Pressure's rising. Newspapers, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, are among the companies that are asking Apple for more favorable pricing conditions on the App Store. In a letter addressed to Tim Cook, the newspapers ask the group to reduce its drain on subscriptions signed via the AppStore.

The race for the vaccine. Johnson & Johnson will launch by the end of September the largest clinical trial to date of a potential coronavirus vaccine, which will enroll 60,000 people worldwide. And Pfizer, its candidate vaccine in cooperation with BioNTech, is expected to be in the running for an FDA filing in October, the two partners announced. The accelerated processes have allowed developments to be completed in record time around the world. To date, however, no candidate vaccine has been tested on a large panel of humans.

VTC on probation. A California Court of Appeals on Thursday suspended a court decision ordering the VTC groups Uber Technologies and Lyft to reclassify their drivers as employees from today. This interim ruling will allow the two companies to continue to work on the merits of the case.

Bayer again. Bayer will pay $1.6 billion to settle the majority of claims in the United States related to its Essure contraceptive implant. The settlement covers approximately 90% of the 39,000 pending lawsuits. The German group's lawyers are getting richer much faster than its shareholders at the moment. Bayer had to settle for $10.9 billion in the Roundup case a few weeks ago.

Close to the top ten. The Tesla share closed above the $2000, a new record, and is close to the Top 10 of the American capitalizations. Based on analysts' estimates, the carmaker's P/E is 396 times 2020, 164 times 2021 and 97 times 2022.

In other news. The FDA approved Novartis Kesimpta for the treatment of multiple sclerosis earlier than expected. Wuthelam will acquire Nippon Paint for JPY1,280 billion (approximately €10.2 billion). U-Blox is abandoning its targets. American Airlines will stop serving some small American cities. Ant could be valued at $225bn as part of its IPO. Canada will conduct certification tests for Boeing's B737MAX. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) testified before the US antitrust authorities earlier this week as part of the investigation into the Internet giants' dominance.