Merck vs Reckitt

Target earnings, Canada tariffs, American Airlines screens

CNBC’s Morning Squawk highlights market-moving items on Aug. 19, 2026: Moderna shares jumped as much as 100% after a personalized cancer vaccine developed with Merck showed positive late-stage results. Global bond yields have spiked, pressuring stocks and mortgage rates ahead of Fed minutes and the Jackson Hole conference. Retailers saw tariff refunds boost earnings: Target said refunds added $752 million to Q2 net earnings and raised its full-year outlook; Lowe’s credited an 11-cent EPS lift but gave a tepid outlook and missed revenue expectations. President Trump paused planned 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods for three days pending final documents. American Airlines announced plans to add seatback screens to most narrow-body aircraft starting in 2028. Auto dealers are emphasizing parts and services as new-vehicle sales soften.

• Moderna shares rose as much as 100% after a personalized cancer vaccine it developed with Merck showed positive results in its first late-stage trial.
• Target said tariff refunds boosted its net earnings by $752 million in the second quarter and raised its full-year outlook.
• Lowe’s credited tariff refunds for an 11 cent increase in EPS but issued a tepid full-year outlook and missed second-quarter revenue expectations.

AI-Personalized Cancer Vaccine Halves Melanoma Recurrence

The AI Secret newsletter highlights multiple AI and tech developments: Merck and Moderna said their personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, intismeran autogene, met endpoints in a 1,000-patient melanoma Phase 3 trial, cutting recurrence by half and reducing metastasis by 59%. Cursor launched Origin, a GitHub rival interoperable with GitHub and reportedly backed by Elon Musk, coinciding with a major GitHub outage. OpenAI changed how ChatGPT sources information—moving to a site:operator approach that reduced Reddit citations and appears to centralize which sources are surfaced, opening the door to paid or prioritized signals. Etched raised $700 million at a $21 billion valuation, backed by Jane Street, to build custom inference chips. The newsletter also includes a sponsored mention of MyClaw (an AI agent hosting platform) and a brief TL;DR of other AI-industry developments.

• Merck and Moderna announced that intismeran autogene met endpoints in a 1,000-patient melanoma Phase 3 trial, halving recurrence and reducing distant metastasis by 59% with no new side effects.
• Cursor launched Origin, a GitHub-compatible code-hosting platform, the same day GitHub experienced a six-hour global outage.
• OpenAI changed ChatGPT's retrieval approach in early August to use a site:operator starting point, which reduced Reddit citations from ~4.5% to ~0.5% and increased site:operator usage in queries from 0.37% to 16.8% (PromptWatch data).

Durex Signs Sean Dyche for 'Get Wood Rising' Campaign

Durex, a brand by Reckitt, has launched a season-long comedy campaign called 'Get Wood Rising' with former Premier League manager Sean Dyche as 'performance director.' The campaign, created by McCann Content Studios at McCann London, centers on a fictional partnership with real non-league club Woodley United FC, which hasn't had a promotion in 10 years. The 100-second launch film uses innuendo and humor to promote Durex Performance condoms and gel, featuring comedian Chris McClure as a performance assistant. The social-first campaign debuted on October 9, 2026, and amassed over a million views on Instagram within hours. Documentary-style episodes and behind-the-scenes content will run across Meta, TikTok, and influencer channels throughout the season. The campaign aims to make conversations about sexual performance more open and relatable while driving brand awareness and market share.

• Durex launched 'Get Wood Rising', a season-long campaign with former Premier League manager Sean Dyche.
• The campaign is a partnership with non-league football club Woodley United FC.
• The launch film gained over one million views on Instagram within hours of its October 9 launch.

Putting Better Health in More Hands: Reckitt Pakistan Unveils Saaf Sehatmand Pakistan in Partnership with Aga Khan Foundation

Powered by Dettol and Harpic, the flagship platform begins in schools to provide safe drinking water, rehabilitated toilets, handwashing facilities and hygiene education.

Veet, Gocomo Launch 'The Smooth Switch' Creator Campaign

Veet has launched a summer creator campaign called "The Smooth Switch" in collaboration with Berlin-based social-first agency Gocomo. The campaign addresses hair removal with a humorous and deliberately imperfect tone and aims to generate buzz through the participation of eight creators. The article notes this is the first direct collaboration between the brand and the agency and references Gocomo's work with other Reckitt-owned brands such as Durex.

• Veet launched a summer creator campaign named "The Smooth Switch".
• The campaign was developed with Berlin social-first agency Gocomo.
• The campaign adopts a humorous, intentionally imperfect approach to hair removal.