Listen below or on the go on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Health insurers rally after CMS increases payment to Medicare Advantage plans. (00:21) Nvidia (NVDA) closes deal to acquire startup Lepton AI: report. (01:41) China pledges to ‘fight to the end’ against new U.S. tariffs, escalating the trade dispute. (02:38)
This is an abridged transcript.
Shares of leading health insurers rose in post-market trading Monday after the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it has substantially raised government payments to Medicare Advantage compared to an initial proposal.
In January, the CMS issued its Advance Notice for the next calendar year, proposing to raise government payments to Medicare Advantage plans by an average of 4.33%, an increase of over $21B compared to 2025.
Per the agency’s final rate decision on Monday, payments to Medicare Advantage companies will rise by 5.06% on average from 2025 to 2026, translating to an increase of 2.83 percentage points since the Advance Notice or over $25B increase in MA payments.
The move follows a recent decision where Medicare coverage for expensive obesity medications was declined.
Leading health insurers are rallying in reaction to the announcement. Humana (NYSE:HUM) is up about 10%, Elevance Health (NYSE:ELV) is up 6%, UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH), the largest insurer in the Medicare Advantage market is up 5.6%, and Clover Health (NASDAQ:CLOV) is up 3.7%.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) has closed its acquisition to buy artificial intelligence startup Lepton AI, The Information reported.
The deal to acquire Lepton AI, which resells Nvidia’s graphics processing units in a cloud service, was worth “hundreds of millions of dollars,” the news outlet added. Lepton AI’s co-founders, Yangqing Jia and Junjie Bai, will stay on at Nvidia now that the deal has closed, the news outlet added, citing people familiar with the matter.
Talk of an acquisition popped up late last month.
Nvidia declined to comment when contacted by Seeking Alpha.
Lepton competes with companies like Together AI in the business of renting out Nvidia GPUs. Founded two years ago, Lepton AI secured an $11M seed round in May 2023 from CRV and Fusion Fund. Meanwhile, Together AI, a key competitor in the server rental space, has raised over $500M in venture capital, despite being only about a year older than Lepton.
President Trump’s renewed tariff threats on Monday have prompted China to vow a ‘fight to the end,’.
China sharply criticized the U.S.’s escalating tariff threats as “blackmail”.
Beijing’s commerce ministry stated it would “resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its rights and interests” if the U.S. proceeds with additional tariffs, calling Trump’s actions “a mistake on top of a mistake.” The ministry further declared that China would “never accept this” and would “fight to the end.”
This strong condemnation came after Trump threatened a new 50% tariff on Chinese goods effective Wednesday, on top of the current 54%, unless Beijing retracted its retaliatory tariffs – a 34% levy on all U.S. imports starting Thursday, announced in response to a prior U.S. tariff hike.
What’s Trending on Seeking Alpha:
Vietnam will buy defense goods from U.S. to reduce trade gap, seeks 45-day tariff delay
Trump says EU must buy $350B of US energy to get tariff relief, rejects ‘zero-for-zero’ proposal
BlackRock’s Fink sees ‘buying opportunity’ during market selloff
Catalyst watch:
-
The two-day Stifel Virtual Targeted Oncology Forum will include participation from Compugen (CGEN), Zymeworks (ZYME), Innate Pharma (IPHA), and Revolution Medicines (RVMD).
-
Atlassian (TEAM) will hold its three-day Team25 event in Anaheim, California. CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes will be one of the keynote speakers.
-
Paris Blockchain Week will begin. Featured speakers include Yves Choueifaty of TOBAM, Anthony Scaramucci of Skybridge, and Jean-Marie Mognetti of CoinShares.
Now let’s take a look at the markets ahead of the opening bell. Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. Crude oil is up 0.2% at $60/barrel. Bitcoin is flat at $79,000. Gold is up 0.8% at $3,005.
In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is up 1.7% and the DAX is up 1.6%.
The biggest movers for the day premarket: Levi Strauss (NYSE:LEVI) +10% – The stock surged after the company delivered mixed Q1 results, surpassing profit expectations.
On today’s economic calendar:
Read the full article here