Markets Turn Slightly Red On Tuesday

The markets swung a bit towards the red side on Tuesday after two consecutive days in the green. Only the communications sector ended in positive territory as it added .3% while the energy and financials sectors led the day from the negative side respectively dropping 2.7% & 1.2% after their good day on Monday. All indices finished in the red. The S&P 500 ended at 3,335.47 down .48% & the Dow 30 closed at 27,452.66 down .48%, the tech heavy Nasdaq fell .29% ending at 11,085.25 & the little guys on Russell 2000 dropped .37% ending at 1,504.73.

The macroeconomic schedule provided the following relatively positive reports: The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index report rose to 101.8 in September. The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index report also showed an rise by 3.9% in July. The advance international trade in goods report showed a deficit that totaled $82.9B in August. The advance wholesale inventories report confirmed a rise higher by .5% in August while the advance retail inventories report showed a rise of .9%. 

The FAANG stocks also ended follows: Facebook (FB) closed at $261.79/share up 1.94%, Amazon (AMZN) closed at $3,144.88/share down .92%, Apple (AAPL) closed at $114.09/share down .76%, Netflix (NFLX) added .58% closing at $493.48/share & Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $1,469.33/share up .33%. 

Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) had a relatively calm trading session as it closed lower at $419.07/share down .51%. Tesla’s 52-week post forward split low is $43.67/share and its recent all-time new high is $502.49/share. We continue to like Plug Power (PLUG) especially when it pulls back into the mid to $11 range like it did again last week. Today PLUG closed at $13.16/share off .3%after yesterday +13% jump.

Precious metals rebounded again today as gold closed at $1,898(+18) while silver closed at lower at $24.28/oz (+.50). North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $5.07/share up 1.2% after recently establishing another new 52-week high of $6.79/share during intraday trading. HL’s 52-week low is $1.40. Please join me on tomorrow for the FREE Tribe Public’s Webinar Presentation and Q&A Event with Phillips S. Baker, Jr., President, and CEO of Hecla Mining Company (NYSE: HL) which has been scheduled for September 30th (8:30 am pacific/ 11:30 am eastern.) He will deliver a ~20-minute presentation titled “A Uniquely Scarce Investment.” You may join by registering at Tribe Public.  Please send your questions ahead of time to research@tribepublic.com. Barrick Gold Corporation (GOLD) closed at $28.28/share up 1.87%. 

Oil prices moved up closing at $40.29/bbl. A few energy leaders closed as follows: Chevron (CVX) closed at $71.90/share down 2.75%, midstream player, Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), closed trading at $15.93/share down .56% and is currently sporting an attractive $1.78/share dividend or 11.11% while USA Corporation Partners, LP. (USAC), one of the nation’s largest independent providers of natural gas compression services, closed at $10.18/share up .1% while offering a $2.10/share (20.65%) dividend.

The 2-yr US treasury yield closed down 3 basis point at .11% while the 10-yr yield closed down 2 basis points at .65%. The U.S. Dollar Index weakened to close at 93.91.

WTVQ reported today that Summit Biosciences Inc., a Lexington-based pharmaceutical company focused on nasal spray medicines, is expanding its operation at the University of Kentucky Coldstream Research Campus with a more than $19 million investment expected to create up to 78 full-time jobs. In May, Atossa Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ATOS) ($2.52/share, +6.78%), a Seattle-based pharmaceutical company, awarded Summit a contract to accelerate the development of a nasal spray medicine for preventing and/or mitigating a COVID-19 infection. The proposed product is being developed as an at-home, easy-to-administer preventative or treatment option for patients and is among a very limited number of medicines or vaccines that will rely on intranasal delivery. Atossa selected Summit for its specialized capabilities, industrial-scale infrastructure and proven track record in nasal spray medicines. “We are excited and honored to have been entrusted by Atossa Therapeutics to aid in the development of a product that could potentially be used in the global fight against the coronavirus,” said Greg Plucinski, president and COO of Summit. “Our dedicated, high-performing team has taken this immense responsibility and worked extremely hard to deliver products for the start of human clinical studies in record time.”

TOMORROW

The macroeconomic calendar will deliver the ADP Employment Change Report for September, the Chicago PMI for September, the third estimate for Q2 GDP, Pending Home Sales for August, & the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index.

WATCH LIST

Atossa Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ATOS) closed at $2.52/share up 6.78%.

• • Atossa Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company seeking to discover and develop innovative medicines in areas of significant unmet medical need with a current focus on breast cancer and COVID-19.

  • Recently, Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. announced a positive interim safety assessment from the second cohort of healthy participants in their Phase 1 clinical study using Atossa’s proprietary drug candidate AT-301 administered by nasal spray. This second group of eight participants received a single escalated dose of either AT-301A (placebo) or AT-301B (active drug). The blinded, positive assessment by the safety committee allows the study to now enroll the next cohort, which will be the third of a total of four cohorts and the first of two multi-dose, placebo-controlled cohorts. The ongoing Phase 1 study is a double-blinded, randomized, and placebo-controlled safety study of AT-301 nasal spray in 32 healthy adult subjects divided into two study groups. Part A consists of two single-dose cohorts receiving either active therapy, AT-301B, or the placebo comparator AT-301A at two different doses. Part B is a multiple-dose arm with cohorts receiving either AT-301A or AT-301B for 14 days at two different doses. The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of single and multiple doses of AT-301 administered via nasal instillation to healthy volunteers. Secondary objectives are to assess the incidence and severity of local irritation and bronchospasm following administration of AT-301 via nasal instillation. The study is being conducted in Australia. READ THE COMPLETE STORY!

• • Dr. Steven Quay MD, Ph.D., Atossa’s founder, and CEO, recently published the following book “Stay Safe: A Physician’s Guide to Survive Coronavirus” . 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 $39.40/share.

  • Fate is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for cancer and immune disorders. 

  • On Aug. 19, Fate announced that Edward Dulac has been appointed Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Dulac comes to the Company from Celgene Corporation, where he most recently served as Vice President, Business Development & Strategy, and brings an extensive array of biopharmaceutical experience having served for over 20 years in positions in finance, business development, and product portfolio strategy.

  • On Aug. 5, Fate Reported Second Quarter 2020 Financial Results and Highlights Operational Progress ending the quarter with $533 Million in Cash & Short-term Investments. Scott Wolchko, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fate Therapeutics stated, “Early clinical data from our FT596 program are very encouraging, as we observed a partial response in a heavily-pretreated patient with refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma at the first dose level without any reported events of cytokine release syndrome, neurotoxicity or graft-versus-host disease. Additionally, the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity data across our off-the-shelf NK cell programs continue to suggest that multiple doses of iPSC-derived NK cells can be administered to a patient without matching. We continue to be pleased with our pace of innovation, where the recent clearances of our IND applications by the FDA for FT538, the first-ever CRISPR-edited iPSC-derived cell therapy, and for FT819, the first-ever iPSC-derived CAR T-cell therapy, continue to demonstrate our unique ability to rapidly bring multiplexed engineered, off-the-shelf NK cell and T-cell cancer immunotherapies to patients. In addition, we successfully launched our Janssen collaboration with strong momentum, bringing together Janssen’s proprietary tumor-targeting antigen binders and our industry-leading iPSC product platform to develop novel off-the-shelf CAR NK and CAR T-cell immunotherapies for hematologic malignancies and solid tumors.”

  • July 14th, FATE announced that the Company entered into an exclusive license agreement with Baylor College of Medicine covering alloimmune defense receptors, a first-in-class approach that renders off-the-shelf allogeneic cell products resistant to host immune rejection. Preclinical studies published in the journal Nature Biotechnology (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-020-0601-5) demonstrate that allogeneic cells engineered with a novel alloimmune defense receptor (ADR) are protected from both T- and NK-cell mediated rejection, and provide proof-of-concept that ADR-expressing allogeneic cell therapies can durably persist in immunocompetent recipients.

  • On June 11th, FATE 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. 

• Shares of NeuBase Therapeutics (NBSE) closed at $7.56/share up .27% after recently reaching a new 52-week high recently of $11.78/share.

• • Chairman, CEO & Founder of NeuBase, Dietrich A. Stephan, Ph.D., presented at Tribe Public’s Webinar Presentation and Q&A Event on Wednesday, August 26th, 2020.  During this complimentary, 30-minute event, Dietrich Stephan, Ph.D. introduced the NeuBase’s next generation of gene silencing technology & the company’s progress with treatment candidates in Huntington’s Disease (HD) and Myotonic Dystrophy (DM1) and be available for Q&A. Here’s a link to the Tribe Public Youtube channel where you may watch the interview presentation.

• • NeuBase is developing the next generation of gene silencing therapies with its flexible, highly specific synthetic antisense oligonucleotides. The proprietary NeuBase peptide-nucleic acid (PNA) antisense oligonucleotide (PATrOL™) platform allows for the rapid development of targeted drugs, increasing the treatment opportunities for the hundreds of millions of people affected by rare genetic diseases, including those that can only be treated through accessing of secondary RNA structures. Using PATrOL technology, NeuBase aims to first tackle rare, genetic neurological disorders. NeuBase is continuing its progress towards developing treatment candidates in Huntington’s Disease (HD) and Myotonic Dystrophy (DM1.)

  • RBC Capital Markets recently initiated coverage of NBSE today with an Outperform, Speculative Risk rating & a $16 price target. 

  • NBSE recently reported its financial results for the three and nine-month periods ended June 30, 2020. Dietrich A. Stephan, Ph.D., chief executive officer of NeuBase stated, “We are pleased with the continued execution of our development programs during 2020. This includes the announcement in late-March of compelling data that firmly validates our platform as a viable fully synthetic approach to genetic medicine. Notably, these data confirm that our therapies penetrate into the brain when administered systemically – overcoming one of the grand challenges of drug delivery. PATrOL-enabled compounds can also access tissues throughout the entire body, opening our platform up to unexplored indications that have not previously been accessible by genetic medicine technologies. These positive pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data-position our unique technology to output a vast pipeline of therapeutics to resolve innumerable human diseases. We anticipate presenting additional new data with respect to our ongoing progress in the fourth calendar quarter of this year. A key objective for our company shortly after the March data announcement was to strengthen our balance sheet in order to fully advance our strategies in HD and DM1, and build out our pipeline. This was accomplished in April with the closing of our oversubscribed capital raise of approximately $33.3 million in net proceeds that was led by fundamental healthcare investors and significantly increased our institutional shareholder base. We expect this to support our R&D and general corporate expenses into the second calendar quarter of 2022.”

• Shares of Aduro (ADRO) closed at $2.31/share down 2.53%.

• • On Aug. 18th, Chinook Therapeutics, Inc., a privately-held clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of precision medicines for kidney diseases,  announced a $106 million private placement financing, with participation from new widely respected healthcare investors including EcoR1 Capital, OrbiMed, funds managed by Rock Springs Capital, Avidity Partners, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Ally Bridge Group, Monashee Investment Management LLC, Northleaf Capital Partners, Janus Henderson Investors, Sphera Biotech, and other top-tier healthcare investors. As part of the financing, Chinook’s existing investors, Versant Ventures, Apple Tree Partners and Samsara BioCapital, will purchase $25 million in Chinook common stock on the same terms as the new investors in lieu of their prior commitment to purchase convertible notes. The private placement closing is expected to occur immediately prior to the closing of the previously announced proposed merger between Chinook and Aduro Biotech, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADRO). Following the proposed merger 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 Select Market under the ticker symbol “KDNY”. Closing of the private placement is subject to the satisfaction or waiver of all closing conditions for the proposed merger. Following the private placement financing, and upon closing of the merger, Chinook is expected to have at least $275 million in operating capital.

• • On August 3rd, provided a business update and reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2020. Stephen T. Isaacs, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Aduro stated, “The second quarter of 2020 was highlighted by the announcement of our planned merger with Chinook Therapeutics as well as significant progress in our BION-1301 program for IgA nephropathy (IgAN). We recently dosed the first IgAN patient with BION-1301 in Part 3 of our ongoing Phase 1 study and presented positive data from Parts 1 and 2 of this study in healthy volunteers at the 57th ERA-EDTA Virtual Congress. The data 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 continue to enroll patients in our Phase 2 study of ADU-S100 in combination with pembrolizumab in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck and make progress on our cGAS-STING antagonist research collaboration with Lilly. We ended the second quarter of 2020 with a cash position of $186.1 million, which we believe will enable us to continue our ongoing STING and APRIL programs in the near-term and also meet our net cash requirements at the close of the merger with Chinook.” 

• • This Thursday, October 1, there is shareholder vote that is seeking to bless the current combination.

• Shares of INVO Bioscience (INVO) closed at $3.70/share.

• • Recently, INVO Bioscience, Inc. (INVO), a medical device company focused on creating alternative treatments for patients diagnosed with infertility and developers of INVOcell®, the world’s only in vivo Intravaginal Culture System, today announced the appointment of two seasoned executives, Barbara Ryan and Matthew Szot, to its board of directors, effective immediately. To make way for their appointments, Kathleen Karloff and Michael Campbell have both agreed to voluntarily step down from their board positions to assist the company in achieving an independent board majority. Mr. Campbell will remain as Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Business Development, while Ms. Karloff intends to continue to advise the board and assist the operating team on a go-forward basis. Ms. Ryan founded Barbara Ryan Advisors, a capital markets and communications firm, in 2012 following a more than 30-year career on Wall Street as a sell-side research analyst covering the US Large Cap Pharmaceutical Industry. Previously, Ms. Ryan was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank/Alex Brown and Head of the company’s Pharmaceutical Research Team for 19 years and began her research career covering the Pharmaceutical industry at Bear Stearns in 1982. Ms. Ryan has deep experience in equity and debt financings, valuation, SEC reporting, financial analysis, and corporate strategy across a broad range of life sciences companies. During Ms. Ryan’s career as an analyst, in addition to covering the large-cap pharmaceutical companies, Barbara also covered the drug wholesalers and PBMs and was the lead analyst on many high-profile IPO’s including Express Scripts, PSSI, Henry Schein, and Flamel Technologies. Ms. Ryan has extensive global buy-side, sell-side and financial media relationships, and has provided support and counsel on several of the highest-profile deals in the biopharma industry, including Shire/Abbvie, Shire/Baxalta, and Allergan/Valeant. Barbara led the IR/PR programs for Radius Health, the best performing IPO of 2014, for 4 years, Eloxx Pharmaceuticals for the past two years, and served on the Executive Team at both companies. Ms. Ryan has provided strategic communications counsel for Cardinal Health, Purdue, Zoetis, Radius Health, Eloxx Pharmaceuticals, Agenus, Centrexion, Esperion, ContraFect, Relypsa, Shire, Allergan, and Perrigo. Ms. Ryan’s opinions and expertise are widely sought; she is frequently quoted in the press and appears on CNBC. Ms. Ryan currently serves on Pharmaceutical Executive’s Editorial Advisory Board, the Executive Advisory Board for the Prix Galien Foundation is a member of the Life Sciences Council of Springboard Enterprises and is a member of the Board of Directors of Gilda’s Club NYC, and a Faculty member at the GLG Institute. Ms. Ryan Chaired the Board of Villa Maria School, a school for children with learning disabilities, for 8 years. Ms. Ryan is the Founder of Fabulous Pharma Females, a non-profit dedicated to the advancement of women in the biopharmaceutical industry.

• • Industry forecasts suggest that only 1% to 2% of the estimated 150 million infertile couples worldwide are currently being treated.

• • INVO’s mission is to increase access to care and expand infertility treatment across the globe with a goal of improving patient affordability and industry capacity. 

• • I am expecting to see the company push forward with new market supportive initiatives and awareness of their INVOcell product before yearend 2020 that may result in further adoption in the US clinics and establishing new joint ventures, partners, and distributors throughout the world.

  • Tiny Float – INVO has ~7.89 million shares outstanding and with ~+15% insider ownership the share float is tight and recently confirmed that the company raised ~$3.5M.

• North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) ended trading at $5.07 up 1.2%. 

• • On September 20, Hecla announced preliminary production results, anticipated cash position at the end of the third quarter, repayment of the revolving credit facility and increased production estimates for the year. Learn more.

• • Hecla recently announced that its Board of Directors is increasing the expected minimum quarterly dividend 50% to an annualized one and one-half cents per share and lowering the silver-linked dividend threshold price. If Hecla’s average realized silver price for a quarter is $25.00 per ounce, the new silver-linked quarterly dividend policy provides an annualized two cents per share, while at $30 and above, the realized silver-linked dividend per quarter is unchanged. Recently, Hecla reported 24% higher revenues on higher production and prices in Q2 2020.

Economic Reports

• On Monday, we did not receive any significant macroeconomic reports. 
• On Tuesday, we received the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index report rose to 101.8 in September. The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index report also showed an rise by 3.9% in July. The advance international trade in goods report showed a deficit that totaled $82.9B in August. The advance wholesale inventories report confirmed a rise higher by .5% in August while the advance retail inventories report showed a rise of .9%. 

Investing & Inspiration

“You cannot save time for your future use however you can invest time for your future.” – John F. Heerdink, Jr. 

“Know what you own, and know why you own it.” – Peter Lynch

“Liquidity is only there when you don’t need it.” -Old Proverb

“If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.” – Richard Branson

“Fear incites human action far more urgently than does the impressive weight of historical evidence.” – Jeremy Siegel

“In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” – Robert Arnott

“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up.” – Charlie Munger

“The entrance strategy is actually more important than the exit strategy.” – Edward Lampert

“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

“It is impossible to produce superior performance unless you do something different from the majority.” – John Templeton

“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

“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