Markets Headed One-Way (North) During Monday’s Session- APPL, TSLA, PLUG Rise (+5-8%)

Monday’s markets were white hot and headed in a northerly direction throughout the session. After the market’s selloff last week, investors were willing to come back in and seemed willing to place bets in all directions as all 11 sectors closed in the green. The information technology sector rose 3.2% & the financials sector nearly matched it with a 3.1%  performance to lead all today. All indices closed significantly in positive territory as follows: the Dow 30 closed at 31,535.51 (+1.75%), the S&P 500 closed at 3,829.34 (+2.38%), the small caps on the Russell 2000 had the best day as they closed at 2,275.32 (+3.37%) and the Nasdaq closed at 13,588.83 (+3.01%).

MORE POSITIVE MACRO, CALMER YIELDS & $1.9T!

The macroeconomic schedule delivered more positive data as the ISM Manufacturing Index report for February moved up to 60.8%. the Total construction spending report confirmed a rise by 1.7% month/month in January while the Total private construction spending increased equally by 1.7% month/month. Total public construction spending also rose 1.7%. The February IHS Markit Manufacturing PMI ticked up to 58.6. Tomorrow, the schedule will deliver the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index report for February, the ADP Employment Change report for February, the final IHS Markit Services PMI report for February, the Fed’s Beige Book for March, & the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report.

The 2-yr treasury yield moved down 2 basis points to .12%, while the 10-yr treasury yield moved down 1 basis point ending at 1.45%. The current dividend yield on the S&P 500 is at 1.49%.

The U.S. Dollar also ticked higher to end at 91.04.

The House passed the $1.9T stimulus bill over the weekend and now it is in the hands of the Senate to move forward.

TECH ON

The FAANG’s ended up across board as follows: Apple (AAPL) shares closed at $127.79, 5.39%, Amazon (AMZN) ($3,146.14, +1.72%), Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $2,081.51,+2.19%, Facebook (FB) closed at $264.91, +2.83%, & Netflix (NFLX) closed at $550.64/share, +2.19%.

Shares of EV giant Tesla (TSLA) jumped to close at $718.43, +6.36%.

Today, JP Morgan’s Analyst Paul Coster “Upgraded” PLUG Power Power (PLUG) ($52.46, +8.43%), a leading provider of turnkey hydrogen solutions building the global green hydrogen economy,  via his note stating that “he was taking advantage of recent volatility to upgrade the company, the stock is attractively priced at present, ahead of potential positive catalysts. We are adjusting 2021-2022 estimates with this note to reflect our latest thinking regarding the pace of investment activity associated with the firm’s initiatives in Europe and South Korea. On revisiting the model, we believe we previously underestimated the amount and pace of investment that PLUG will be making over the next two years in pursuit of nascent market opportunities.” However, he kept his price target at $65/share. 

NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) achieved a new all-time high of $614.90recently prior to closing at $553.67, +.93% today. NVDA has risen greatly during the ongoing “global chip shortage” as their chips power the future of self-driving cars and cloud gaming. Last week, NVDA reported record revenue for the fourth quarter ended January 31, 2021, of $5.00 billion, up 61 percent from $3.11 billion a year earlier, and up 6 percent from $4.73 billion in the previous quarter. The company’s Gaming and Data Center platforms achieved record revenue for the quarter and year.

Peter Thiel co-founded software/data analytics firm Palantir Technologies (PLTR) closed at $24.81/share, +3.81%.

BIOTECH & HEALTHCARE

The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) closed at 159.65, +1.73% while the NYSE ARCA Biotech Index (^BTK) closed at 5,813.58, +1.21%. 

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) today yesterday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended the first single-shot COVID-19 vaccine, developed by the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, for individuals 18 years of age and older under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Company plans to deliver 100 million single-shot vaccines to the U.S. during the first half of 2021. The U.S. government will manage allocation and distribution of the vaccine in the U.S.

Chinook Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: KDNY) ($17.23, +4.17%) and Evotec SE today announced a strategic collaboration focused on the discovery and development of novel precision medicine therapies for patients with chronic kidney diseases. Based on Evotec’s proprietary comprehensive molecular datasets from thousands of patients across chronic kidney diseases of multiple underlying etiologies, Chinook and Evotec will jointly identify, characterize and validate novel mechanisms and discover precision medicines for PKD, lupus nephritis, IgA nephropathy and other primary glomerular diseases. The collaboration will also involve further characterization of pathways and patient stratification strategies for programs currently in Chinook’s clinical and preclinical pipeline. “We are excited to embark on this strategic collaboration with Evotec, the leading drug discovery alliance and development partner in nephrology,” said Andrew King, D.V.M., Ph.D., Head of Renal Discovery and Translational Medicine at Chinook. “Gaining access to the NURTuRE cohort study and other proprietary patient biobanks, along with Evotec’s multi-omics integration platform, will enable us to define the molecular drivers of kidney diseases, identify novel targets for drug development in selected patient sub-populations and continue to build the foundation for our precision medicine approach. With a focus on comprehensive molecular disease classification, combined with prospective clinical outcomes, Chinook has the opportunity to potentially deliver targeted therapies to the right patient populations.”

INVO Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ: INVO) ($3.33, +4.72%), a medical device company focused on commercializing the world’s only in vivo Intravaginal Culture System (IVC), INVOcell®, an effective and affordable treatment for patients diagnosed with infertility, today announced the Company has received approval by COFEPRIS to import INVOcell into Mexico. In late 2020, INVO Bioscience established a joint venture focused on establishing fertility centers dedicated to offering INVOcell, with the initial center, called Positib Fertility, to be located in the city of Monterrey, Mexico. Steve Shum, CEO of INVO Bioscience, commented, “We are extremely pleased to have received approval by COFEPRIS to begin importing INVOcell into Mexico. This was a key step in the process to open our first joint venture owned clinic in the large and growing Mexico market for infertility services. Our internal team along with our JV partners have and continue to work aggressively and with a relentless focus to bring the INVOcell treatment option to the many patients in need of care within Mexico.”

AIkido Pharma Inc. (Nasdaq: AIKI) ($1.33, +11.76%) (Mkt. Cap 118.139M) announced on Feb. 23rd that the underwriter of its previously announced bought deal offering of common stock has partially exercised its option to purchase an additional 7,030,927 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $1.60 per share. After giving effect to the exercise of option to purchase additional shares, the total number of shares sold by AIkido in the bought deal offering increased to 53,905,927 shares and gross proceeds increased to approximately $86.2 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses. H.C. Wainwright & Co. acted as the sole book-running manager for the offering. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for working capital and general corporate purposes.

GOLD, SILVER, HL

The iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) closed at $24.6, -.24% & the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) closed at $161.53, -.17%. Silver prices closed at $26.65/oz, -$.10. Gold prices closed at 1,736, -$12.

North American Silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $6.21/share, -4.9% on the day after recently establishing a new 52-week high of $8.45 this week. HL’s 52-week range is $1.4 – $8.45. Hecla Mining Company (NYSE:HL) today announced the appointment of Alice Wong as a Director effective February 26, 2021. Ms. Wong has been Senior Vice-President and Chief Corporate Officer at Cameco Corporation since July 2011. Prior to that, she served as Vice President Safety, Health, Environment, Quality and Regulatory Relations from 2008 to June 2011. Ms. Wong was also the Vice President Investor, Corporate and Government Relations from 2005 to 2008. Ms. Wong has more than 30 years of diverse expertise in the uranium industry and holds a Corporate Directors Designation (ICD.D).

I recently hosted a Tribe Public Webinar Presentation and Q&A Event last week with Phillips S. Baker, Jr., President, and CEO of Hecla Mining Company (NYSE: HL) where we discussed “The Silver Squeeze” while addressing questions from the Tribe and offering valuable insights on silver prices throughout history and the recent volatility that helped move silver related stocks and the ETF SLV. Please view it by clicking here.  

ROYAL, SHIP, UAL & BA

Royal Caribbean Group (NYSE: RCL) ($91.35, 2.06%) today announced that it has priced its previously announced underwritten public offering of 16,938,148 shares of common stock of the Company. The underwriters will offer the Shares sold by the Company to the public at $91.00 per share. The offering is expected to close on March 3, 2021, subject to customary closing conditions. The Company expects to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes. Morgan Stanley and BofA Securities are acting as joint book-running managers and underwriters for the offering of common stock. Perella Weinberg Partners is serving as independent financial advisor to the Royal Caribbean Group.

Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. (SHIP) ($1.20, +5.26%) recently announced the successful completion of the registered direct offering priced at-the-market announced on February 16, 2021 and the successful closing of the documentation for the $179 million financial restructuring previously announced on January 12, 2021. The Company successfully completed the oversubscribed Offering of approximately 44,150,000 of its common shares to certain unaffiliated institutional investors for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $75.0 million. Maxim Group LLC acted as the sole placement agent for the Offering. The offering was priced at-the-market under Nasdaq rules, at $1.70 per share, reflecting increased institutional interest. The net proceeds of the Offering are approximately $70.0 million after deducting the placement agent’s fees and other related offering expenses.

United Airlines (UAL) ($53.31,+1.2%) has reportedly ordered 25 737 MAX planes from Boeing (BA) ($224.39, +5.8%).

VP WATCHLIST HIGHLIGHTS

Economic Reports

• On Monday, the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index report confirmed a rise by .5% month/month in January.
• On Tuesday, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index report which confirmed a rise to 91.3 in February. The FHFA Housing Price Index report confirmed a rise by 1.1% in February. The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index report confirmed an rose by 10.1% in December.
• On Wednesday, the new home sales report confirmed a 4.3% month/month rise to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 923k in January & on a year/year it is now up 19.3%. The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index fell 11.4%. 
• On Thursday, the initial claims report for the week ending February 20 which showed a drop of 111k to 730k while continuing claims for the week ending February 13 dropped by 101k to 4.419M. The Durable Goods Orders report for January moved up 3.4% month/month. The second estimate for Q4 GDP was revised upward slightly to 4.1%. The GDP Price Deflator was moved up to 2.1%. The Pending home sales report confirmed a drop by 2.8% month/month in January.

Investing & Inspiration

1. “We don’t have an analytical advantage, we just look in the right place.” – Seth Klarman
2. “Men, it has been well said, think in herds. It will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” – Charles Mackay
3. “It’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.” – George Soros
4. “No Price is too low for a bear or too high for a bull.” — Anonymous
5. “Investment is an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future.” Anonymous
6. “Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it’s doing.” — Peter Lynch
7. “Wise spending is part of wise investing. And it’s never too late to start.” –Rhonda Katz
8. “It amazes me how people are often more willing to act based on little or no data than to use data that is a challenge to assemble.” ― Robert Shiller
9. “A bull market is like sex. It feels best just before it ends.” — Barton Biggs
10. “The investor’s chief problem — even his worst enemy — is likely to be himself.” — Benjamin Graham
11. “No profession requires more hard work, intelligence, patience, and mental discipline than successful speculation.” – Robert Rhea
12. “Money is like a sixth sense – and you can’t make use of the other five without it.” – William Somerset Maugham
13. “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” — Albert Einstein
14. “Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results” — Warren Buffett
15. “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” – Warren Buffett
16. “Thousands of experts study overbought indicators, head-and-shoulder patterns, put-call ratios, the Fed’s policy on money supply…and they can’t predict markets with any useful consistency, any more than the gizzard squeezers could tell the Roman emperors when the Huns would attack.” – Peter Lynch
17. “Investing puts money to work. The only reason to save money is to invest it.” – Grant Cardone
18. “You cannot save time for your future use however you can invest time for your future.” – John F. Heerdink, Jr. 
19. “Know what you own, and know why you own it.” – Peter Lynch
20. “Liquidity is only there when you don’t need it.” -Old Proverb
21. “If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.” – Richard Branson
22. “Fear incites human action far more urgently than does the impressive weight of historical evidence.” – Jeremy Siegel
23. “In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” – Robert Arnott
24. “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up.” – Charlie Munger
25. “The entrance strategy is actually more important than the exit strategy.” – Edward Lampert
26. “The rivers don’t drink their own water; Trees don’t eat their own fruits. The sun does not shine for itself, And flowers do not spread their fragrance For themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature” – Pope Francis
27. “It is impossible to produce superior performance unless you do something different from the majority.” – John Templeton
28. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin.
29. “I believe the returns on investment in the poor are just as exciting as successes achieved in the business arena, and they are even more meaningful!” -Bill Gates
30. “Every portfolio benefits from bonds; they provide a cushion when the stock market hits a rough patch. But avoiding stocks completely could mean your investment won’t grow any faster than the rate of inflation.” – Suze Orman
31. “The tax on capital gains directly affects investment decisions, the mobility, and flow of risk capital… the ease or difficulty experienced by new ventures in obtaining capital, and thereby the strength and potential for growth in the economy.” – John F. Kennedy
32. “If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion. -George Bernard Shaw
33. “There are old traders and there are bold traders, but there are very few old, bold traders.”-Ed Seykota
34. “Let this scenario play out on its own, in its own fashion. As you watch it unfold, you will soon be grateful that you choose the peaceful path. Remember — those who live by the sword, die by the sword.”
35. “As long as you enjoy investing, you’ll be willing to do the homework and stay in the game.” -Jim Cramer
36. “I rarely think the market is right. I believe non-dividend stocks aren’t much more than baseball cards. They are worth what you can convince someone to pay for it.” -Mark Cuban
37. “Michael Marcus taught me one other thing that is absolutely critical: You have to be willing to make mistakes regularly; there is nothing wrong with it. Michael taught me about making your best judgment, being wrong, making your next best judgment, being wrong, making your third best judgment, and then doubling your money.” -Bruce Kovner
38. “The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.” -Jawaharlal Nehru
39. “The only true test of whether a stock is “cheap” or “high” is not its current price in relation to some former price, no matter how accustomed we may have become to that former price, but whether the company’s fundamentals are significantly more or less favorable than the current financial-community appraisal of that stock.” -Philip Fisher
40. “I learned to avoid trying to catch up or double up to recoup losses. I also learned that a certain amount of loss will affect your judgment, so you have to put some time between that loss and the next trade.” -Richard Dennis
41. “The four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘this time it’s different.” -Sir John Templeton
42. “Money doesn’t make you happy. I now have $50 million but I was just as happy when I had $48 million.” -Arnold Schwarzenegger