hashing power to add new blocks and process transactions. However, mining is a challenging industry, as miners can't control either the energy costs or the value of bitcoin, in which they earn rewards. Despite volatile market conditions, miners have continued to install new ASIC hardware, pushing the overall hash rate to 666.4 EH/s, just 1% below the record. As the hash rate rises, so does the mining difficulty, which keeps the block production time steady at around 10 minutes. This situation highlights the growing competitiveness of mining and the stubbornness of the miners who continue to push even as their income remains 22% below the all-time high (data: Glassnode).

 

Miners’ perseverance stems from their deep-seated faith in the future of Bitcoin. In fact, most miners have prepared beforehand to withstand the post-halving period and the lower revenues it entails. Nine out of 13 US-listed Bitcoin mining companies raised capital through stock offers in the second quarter of 2024: Bitdeer, Bitfarms, Cipher, CleanSpark, Core, HIVE, Marathon, Riot, and Terawulf. This capital inflow could help them accumulate bitcoin without necessarily selling it immediately.

 

Indeed, miners used to sell most of their coins to cover their capital-expensive operations. However, recently they've been retaining more in treasury reserves, signaling long-term confidence in Bitcoin. For now, bitcoin miners continue to absorb the revenue decline, waiting for the next growth cycle.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/latest/Declining-Bitcoin-Activity-What-It-Means-for-the-Market-47853903/

iTeos, GSK Results in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

 Clinically meaningful objective response rate (ORR) of 63.3-76.7% observed with belrestotug + dostarlimab combinations, with confirmed ORR (cORR) at ~60% for every dose

- >30% cORR difference between belrestotug + dostarlimab vs dostarlimab monotherapy
- Belrestotug + dostarlimab safety profile broadly consistent with known safety profile of checkpoint inhibitor combinations
- GALAXIES Lung-301, global Phase 3 registration study, enrolling in same indication and setting
- iTeos to host a conference call on Monday, September 16, 2024 at 8:00am ET

The follow-up interim data from GALAXIES Lung-201 will be discussed during a conference call and webcast presentation on Monday, September 16th, 2024 at 8:00AM ET. To register for the webcast presentation, please visit the Events section on the Investors page of the iTeos website at investors.iteostherapeutics.com. A webcast replay may be accessed on the Investors section of the iTeos website.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/09/14/2946227/0/en/iTeos-Announces-Clinically-Meaningful-Objective-Response-Rate-Observed-at-Every-Dose-in-Follow-up-Interim-Analysis-of-GALAXIES-Lung-201-Study-of-Belrestotug-Dostarlimab-in-First-Li.html