Growing Coronavirus Concerns, Fears & Considerations Consumes Investor Sentiment Today

The markets today finished firmly in the red as coronavirus concerns, fears and considerations seemed to take over investors’ minds and reopening hopes faded a little. My home state of California and Texas added to these fears reporting another daily record of newly confirmed coronavirus cases & related increasing rates of hospitalizations.

The recently white-hot NASDAQ that hit another new all-time high yesterday closed back below the coveted 10k market falling 2.19% and closing at 9,019.17 definitively ending its 8-day winning streak. The Dow 30 lost 2.72%, The S&P 500 lost 2.59% and the Russell 2000 slid 3.45%. The energy sector off 5.5%, the industrials sector off 3.5%, & the financials sector off 3.5% led the selloff of all eleven sectors. All FAANG stocks took a hit too as follows: Facebook (FB) closed at $234.02/share down 3.39%, Amazon (AMZN) closed at $2,734.40 down 1.09%,  Apple (AAPL) closed at $360.06/share down 1.77%, Netflix (NFLX) lost 1.8% closing at $457.85/share, & Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $1,431.97/share down 2.22%.

However if you were in anything related to potential COVID-19 vaccines or treatments then you had a decent day for the most part. Atossa Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ATOS), which is working on two COVID-19 programs, closed at $4.05/share up 11.68% after touching $4.14/share in intraday trading. Thye did not report any news but Dr. Steven Quay, MD, Ph.D., author, and physician-scientist, was interviewed on FOX 26 Houston this week and the show was titled “Company developing nasal spray to treat COVID-19.” Again as I mentioned yesterday, I believe it is worth the time for all to view this story here as it sheds a great deal of light on the 4 stages of COVID-19 and their potential treatments. He has also recently published the following book “Your COVID-19 Survival Manual: A Physician’s Guide to Keep You and Your Family Healthy During the Pandemic and Beyond,” in paperback and eBook format on his website, www.DrQuay.com. Proceeds from the book will go to military veterans performing COVID-19 relief work in their communities.  You may order it here.

Two reports surfaced on the macroeconomic front as the FHFA Housing Price Index report for April confirmed a rise by .2% & the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report confirmed a drop by 8.7%.

Gold closed at $1,769 (-4) & silver prices closed at $17.63/oz (-.44). North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $2.93/share down 4.56% while First Majestic Silver (AG) lost 3.44% closing at $8.97/share. Please view the Zoom Webinar Meeting that I hosted with the Tribe Public Network and the CEO of Hecla Phillips J. Baker, Jr. by clicking on the following link https://zoom.us/rec/share/zupcEaD0ykpJSdb0uWv8VYgqQYHaX6a8gSdP__oPzxqt2EwH_xsqvhzgFTFipIqx and entering the Password: 4V*N18a.

Oil prices moved dropped by 6.5% closing at $37.88/bbl. Energy leaders Chevron (CVX) closed at $87.64/share down 4.16%, Exxon (XOM) closed at $44.50/share down 4.71% & highly leveraged Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) closed at $18/share down a whopping 9.04%.

The 2-yr US treasury yield closed down 1 basis point at .18% & the 10-yr yield slid 1 basis point to close at .69%. The U.S. Dollar Index strengthened by .6% to end at 97.21. 

MOVERS

Here’s a couple of other equities that moved significantly higher today:

• Shares of Vir Biotechnology, Inc. (VIR) jumped 18.79% closing at $47.86/share running on the coronavirus fears and they work toward a viable vaccine.

• Shares of Plug Power (PLUG) closed at $7.57/share up 17.73% after announcing two acquisitions including the United Hydrogen Group and Giner ELX. Plug is a leading provider of hydrogen engines and fueling stations enabling e-mobility.

TOMORROW

Tomorrow’s significant economic data report schedule will be busy with the following:

• The weekly Initial and Continuing Claims report
• The Durable Goods Orders for May
• The third estimate for Q1 GDP
• The advance May reports for International Trade in Goods, Retail Inventories, and Wholesale Inventories.

WATCH LIST

• Shares of INVO Bioscience (INVO) closed at $3.70/share up 5.71% after touching $3.82 intraday trading. Yesterday, INVO announced that the company was to trade under the symbol “INVO” again effective at the beginning of trading on Tuesday, June 23, 2020, this morning. For the period May 26, 2020, through June 22, 2020, the company had traded under the symbol “INVOD” following the previously announced reverse stock split. The Company had previously announced on May 22, 2020, that it had effected a 1-for-20 reverse stock split reducing the amount of issued and outstanding common shares to approximately 7.89 million common shares. The reverse split was previously approved by the Company’s Board of Directors pursuant to the authority granted by the Company’s stockholders at the Company’s annual shareholder meeting held on December 16, 2019. “We are pleased to have completed this step toward improving the capitalization structure of the Company and overall visibility to the investor community. We are experiencing increased interest in our INVOcell device from prospective partners, physicians, patients, investors, and media. We are steadfast in our mission to increase access to care and expand fertility treatment across the globe with a goal of lowering costs while increasing the availability of care to this dramatically underserved market. We also continue to ramp our commercialization efforts, which we believe will help to expand our international opportunities,” commented Steve Shum, CEO of INVO Bioscience. Learn more about INVO by reading my interview: A Vista Partners Interview With Steve Shum CEO of INVO Bioscience Regarding Increasing Access To Care For Fertility Treatment.

• Shares of Fate Therapeutics (FATE) closed at $33/share up from its 52-week low of $12.59. On June 11th, NBSE recently announced that it had closed an underwritten public offering of 7,108,796 shares of its common stock, which included 927,324 shares that were issued pursuant to the full exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares, at a public offering price of $28.31 per share. Aggregate gross proceeds from this offering, including the exercise of the option, were approximately $201.3 million, prior to deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses. Fate Therapeutics, Inc. (FATE), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for cancer and immune disorders. Are you still invested in Fate after meeting them via this newsletter and attending meetings over the last couple of years when it was in the $3-4 range?… Recently, Fate announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the Company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application for FT538, the first CRISPR-edited, iPSC-derived cell therapy. FT538 is an off-the-shelf natural killer (NK) cell cancer immunotherapy that is derived from a clonal master induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line engineered with three functional components to enhance innate immunity: a novel high-affinity, non-cleavable CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor; an IL-15/IL-15 receptor fusion (IL-15RF); and the elimination of CD38 expression. The Company plans to initiate a clinical investigation of three once-weekly doses of FT538 as monotherapy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and in combination with daratumumab, a CD38-directed monoclonal antibody therapy, for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

• Shares of Neubase Therapeutics (NBSE) fell 2.96% today closing at $9.50/share after recently achieving a new all-time high of at $11.78/share prior to closing at $11.51/share. RBC Capital markets recently initiated coverage of NBSE today with an Outperform, Speculative Risk rating & a $16 price target. As we have been stating, we are following Neubase Therapeutics (NBSE) for a number of reasons including its development of a modular antisense peptide nucleic acid (PNA) platform with the capability to address rare genetic disease caused by mutant proteins with a single, cohesive approach,  but it also because it is being added to a Russell index this month. NBSE is now listed on the reconstitution list for the Russell 3000 index now as you can view here. Here are a couple of dates to consider regarding the process:

• • • June 26 – Russell Reconstitution is final after the close of the US equity markets.
    • June 29 – equity markets open with the newly reconstituted Russell US Indexes.

• Shares of Stereotaxis, Inc. (STXS) closed at $5.30/share up 1.34% after hitting an intraday high of $5.43/share. The 52-week range is $1.70 – $5.82/share. The global leader in innovative robotic technologies for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias continues to gain traction after their webcast symposium was held this weekend where they held a live broadcast of their bi-directional TeleRobotic procedures with physicians navigating catheters from hospitals more than 1700 km apart. They are to be added to the Rusell 2000 and the Russell 3000 indexes this month and will be presenting at the Cowen 5th Annual FutureHealth Conference on Thursday, June 25th at 10:15 pm eastern.

• Shares of Aduro (ADRO) closed at $2.26/share today. On June 2nd, Aduro Biotech, Inc.(ADRO) and Chinook Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of precision medicines for kidney diseases, today announced that the companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which Aduro will acquire all of the outstanding capital stock of Chinook in exchange for shares of Aduro common stock representing approximately 50 percent of Aduro’s outstanding common stock immediately following completion of the transaction. The combined company is expected to have approximately $200 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities at closing, including $25 million in additional financing committed by Chinook’s existing investors. Following closing, which is expected to occur in the second half of 2020, Aduro will be renamed Chinook Therapeutics, Inc., and is expected to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “KDNY”. Today ADRO announced that the first patient with IgA nephropathy has been dosed in a Phase 1 clinical trial of BION-1301, an investigational humanized IgG4 monoclonal antibody that blocks APRIL binding to both the BCMA and TACI receptors. “We are thrilled to have dosed the first patient with IgA nephropathy in the Phase 1 clinical study of our investigational anti-APRIL antibody, BION-1301,” said Dimitry S.A. Nuyten, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer of Aduro. “The data Aduro recently presented from Parts 1 and 2 of this study in healthy volunteers at the 57th ERA-EDTA Virtual Congress indicated BION-1301 was well-tolerated, had a half-life of approximately 33 days, achieved over 90% target engagement with a single 450 mg dose of BION-1301 and demonstrated dose-dependent and durable reductions in IgA and IgM levels, and to a lesser extent, IgG levels. We look forward to hopefully replicating this effect in addition to exploring BION-1301’s disease-modifying potential in patients with IgA nephropathy in Part 3 of the ongoing Phase 1 clinical study.”

Economic Reports

• On Monday, we received the May existing home sales report which confirmed a 9.7% month/month drop bringing us to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91M.
• On Tuesday, we received the new home sales report for May confirmed a jump of 16.6% month/month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676k.
• On Wednesday, we received the FHFA Housing Price Index report for April which confirmed a rise by .2% & the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report which confirmed a drop by 8.7%.

Investing & Inspiration

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin.

“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

“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

“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

“If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion.
-George Bernard Shaw

“The riskiest thing we can do is just maintain the status quo.
I get up at 4:30 in the morning, seven days a week, no matter where I am in the world. I think it is important for people who are given leadership roles to assume that role immediately. What I’ve really learned over time is that optimism is a very, very important part of leadership.” Bob Iger, Ceo of Disney

“There are old traders and there are bold traders, but there are very few old, bold traders.”-Ed Seykota

“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.”

“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

“The four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘this time it’s different.” -Sir John Templeton

“Money doesn’t make you happy. I now have $50 million but I was just as happy when I had $48 million.” -Arnold Schwarzenegger