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McKesson Continues to Face Medium-Term Headwinds From Declining Employer Coverage of GLP-1, RBC Says

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McKesson (MCK) continues to face medium-term headwinds from reductions in employers' coverage of GLP-1 medications, which could be partially offset by the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge program, RBC Capital Markets said in a Monday note.

The program has enrolled about 600,000 Medicare beneficiaries since its launch in July and is expected to boost income for the company's prescription technologies solutions, the brokerage said. RBC estimates about a $77 million to $102 million contribution to the segment's fiscal 2027 operating income, including second prior authorizations.

"Gains from the Bridge program will be almost entirely offset by reduced employer coverage," RBC noted. A decline in prior authorizations of 15% to 20% would risk about $50 million to $100 million in the prescription technologies solutions segment's operating income, RBC added.

RBC maintained its sector perform rating on McKesson, with a price target of $845.

Price: $894.67, Change: $+13.16, Percent Change: +1.49%

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AstraZeneca Says Late-Stage Etcamah Breast-Cancer Trial Misses Main Goal

AstraZeneca (AZN) said Friday its late-stage trial testing Etcamah with palbociclib, a widely used breast-cancer therapy, did not meet its primary goal of improving progression-free survival.The company said it observed a numerical improvement in first-line treatment of patients with estrogen receptor-positive, HER2-negative advanced breast cancer who had not received any systemic treatment for advanced disease.The trial compared Etcamah plus palbociclib with an aromatase inhibitor plus palbociclib, AstraZeneca said.The safety profile of Etcamah in combination with palbociclib was consistent with the known safety profile of each medicine, the company said.AstraZeneca shares fell 3.3% in after-hours trading.

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Sector Update: Financial Stocks Higher Late Afternoon

Financial stocks were advancing in late Friday afternoon trading, with the NYSE Financial Index rising 0.9% and the State Street Financial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLF) up 0.7%.The Philadelphia Housing Index was climbing 1.2%, and the State Street Real Estate Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLRE) added 0.7%.Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was increasing 1% to $77,301, and the yield for 10-year US Treasuries rose 3.1 basis points to 4.975%.In economic news, the US consumer price index rose 0.4% month on month, the fastest pace since May and above July's 0.1% gain, the Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed Friday. The move matched the Bloomberg-polled consensus. Core inflation, which excludes the more volatile food and energy components, jumped to a four-month high of 0.3%, exceeding market projections for an unchanged 0.2% growth.The University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index fell to 47.8 in September from 51.7 in August, larger than an expected decrease to 51.0 in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.In corporate news, Jefferies Financial (JEF) is on track for its best advisory quarter on record, though the strength will have limited pull-through to earnings amid trading headwinds, UBS said in a note. The firm kept its neutral rating on the stock but trimmed its price target to $61 from $65. Jefferies shares were down 3.6%.Blackstone (BX) plans to buy many more tensor processing units from Alphabet (GOOGL) unit Google than initially outlined, The Information reported. The private equity and real estate giant's spending on TPUs could be several "multiples" beyond the $5 billion it announced under a joint venture with Google in May, the report said. Blackstone shares rose 2.4%.KKR (KKR) and Francisco Partners have agreed to buy minority stakes in Italian software company TeamSystem from its main investor Hellman & Friedman, Reuters reported. KKR shares were up 0.2%.Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) warehouses could receive huge volumes of arabica coffee from Brazil, with two trade majors processing the certification of their stocks, Reuters reported. ICE Futures US runs the arabica coffee contract, and majors Olam and Louis Dreyfus are seeking to certify thousands of bags of coffee at the exchange in time for the December contract, sources told Reuters. Olam is processing up to 200,000 bags, according to the report. Intercontinental Exchange shares added 1.1%.

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Top Cryptocurrencies Rise; Bitcoin Holds Above $77,000 Level

Major digital assets rose Friday, with Bitcoin (BTC-USD) holding above the $77,000 level.The CoinDesk Market Index, which tracks dozens of digital assets including Bitcoin, rose 0.9% in the past 24 hours. The Nasdaq 100 rose 1%, the S&P 500 added 0.9%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1%.Bitcoin gained 0.1% to $77,236, according to CoinMarketCap data. The most popular cryptocurrency's 24-hour trading volume rose 20.8% to $37 billion.Ethereum (ETH-USD), the second-largest digital asset by market value, rose 3% to $2,540.XRP (XRP-USD) gained 0.2%, BNB (BNB-USD) rose 1.3%, and Solana (SOL-USD) increased 1.7%. Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) added 0.3%, while Cardano (ADA-USD) declined 1.8%.The total market value of the cryptocurrency industry rose 0.5% in the past 24 hours to $2.64 trillion, with trading volume rising 20% to $107.54 billion.Price: $77328.41, Change: $+792.46, Percent Change: +1.04%

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