Evening digest: Moderna stock surges, Bitcoin and gold rally

Moderna stock surged after its personalized mRNA cancer vaccine produced positive late-stage trial results with Merck's Keytruda.

Marvell Technology shares gained as Google received a potential $12.2 billion stake in the chipmaker through a warrant tied to their expanding AI partnership.

Bitcoin climbed above $68,000 as lower Treasury yields and renewed accumulation by large holders supported the cryptocurrency.

Gold jumped 3% as US Treasury bond buybacks pushed longer-term yields and the dollar lower.

Moderna stock surges 170% after cancer vaccine shows promise in trial

Moderna shares surged over 176% in trading on Wednesday after the company and Merck reported positive results from a late-stage trial combining Moderna's personalized mRNA vaccine, Intismeran, with Keytruda for melanoma.

Merck shares also rose more than 12%.

The phase-three trial enrolled 1,137 patients with high-risk stage IIB to stage IV melanoma whose tumors had been surgically removed.

The companies said interim results showed that the treatment met its primary goal of reducing cancer recurrence and its secondary goal of preventing the cancer from spreading.

The treatment uses genetic information from a patient's tumor to create a personalized mRNA vaccine designed to train the immune system to identify and attack cancer cells carrying specific mutations.

Professor Georgina Long, the study's principal investigator, called the results “a landmark moment for adjuvant melanoma treatment.”

The trial remains ongoing, with Moderna and Merck planning to present the findings at a medical meeting and share the results with regulators.

Analysts at Barclays expect the melanoma treatment could eventually generate around $3 billion in annual sales by 2035.

Marvell stock jumps after Google deal

Marvell Technology stock gained 9% after the company expanded its relationship with Google amid growing demand for custom AI chips.

Under the agreement, Marvell issued Google a warrant to purchase up to 58.97 million shares at an exercise price of $206.58 per share.

If fully exercised, the warrant would be worth about $12.18 billion and represent roughly 7% of Marvell's outstanding shares.

Most of the potential stake is linked to revenue generated through the partnership.

Only 1.36 million shares will vest during the first year, while the remaining shares are divided into 240 tranches. One tranche will vest for every $500 million in eligible custom-products revenue generated through Google's business.

The partnership covers AI inference accelerators, storage controllers, network interface controllers, memory interface controllers and near-memory compute products.

Marvell is competing with Broadcom for a larger role in Google's custom silicon requirements as technology companies increase AI infrastructure spending.

Bitcoin hits $68,000

Bitcoin climbed about 5.8% over 24 hours to $68,370, moving above $68,000 for the first time since June.

The cryptocurrency gained support from lower Treasury yields after the US Treasury announced plans to at least double its bond buyback operations to $4 billion or more per operation.

Large Bitcoin holders have also returned to accumulation.

CryptoQuant data showed that large holders accumulated about 43,000 tokens over the past 60 days, worth roughly $2.75 billion at current prices.

BlackRock described Bitcoin's roughly 50% decline from its October 2025 peak as a “positioning correction rather than a change in its investment case.”

However, spot Bitcoin ETFs continued to experience outflows, with combined outflows reaching $267.2 million in the week through Aug. 14.

Gold reaches $4,500

Gold prices surged 4% to $4,509.54 an ounce, their highest level since June 4. US gold futures gained nearly 3% to $4,562.

The rally followed the Treasury's decision to double the size of its liquidity-support buyback operations for longer-dated bonds.

The announcement pushed the 30-year Treasury yield down more than nine basis points to 5.19%, while the 10-year yield fell nearly six basis points to 4.645%.

The US Dollar Index also declined 0.8% to 98.84, making dollar-priced gold cheaper for buyers using other currencies.

Silver, platinum and palladium also advanced, gaining 4.3%, 5% and 3.1%, respectively.