“Broad Markets Tread While APA, APLS, CRM & HL Move Higher” Vista Partners Daily Market Recap For January 7, 2020

Trading today brought forth a great deal of sideways action that ended in the broad markets trading a bit down across the board. The rising tensions in the middle east continue to add a cloud of darkness but the markets seem to be proving quite resilient as the situation evolves.

On the day, the S&P 500 ended at 3,237.18, -.28%. All 11 S&P 500 sectors were in the red with the real estate sector falling the most dropping -1.7%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 28,583.68, -.42%. The Nasdaq Composite ended at 9,068.58, -.03%.

The Russell 2000 also dropped by -.3% ending at 1658.31.

The “fear gauge” Vix (TVIX) also ended down at $50.30/share, -.89% and traded in a range of $49.3 – $52.45.

Economic Reports

We did not receive any significant economic data Monday.

On Tuesday, the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index Report for December confirmed a 55% reading (an increase) while the Factory Orders Report showed a decrease by -.7% month/month in November as Shipments rose +.3%. The trade deficit tightened to $43.1B in November.

Investing & Inspiration

“As long as you enjoy investing, you’ll be willing to do the homework and stay in the game.” -Jim Cramer

“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

“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

“The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.” -Jawaharlal Nehru

“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

“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

Tomorrow

We are due to receive the ADP Employment Change Report for December, the Consumer Credit Report for November, & the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index tomorrow.

Dow futures have fallen in the 300 -400 point point range tonight while oil prices jumped ~+3.5% as tensions escalate as Iran reportedly fired a number of missiles at bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq.

On a trading basis here are 3 ideas in biotech to check out that may be even more interesting if we see a pullback tomorrow as the annual JPMorgan Healthcare conference comes into focus next week:

• Acorda Therapeutics (ACOR) which closed at $1.96/share last Thursday when we originally highlighted them after they recently announced a $276M exchange of convertible senior debt that moved maturity out to 2024, closed today’s trading at $2.44/share after spiking to $2.77/share.

•  Aduro Biotech, Inc. (ADRO) closed at $1.18/share last Thursday and has interesting data points due in the 1st half 2020. Today it closed up another +.75% closing at $1.34/share.

• Neubase Therapeutics (NBSE) closed trading at $6.90/share last Thursday and expects several data points to be released in the 1st half of 2020 with regard to their gene silencing platform that is initially targeting HD and ALS. Today NBSE closed up again at $7.43/share, +3.34%.