Pfizer & BioNTech Vaccine, Salesforce Acquisition, & Stimulus Talks Lead Markets On Wednesday

A number of significant headlines came across the “www” today that grabbed investors minds. The leader in that department was the news that a coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer (PFE) ($40.80/share, +3.5%) & BioNTech (BNTX) ($121.09/share,+6.2%) had been confirmed to have received emergency approval in the UK and that the US may be in its cross hairs. Newly added Dow 30 component and CRM giant Salesforce (CRM) ($220.78/share, -8.5%) also added confirmation that they have acquired Slack Technologies (WORK) ($42.71/share, -2.6%) for a cool $27.7B in a cash and stock deal which many believe may present a major challenge to the momentum that Microsoft (MSFT) and Azure have enjoyed. Marc Benioff, Chairman, founder and co-CEO of Salesforce reportedly sees that Salesforce stands to become the “central nervous system” for the corporate office & that it may even supplant Microsoft. Regardless, I believe it is safe to say that the Benioff will aggressively continue to acquire and push his way into a position in order to create a dominant hold on whatever he aims his company towards. Lastly, we received the news that there is once again real progress towards further stimulus in the US, albeit less than the envisioned $2T, as the Democrats are now apparently supporting a $908B bipartisan stimulus bill.

At the end of the day, the indices ended a bit flat to positive over all after yesterday’s significant push. The Nasdaq ended at 12,349.37 (-.05%) but the S&P 500 closed at another new high at 3,669.01 (+.18%). The Dow 30 closed at 29,883.79 (+.2%) & the small caps on the Russell 2000 finished at 1,838.03 (+.11%).

The energy sector jumped 3.2% to lead all sectors while the financials sector up 1.1%, communication services sector up 1%, & the health care sector up .8% rounded out the top and the materials sector dropped 1.4%.

MACRO

The macroeconomic scheduled delivered the ADP Employment Change report for November that estimated 307k jobs were added to private-sector payrolls. The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index confirmed a drop by .6%. The weekly crude oil inventories report showed a continued decline as it dropped by 679k barrels.

AROUND TECH

The heavily weighted & popular FAANGs were mixed today and ended as follows:  Apple (AAPL) ($123.08, +.29%), Amazon (AMZN) ($3,203.53, -.51%), Alphabet (GOOG) ($1,827.95, +1.66%), Facebook (FB) ($287.52, +.34%) & Netflix (NFLX) closed at $503.38/share, -.24%.  

Shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) closed at $568.82/share, -2.73% essentially losing yesterday’s gains. Chinese EV concern NIO Limited (NIO) closed at $47.98/share adding 5.78%.  I had an interesting and impressive conversation with the CEO Rod Keller of Aryo, Inc. (ARYO) which closed at $7.25/share up a respectable 10.69% today. I came away with a concrete view of Aryo’s “logical” approach to the EV market, which simply put, aims to selectively meet the direct and expressed needs of the marketplace rather that creating vehicles that one hopes that the market will want.

Leading provider of zero emission hydrogen engines and fueling solutions, Plug Power (PLUG), closed $24.07/share down 1.63% after recently establishing a new all time high of $28.70. Last Monday night’s announcement confirmed that they had sold 38M shares priced at $22.25/shares raising a whopping $845.5M which represented about 9.1% of the shares outstanding. 

The leading pan-African e-commerce platform Jumia Technologies (JMIA) got back to its winning ways again today as it closed at $32.70, +17.58%.

GOLD & SILVER CONTINUE

Silver prices closed a US $24.12/oz, +.21 & gold prices closed at US $1,831/oz, +19. North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $5.22/share (+.97%). HL’s 52-week range is $1.40 – $6.79. Recently, Hecla announced Q3 2020 financial and operating results. Phillips S. Baker, Jr., Hecla’s President and CEO stated, “Because of our strong operating performance and higher prices, Hecla had record adjusted EBITDA, generated the most free cash flow in a decade and repaid our revolver in full. These accomplishments were achieved because of our workforces’ resiliency and our commitment to health and safety. With the Lucky Friday ramp-up ahead of schedule, the expected improvements at Casa Berardi, and our modest planned capital expenditures, we are well positioned to further strengthen our balance sheet, increase exploration activities, and pay our enhanced dividend.” Barrick Gold Corporation (GOLD) closed at $23.16/share, +2.07%. 

MONEY

The 2-yr treasury yield moved down 1 basis point to end at .16% while the 10-yr yield added 2 basis points to end at .95%. The U.S. Dollar Index weakened again closing at 91.09. 

TOMORROW

The Macro schedule will deliver the weekly Initial and Continuing Claims report, the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index for November, & the final Markit Services PMI report for November.

WATCH LIST

• Fate Therapeutics, Inc. (FATE) closed at $60.53/share, +.51% today after establishing a new-all-time record high of $61.35/share.
  • Fate is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for cancer and immune disorders.

• • Recently, Fate announced that management will host a virtual event entitled “The Power of hnCD16” on Friday, December 4, 2020 at 4:30 PM EDT. The event will highlight the unique therapeutic features and functionality of the Company’s proprietary high-affinity, non-cleavable CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor, a core component incorporated in its iPSC-derived NK cell product candidates. The Company’s hnCD16 Fc receptor is designed to maximize antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity, a potent anti-tumor mechanism by which NK cells recognize, bind and kill antibody-coated cancer cells.

• Shares of INVO Bioscience (INVO) closed trading at $3.18/share up 1.27% after recently being added to the Nasdaq. 
  • INVO is 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. 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. Since January 2019, INVO Bioscience has signed commercialization agreements in the United States, India, as well as parts of Africa and Eurasia and Mexico for the INVOcell device.

• • Recently, INVO filed an 8k highlighting three new partners that they have established to distribute or develop invocell only clinics in Malaysia and North Macedonia. 

• Shares of NeuBase Therapeutics (NBSE) closed at $8.19/share, +7.62% after recently reaching a new 52-week high recently of $11.78/share.
  • 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) and is expected to release further data prior to year end 2020.

• • Today NeuBase announced the appointment of Curt Bradshaw, Ph.D., as its new Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Bradshaw is a proven drug developer in the field of precision genetic medicines, coming to NeuBase from his most recent role as Chief Scientific Officer at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (ARWR) ($64.72/share +3.32%) ($6.65B mkt cap). In his new role, Dr. Bradshaw will be responsible for leading and expanding NeuBase’s PATrOL-enabled anti-gene pipeline and will serve as a key member of its executive management team. Learn more.

• Shares of Atossa Therapeutics (ATOS) closed at $1.515/share, -8.18%. 
  • Atossa 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.

• • An 8k was recently filed at sec.gov by Atossa that read  “On November 26, 2020, Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (“Atossa”) entered into a sponsored research agreement with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. (the “Agreement”). The Agreement provides that Atossa will support research of cytokine-coated nanoparticles for the potential treatment of breast cancer by Carl Novina, MD, Ph.D.”

• • Atossa also announced recently the blinded preliminary results from its Phase 1 clinical study using Atossa’s proprietary drug candidate AT-301 administered by nasal spray. AT-301 was found to be safe and well tolerated in this study at two different dose levels in both single and multiple dose forms over 14 days. AT-301 is being developed for at home use for patients recently diagnosed with COVID-19. There are currently no FDA-approved therapies to treat COVID-19 at home. Learn more.

Economic Reports

• On Monday, we received the Chicago PMI report for November which fell to 58.2%. The Pending home sales report confirmed a drop by 1.1% in October.

Investing & Inspiration

“No profession requires more hard work, intelligence, patience, and mental discipline than successful speculation.” – Robert Rhea

“Money is like a sixth sense – and you can’t make use of the other five without it.” – William Somerset Maugham

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” — Albert Einstein

“Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results” — Warren Buffett

“The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” – Warren Buffett

“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

“Investing puts money to work. The only reason to save money is to invest it.” – Grant Cardone

“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