Pfizer’s Vaccine Delivery Afoot & Corona Surges As Monday’s Market Indices End In Splitsville

The Pfizer (PFE)  ($39.21/share, -4.6%) & BioNTech (BNTX) ($108.27/share, -15%) COVID-19 vaccine began to be delivered per the emergency authorization FDA orders and the markets began on a strong note.  However, investors then began to grasp the realizations that it might be a very long time prior to the “genpop” ever getting their hands on it, we are headed for increased lockdowns as “Corona” surges, stimulus measures are still not in place, & then the indices ended split down the middle. 

The S&P 500 moved lower closing at 3,668.10 (-.13%). The energy sector led the decline with a 3.5% move lower even though oil prices closed at $47/bbl, +.95%. Corona forced roll backs and shutdowns across the US once again served a gloomy message for growth today overall. The financials sector (-1.2%), the materials sector (-1.3%), & industrials sector (-1.3%) rounded the leading pressured sectors on Monday. The Dow 30 also closed lower at 29,861.55 (-.62%). On the other hand the Nasdaq closed higher at 12,440.04 (+.54%) & the small caps on the Russell 2000 closed ticked higher at 1,913.86 (+.11%).

BIOTECH BLASTS

As per reports over the weekend, AstraZeneca (AZN) ($50.03/share, -7.8%) a leading Covid-19 vaccine developer and large multinational pharmaceutical firm has agreed to buy Boston-based biotechnology firm Alexion (ALXN) ($156.31/share, +29.2%) for $39 billion strengthening its position in immunology and rare diseases. Shareholders of Alexion shareholders will receive $60/share in cash and 2.1243 AstraZeneca American Depositary Shares (ADSs) for each Alexion share or an equivalent of $175/share, a 45% premium to Friday’s closing price.

The white-hot NK cell space key pace again today as Fate Therapeutics (FATE) added another 1.73% today closing at $96.38/share after reaching and all-time high today of $103.66/share. San Francisco-based Nkarta, Inc. (NKTX) also was up another 1.37% as it closed near its newly established all-time high at $73.22/share and now enjoys a $2.27 billion market cap. 

Chinook Therapeutics (KDNY) jumped +23.12% to close at $16.40/share after touching $17.44 in intraday trading. No news was released today but Chinook announced a license agreement with Morehouse School of Medicine for development of Therapies in kidney disease disproportionately affecting African Americans and underserved communities on Dec. 8th.

AROUND TECH

The heavily weighted & popular FAANGs ended mixed as follows: Apple (AAPL) ($121.78, -.51%), Amazon (AMZN) ($3,156.97, +1.3%), Alphabet (GOOG) ($1,760.06, -1.22%), Facebook (FB) ($274.19, +.23%) & Netflix (NFLX) closed at $522.42/share, +3.82%. 

Shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) closed at $639.83/share, +4.89%. Reports surfaced today that seemed to confirm that Tesla is meeting its delivery goals for the Q4 Model S and it recently completed the sale of $5B of its common stock las week. Chinese EV concern NIO Limited (NIO) closed at $40.98/share down 2.38%.  

Leading provider of hydrogen engines and fueling solutions enabling e-mobility, Plug Power (PLUG), closed at $25.70/share. -4%%. Recently, PLUG 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 and brings their capital to the $1.7B range. 

The leading pan-African e-commerce platform Jumia Technologies (JMIA) closed at $37.03/share, -2.88% after hitting an intraday high of $39.80/share. In Q3, Jumia’s total payment volume on their JumiaPay was up 50%Y/Y.

GOLD & SILVER

Silver prices closed a US $23.95/oz, -.09 & gold prices closed at US $1,828/oz, -12. North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $5.01/share (-1.57%). 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 $23.09/share, -1.16%.

MONEY

The 2-yr treasury yield ended even at .11% while the 10-yr yield ended even too at .89%. The U.S. Dollar Index weakened closing at 90.69. 

TOMORROW’S MACRO

It is  busy day tomorrow as the Macro schedule will deliver the Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report for November, the Empire State Manufacturing Index report for December, the Export & Import Prices report for November, & the Net Long-Term TIC Flows report for October.

WATCH LIST

• Shares of INVO Bioscience (INVO) closed trading at $3.16/share up 5.3% as volumes spiked for this little known company. 
  • 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 $7.82/share, +1.82%. Its 52-week high is $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.

• • Recently, 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) (~$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, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATOS) closed at $.9035/share up 3.85% on 6.7M shares of trading volume.
  •  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.
  • Last week, Atossa announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering with expected total gross proceeds of $20.0 million before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and other offering expenses payable by the Company. The shoe was exercised for a final total gross proceeds of $23M. The securities offered by the Company consist of (i) 14,575,000 Units, each consisting of one share of common stock (the “Common Stock”), and 0.75 Warrants (“Warrants”) to purchase one share of Common Stock at a price of $1.00 per Unit and (ii) 5,425 Units, each consisting of one share of Series C Convertible Preferred Stock (the “Preferred Stock”) with a stated value of $1,000 per share and convertible into 1,000 shares of Common Stock together with Warrants to purchase 750 shares of Common Stock at a purchase price of $1,000 per Unit. The Warrants will have an exercise price of $1.00 per share, will be immediately exercisable and will expire four years from the date of issuance.

Economic Reports

• On Monday, no reports came forward.

Investing & Inspiration

“A bull market is like sex. It feels best just before it ends.” — Barton Biggs

“The investor’s chief problem — even his worst enemy — is likely to be himself.” — Benjamin Graham

“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