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Oscar Health slips after earnings miss

Oscar Health tumbled as much as 6% in premarket trading after it reported earnings that missed Wall Street estimates even after giving investors a look under the hood last month.

The company posted a diluted loss per share of $0.89, more than the $0.81 loss per share analysts polled by FactSet were expecting. The company attributed that to higher-than-expected medical costs.

Oscar also reported $2.81 billion in revenue, less than the $2.91 billion the Street was penciling in.

The company released preliminary earnings results on July 22 in which it flipped its forecast from expecting operating earnings of $250 million to an operating loss of $250 million. The revision came after it was hit with significantly higher costs of care for members on government-sponsored insurance.

Oscar is one of the last of its peers in the medical insurance business to report earnings. Companies that rely more on government-sponsored programs, like Centene and Elevance Health, have reported results that disappointed Wall Street while those that focus on private plans, like Cigna, have fared better.

Oscar, which has attracted retail attention in recent months, is up about 2% for the year as of market close on Tuesday.

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SpaceX spectrum deal sends would-be rivals lower

Shares of struggling satellite services company EchoStar soared Monday, after the company — which had recently tottered close to bankruptcy — announced the sale of some of its wireless spectrum licenses to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s SpaceX for $17 million.

The sale provides a competitive advantage to Musk’s growing Starlink satellite services business, as the licenses it is acquiring from Echostar allows Starlink to operate ground based broadband and cellphone services, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Entities that stood to be hurt by the emergence of a Musk-led SpaceX Starlink service got hit hard on the news. AST SpaceMobile, which has plans to offer a similar satellite-to-consumer cellular service, tumbled.

So did wireless tower providers like Crown Castle and American Tower. Low cost cellular service provider T-Mobile, which had a deal with SpaceX, also slumped, as Luke noted earlier, along with other large wireless telecommunication services providers.

The wireless telecommunications industry grouping within the S&P 500 was down more than 2.5% shortly after noon, making it the worst performing industry within the S&P 500 on Monday.

Entities that stood to be hurt by the emergence of a Musk-led SpaceX Starlink service got hit hard on the news. AST SpaceMobile, which has plans to offer a similar satellite-to-consumer cellular service, tumbled.

So did wireless tower providers like Crown Castle and American Tower. Low cost cellular service provider T-Mobile, which had a deal with SpaceX, also slumped, as Luke noted earlier, along with other large wireless telecommunication services providers.

The wireless telecommunications industry grouping within the S&P 500 was down more than 2.5% shortly after noon, making it the worst performing industry within the S&P 500 on Monday.

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Hims rises, Novo dips after FDA releases “green list” of GLP-1 raw material suppliers

Hims & Hers rose and Novo Nordisk slipped in early trading after the US Food and Drug Administration released a "green list" of foreign GLP-1 ingredient suppliers that it considers in compliance with agency standards.

Some telehealth companies like Hims sell copycat versions of Novo's and Eli Lilly’s blockbuster weight-loss drugs through compounding pharmacies, which take the active ingredients from FDA-approved medications and make adjusted, or "personalized,” versions of the drug for patients.

Novo and Lilly have fought against this, arguing that it infringes on their intellectual property. They've sued smaller telehealth providers, pharmacies, and clinics in lieu of any action against them from the FDA. Instead, the FDA gave compounders a list of suppliers it deems safe.

Recent developments in the cases filed by the drugmakers so far as well as the FDA's recent actions suggest telehealth companies may be in a less risky position than investors previously thought. As of Monday morning, prediction markets pegged the likelihood of a suit from Novo against Hims at 34%, down from about 70% earlier this month.

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UNH rises after saying it plans to reiterate outlook

UnitedHealth rose 2% in early trading after it disclosed that it plans to reiterate its full-year earnings outlook when it meets with investors this week.

The company said on July 29 that it was expects to report annual adjusted earnings per share of at least $16. The company had previously pulled full-year guidance and prior to that withdrawal, had told investors it expected to see earnings of $26 to $26.50 per share.

Currently, a analysts polled by FactSet are penciling in $16.23, compared to $17.21 before the guidance came down.

UnitedHealth has had a tumultuous year as he industry has been hit with rising costs of care, and UnitedHealth specifically has been hit with investigations into its Medicare Advantage practices. It recently got a boost after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway revealed that it's built a stake in the company

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