Hims & Hers is getting a second chance at life—and it's all thanks to an unexpected ally.

Novo Nordisk, which manufactures the ultra-lucrative GLP-1 drug Wegovy, made a deal with telehealth providers like Hims, Ro, and LifeMD to sell the weight-loss shot directly to customers for roughly half the drug’s original list price, the companies announced today.

Hims & Hers skyrocketed 22.90% on the news, while Novo Nordisk ended the day 4.06% higher. Another telehealth firm, LifeMD, soared 41.31%. Ro is privately held.

Zoom out: Hims has been on a roller coaster ride over the past year, as investors live and die by every development in the firm’s quest to seize a share of the booming GLP-1 market.

Last spring, the telehealth firm announced it was selling “compounded semaglutide” —a technically legal, but not FDA-approved, knockoff version of big pharma’s GLP-1 drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. But after the FDA pulled the blue-chip versions of the drug off its shortage list in February, Hims and other telehealth firms selling the cheaper, off-brand version of GLP-1s were left out in the cold. Hims dropped 22% in one day after the FDA announced the fun was over for compounded semaglutide.

Now, Hims has been saved by the very company that has been trying to thwart its business for the last year. It turns out that Novo Nordisk had bigger fish to fry than off-brand telehealth companies: Eli Lilly, the other big kahuna of the weight-loss market. Last Wednesday, Eli Lilly sued a slew of telehealth firms, including Hims, for selling compounded semaglutide.

The news comes just as investors were losing hope in Hims. This very morning, before the deal was announced, Morgan Stanley cut its price target on Hims down to $40 from $60, and the stock was down 45% from its Q4 earnings announcement at the end of February.

What does this mean for telemedicine?

If you haven’t been following the Ozempic craze, these drugs have supersized Novo Nordisk’s market cap for a reason: massive demand.

But the challenge for big pharma has been getting the drug to patients who can’t afford its over-$1,000 price tag without insurance. Eli Lilly, Novo’s biggest competitor and the maker of Zepbound, opened its own online, direct-to-consumer website called LillyDirect to sell cheaper versions, a la Hims & Hers.

With the new deal, Hims will sell Wegovy for $599 per month, while Ro and LifeMD will charge $499 per month—still far more expensive than the off-brand version Hims has been selling for $165 per month.

Don’t forget: Just as these telehealth firms are working it out with Novo on the remix, a whole new pill version of GLP-1s is on the horizon—and will likely shake up the weight-loss market once again.—LB

🟢 What’s up

• Meta Platforms gained 0.85% after the social media giant announced it will launch a standalone AI app to compete with ChatGPT. Expect more details in its earnings call tomorrow.
• JetBlue Airways may have pulled guidance, but investors like the airline’s lower-than-expected loss last quarter so pushed shares 2.70% higher.
• SoFi Technologies rose 0.53% after it crushed analyst expectations on both the top and bottom line.
• Speaking of fintech, PayPal climbed 2.14% thanks in no small part to a 20% pop in Venmo revenue.
• Honeywell International gained 5.40% thanks to strong earnings and sales for the manufacturing conglomerate.
• Deutsche Bank climbed 4.08% after Germany’s largest lender reported a 39% increase in profit last quarter.
• Sherwin-Williams may have missed on revenue last quarter, but the paint company beat earnings estimates and kept its forward guidance intact, so shareholders pushed it up 4.80%.
• Royal Caribbean eked out a 0.02% despite reporting record bookings and boosting its profit outlook, a rare move these days amid tariff uncertainty.
• Leggett & Platt may not be a household name, but it sells household goods—and the bedding company’s solid earnings and strong fiscal guidance sent shares 31.73% higher.

What’s down

• General Motors fell 0.64% after the automaker beat on top and bottom line estimates but warned that it will have to pull its forward guidance and suspend stock buybacks.
• Spotify dropped 3.04% despite active monthly users rising 10% last quarter. The problem, believe it or not, was lower guidance.
• Regeneron lost 6.87% thanks to disappointing sales for its hit eye drug Eylea.
• NXP Semiconductors may have beaten analyst estimates last quarter, but management’s lower-than-expected earnings guidance disappointed investors, and pushed shares 6.94% lower.
• Wolfspeed tumbled 15.98% after the chipmaker’s impressive short squeeze rally fizzled out.

Pop quiz: Which country has the most CFA Charterholders & Bloomberg Terminals per capita?

If you thought of smaller countries like Luxembourg or financially focused countries like the Cayman Islands, you’re not far off. But according to the CFA Institute’s Rob Langrick, the answer is Vatican City.

“With a whopping 4 CFA Charterholders (source Bloomberg), the Vatican has 0.004 per capita (4 of 882) versus 0.002 for the next largest, Cayman,” Langrick wrote on LinkedIn.

He also noted that 12% of the total population of Vatican City works in finance (107 of the 882 permanent residents), beating Luxembourg’s 10%. Those traders are probably pretty up to date with markets, given that the Vatican also has the most Bloomberg Terminals per capita of any country: 17 terminals for 882 people gives it a ratio of 0.019, or more than four times as many as Luxembourg, according to Langrick.

So the question must be asked: When the cardinals lock themselves in a room to pick the new pope next week, will they also be swapping stock picks?

Coca-Cola rose 0.84% after the beverage behemoth beat earnings expectations. Not only that, it also doubled down on its forward-looking guidance, saying that revenue will grow 5% to 6% while comparable earnings per share will jump 2% to 3% in 2025. Tariff mania may raise some costs, but the company said it would be “manageable,” putting it a step ahead of arch-rival PepsiCo.

• EPS: $0.73 adjusted, compared to the $0.71 projected
• Revenue: $11.22 billion adjusted, above forecasts of $11.14 billion

UPS fell 0.36% after the delivery giant pointed to slowing consumer demand and lower international package volume in the midst of tariffs. It also announced it is cutting 20,000 jobs in order to lower costs after ending its partnership with Amazon, which accounted for nearly 12% of its revenue in 2024. UPS followed the lead of airline stocks and declined to give investors a peek into its full-year outlook due to the much-discussed ongoing economic uncertainty.

• EPS: $1.49 adjusted, compared to expectations of $1.38
• Revenue: $21.5 billion, beating expectations of $21.05 billion

Pfizer jumped 3.28% today after the pharma giant announced that it expects to cut costs by about $7.7 billion by the end of 2027 thanks to advances in AI and automation. Despite lower sales in Q1, the company managed to keep its 2025 revenue guidance of $61 billion to $64 billion intact. While that forecast takes into account the $150 million blow from tariffs, it does not include any future tariffs (which President Trump has threatened to slap on the pharma industry).—LB

• EPS: $0.92 adjusted, compared to the $0.66 expected
• Revenue: $13.72 billion, compared to forecasts of $13.91 billion

• The March JOLTS report revealed that US job openings fell to 7.19 million, their lowest level since last September.
• Consumer confidence sank in April to its lowest level since May 2020.
• Amazon got in some hot water with the White House after it planned to display the cost of tariffs next to the total price of products on its site.
• Automakers got a reprieve from the stacking effect of tariffs.
• Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio said that it’s too late to undo the effects of tariffs, and that the world order is on the verge of collapse.
• The CEOs of OpenAI and Microsoft are drifting apart.
• Today marks the first 100 days of Trump 2.0. Here’s what to expect in the next 100 days.

Tomorrow’s an enormous day for the stock market in terms of economics and earnings.

On the economic side of the coin, we’ve got:

• First-quarter GDP, which will reflect tariff uncertainty if not the tariffs that dropped on April 2
• The ADP employment report, a deep dive into the private employment market that front-runs Friday’s US jobs report
• March PCE, the Fed’s favorite measure of inflation, and the last look at how prices rose or fell (let’s be real, they rose) ahead of tariffs

As for earnings, we’ve already given you a glimpse of what to expect with Microsoft and Meta Platforms. We’ll also hear from Samsung, Qualcomm, Caterpillar, Airbus, UBS, GSK, Barclays, Volkswagen, Robinhood, Humana, eBay, Norwegian Cruise Line, Albemarle, Wingstop, and Etsy.

Buckle up market watchers, it’s gonna be a wild day.

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