It Was All About The Nasdaq On Thursday!

The Nasdaq managed to close at another new all-time record high today up 1.53% closing at 10,547.25. The move was again led by the heavily weighted FAANG stocks that had a good day overall closing higher as follows: Facebook (FB) closed at $244.50/share up .38%, Amazon (AMZN) closed at $3,182.63/share up 3.29%,  Apple (AAPL) closed at $382.73/share up .36%, Netflix (NFLX) gained 1.95% closing at $507.76/share up .99% after establishing a new 52-wk high of $510/  & Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $1,510.00/share up .1%. The Dow dropped 1.39% to hit its lowest level in 6-days, the S&P 500 fell .56% & the Russell lost 2%.

On the macroeconomic front, the initial claims report confirmed a drop by 99k for the week ending July 4 to 1.314M, while continuing claims for the week ending June 27 fell significantly by 698k to 18.062M. The Wholesale inventories report also confirmed a drop of 1.2% in May.

Gold closed above the $1800 mark again at $1,803(-14) & silver prices closed back below $19 at $18.91/oz (-.12). North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $3.79/share up another 5.28% as it continues on its recent winning ways.

Oil prices declined 3.1% closing at $39.63/bbl. Energy leaders Chevron (CVX) closed at $82.74/share down 4.18%, Exxon (XOM) closed at $41.36/share down 4.13% & highly leveraged Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) closed at $16.28/share down 5.79%. Midstream player, Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), closed trading at $17.25/share down 1.65% and is currently sporting an attractive $1.78/share dividend or 10.15%. 

The 2-yr US treasury yield closed down one basis point at .15% while the 10-yr yield closed down 5 basis points at .61%. The U.S. Dollar Index strengthened by .4% to end at 96.78. 

MOVERS 

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

• BlueCity Holdings Ltd. (BLCT) jumped 46.44% closing at $23.43/share yesterday after its IPO debut on the Nasdaq at $16/share that saw shares reach $35.74. Today BLCT shares leged up to $25.99 up another 10.93%. BLCT is a China-based online LGBTQ community. 

• OneConnect Financial Technology (OCFT) jumped 19.80% closing at $23.96/share after it announced the signing of a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Hainan Local Financial Supervision Administration to develop smart financial and smart supervision services in the island province of Hainan.

• Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPCE) closed $19.46/share up 15.90%. recently SPCE announced that SpaceShipTwo’s cabin interior design reveal will occur on July 28, 2020.

TOMORROW

The macroeconomic calendar will serve the weekly Initial and Continuing Claims report & the Wholesale Inventories report for May.

WATCH LIST

• Atossa Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ATOS), which is working on two COVID-19 programs, closed at $3.71/share up 1.64% after touching $3.79 in intraday trading.
  • Yesterday, ATOS announced that it has hired key personnel in clinical, regulatory, and chemistry manufacturing and controls (CMC). The new hires include Heather Fraser, Ph.D., as vice president of clinical, regulatory, and CMC; Natalie Farris, MS, as senior director of CMC; and Devon Payne as director of clinical operations. “Hiring of these talented and accomplished individuals will help accelerate the advancement of our development pipeline, which includes programs in breast cancer and COVID-19. We welcome Heather, Natalie, and Devon to Atossa and look forward to their important contributions as we execute on our value-creation strategy,” commented Steven Quay, M.D., Ph.D., president, and CEO of Atossa.  
  • Dr. Quay was recently 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.

• Shares of Fate Therapeutics (FATE) closed at $36.35/share up from its 52-week low of $12.59 but lower than the newly achieved all-time high of $38.52/share. On June 11th, FATE 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) closed at $8.13/share down 2.75% today. 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. NBSE was added to the Russell 3000 last Friday.

• Shares of Aduro (ADRO) closed at $2.66/share today down 1.48%. 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”. Yesterday, 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.”

• Shares of INVO Bioscience (INVO) closed at $3.61/share. On Monday, there was an 8k filed which confirmed a final third closing of its recent funding. The Company recently 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. On Thursday last week, Birmingham, Alabama-based America Institute of Reproductive Medicine (AIRM) published a report highlighting the success achieved in their practice utilizing INVOcell. “The AIRM clinic became an early adopter and advocate for the use of INVOcell shortly after we received FDA-clearance. We appreciate their willingness to share their story of that successful implementation of INVOcell within their clinical practice, which highlights important aspects of our INVOcell technology solution,” stated Steve Shum, CEO of INVO Bioscience. You can review the report here.

• TransEnterix (TRXC) closed trading at $.3231/share. On Monday, TRXC announced the closing of $15M registered direct common share offering at $.35/share. TRXC is a medical device company that is digitizing the interface between the surgeon and the patient to improve minimally invasive surgery.

Economic Reports

• On Monday, we received the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index report for June which confirmed that the US is now back in expansion mode as it came in at 57.1% well past the Mendoza line.
• On Tuesday, we learned that the Job Openings report (JOLTS) confirmed that job openings rose to 5.397M in May further reflecting the reopening measures were at work. 
• On Wednesday, we learned that consumer credit pulled back by $18.2B in May as lenders are further tightening. The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index Report also showed a rise of 2.2%.
• On Thursday, the initial claims report confirmed a drop by 99k for the week ending July 4 to 1.314M while continuing claims for the week ending June 27 fell significantly by 698k to 18.062M. The Wholesale inventories report also confirmed a drop of 1.2% in May.

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