PPI, Inflation, Fed Worries Pressure Tuesday’s Stock Market Lower – $BIRD $FATE $INVO $LCID $UBER Rise!

 

 

 

 

Santa Claus certainly did not come early today for most investors, as Tuesday’s stock markets once again opened & unfortunately closed in the red across the board. 10 of the 11 sectors finished the day lower with the less than exciting financials sector ending up as the only sector to close in positive territory moving up .6%, The financials were fueled by the yield curve’s upward move where the 2-yr yield moved up 2 basis points to .66% & the 10-yr yield moved up 1 basis point to 1.44%. The technology sector also dropped 1.6% to lead today’s overall decline. Pressuring the markets lower, the Producer Price Index (PPI) report surfaced confirming that the index for final demand rose a higher than expected .8% M/M and adding to the worries that the Fed will announce tomorrow that it has decided to accelerate its tapering process to combat inflation, even though growth concerns (Omicron growth and supply chain disruption) have increased recently. The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index report also confirmed a rise to 98.4 in November.

 

In turn, the major indices closed lower as follows: the S&P 500 closed at 4,634.09 (-.75%), the Dow 30 closed at 35,544.18 (-.30%), & the Nasdaq closed at 15,237.64 (-1.14%). The small caps on the Russell also took a sizable hit and closed at 2,159.65 (-.96%), while the micro caps moved down even more as the iShares Micro-Cap ETF (IWC) closed at $134.03, -1.49% and bids were harder to come by in general as tax selling persists.  The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI), a barometer of the smaller biotech stocks, hopped around today swinging to a low of $107.58 an intraday high of $110.63 prior to closing at  at 108,77, -1.83%. The 52-wk range is $106.92 – $174.79. It has been a rough year for this sector to say the least. 

 

The U.S. Dollar Index rose .3% to 96.58, gold prices fell $14 to close at $1,772/oz. & silver closed at $21.97, -$.34. Bitcoin (BTC) closed at $48,322.76, bouncing +2.82%. Oil prices dropped .9% to close at $70.57/bbl.

 

According to Reuters, the U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted to increase the nation’s debt limit by $2.5T, to $31.4Tn, in a move that would prevent any defaults on Treasury Department debt in coming weeks. Senate passage clears the way for the House of Representatives to vote on the legislation and send it to President Joe Biden for signing into law following a protracted debate in Congress.

 

 

 

 

Apple (AAPL) closed at $174.33, -.80% as a BofA analyst decided to raise then from a Neutral Rating to Buy Recommendation while sett9ing a t$210 target price. Tesla (TSLA) closed at $966.41, -.82% well off its all time and recent high of $1,243.49. Ford closed at $20.05, 1.86% today. Reportedly Bill Ford, chairman of Ford, paid $8.5M on Dec. 10 for 412,500 shares at an average price of $20.62. Rivian (RIVN) closed at 117.14, -1.48%. Lucid Group (LCID) jumped another 4.39% or +8% over the last two days after being included in the NASDAQ 100.   The Walt Disney Company (DIS) closed at $149.10, -.88% and is valued at $271.013B. Today, Disney announced that he annual meeting of shareholders of The Walt Disney Company  will be held on Wednesday, March 9, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PT by virtual meeting and will be made available via webcast at www.disney.com/investors.

 

On the small side, Atossa Therapeutics (ATOS), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company seeking to develop innovative proprietary medicines in oncology and infectious disease with a current focus on breast cancer and COVID-19, rose to an intraday high of $2.01 prior to closing at $1.91, -3.05% on 2.776M shares of trading volume. Atossa management recently held a “A Town Hall Q&A Event With Atossa Therapeutics Management Team” via Tribe Public. You can view it clicking here. Atossa also announced last week that it had completed a pre-investigational new drug (PIND) meeting with the FDA to obtain input from the FDA on pre-clinical, clinical, manufacturing and regulatory matters in the U.S. for Atossa’s proprietary Z-endoxifen to treat breast cancer in the neoadjuvant (prior to surgery) setting.

 

On Monday, Fate Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FATE), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for patients with cancer, showcased positive interim Phase 1 data from the Company’s FT596 program for patients with relapsed / refractory B-cell lymphoma (BCL) at the 63rd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition. FT596 is the Company’s off-the-shelf, multi-antigen targeted, iPSC-derived natural killer (NK) cell product candidate derived from a clonal master induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) line engineered with three anti-tumor functional modalities: a proprietary chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) optimized for NK cell biology that targets B-cell antigen CD19; a novel high-affinity, non-cleavable CD16 (hnCD16) Fc receptor that has been modified to prevent its down-regulation and to enhance its binding to tumor-targeting antibodies; and an IL-15 receptor fusion (IL-15RF) that augments NK cell activity. “The interim dose-escalation clinical data from our FT596 program in relapsed / refractory B-cell lymphoma demonstrate that off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived CAR NK cells can bring substantial therapeutic benefit to heavily pre-treated patients in urgent need of therapy, with high response rates and meaningful duration of responses,” said Scott Wolchko, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fate Therapeutics. “We are particularly pleased with the therapeutic profile that has emerged with FT596 in combination with rituximab, where over half of the patients treated with a single dose of FT596 at higher dose levels achieved a complete response with a favorable safety profile that is clearly differentiated from CAR T-cell therapy. We look forward to assessing a two-dose treatment schedule for FT596 to further define its potential best-in-class therapeutic profile and ability to reach more patients, including those earlier in care.” Shares of FATE closed at $50.17, +2.43%. 

 

InMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: INM), a leader in the development, manufacturing and commercialization of rare cannabinoids, closed at $1.38, -3.5% after hitting an intraday high of $1.45. Eric A. Adams, InMed President & CEO stated recently, “The first quarter of fiscal 2022 saw positive momentum across all of our programs. With the completion of the BayMedica Inc. (“BayMedica”) acquisition, our integrated teams are working together to identify rare cannabinoids in BayMedica’s pipeline for commercialization in the consumer health and wellness industry. For the duration of fiscal year 2022, we will be focused on growing revenues through the launch of these selected rare cannabinoids, in addition to expanding sales of BayMedica’s Prodiol® CBC (cannabichromene) and progressing our existing programs.”

 

INmune Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: INMB), a clinical-stage immunology company focused on developing treatments that harness the patient’s innate immune system to fight disease, recently presented data at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium showing mucin 4 (MUC4) expression predicts worse survival and is a treatment resistance factor in women with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). INB03, a DN-TNF therapy, can reverse TNBC treatment resistance by decreasing expression of MUC4 and reducing immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment (TME) by increasing anti-tumor macrophage phagocytosis and increasing lymphocyte function in the TME. The poster will be presented by Dr. Roxana Schillaci, Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental, Buenos Aires, on December 10th. RJ. Tesi, M.D, Chief Executive Officer of INmune Bio, commented, “We are excited to have Dr. Schillaci present these data that expand on her previous findings on the role of MUC4 expression which predicts worse survival and resistance to therapy in HER2+ breast cancer therapy. Now, in both TNBC and HER2+ breast cancer, MUC4 predicts resistance to immunotherapy and an immunosuppressive TME that can be overcome with INB03.” Treatment with INB03 in murine models of breast cancer improves macrophage anti-tumor phagocytic activity, lymphocyte infiltration and function suggesting improved response to combination therapies of INB03 with inmunotherapy. Shares of INMB closed trading today at $1o.45, -7.93%. 

 

Shares of INVO Bioscience, Inc. (NASDAQ: INVO), a medical device company focused on commercializing the world’s only in vivo culture system (IVC), INVOcell®, closed at $3.60 +5.88% and has legged up to $3.69 in the aftermarkets. INVO announced recently that the Company has received approval by Medical Devices Control Division for FDA Thailand to import and commercialize INVOcell in Thailand. In April 2021, INVO Bioscience entered an exclusive distribution agreement with IVF Envimed Company Ltd. to distribute the INVOcell system within Thailand. Established in 1993, IVF Envimed Company Ltd. has established a wide network of clinics and hospitals across Thailand primarily focused on fertility solutions. IVF Envimed is a member of the ‘Thai Society of Reproductive Medicine’ which organizes congresses and educational programs where IVF Envimed participates. Shares of INVO closed at the high of the day at $3.25., +1.56%. Recently, Steve Shum CEO of INVO stated, “We continue to execute against our core mission of improving access to advanced fertility services for the many patients around the world through the use of the INVOcell solution. During the quarter, we achieved a significant milestone with the opening of our very first INVO Center, based in Birmingham, where we have commenced initial cycles. Further, we opened clinics in Atlanta, Georgia and Monterrey, Mexico to expand the INVO Center business model and we are working to open the San Francisco Bay Area clinic as soon as possible. We completed the acquisition of a Canadian-based entity that will be used to distribute the INVOcell in Canada and to develop INVO Centers in the region. With our INVO Center strategy now successfully underway, we are optimistic on the prospects for further expansion using this unique and innovative model. As part of a detailed review, we have initially identified more than 20 cities here in the U.S. that we believe have excellent characteristics in terms of demographics and level of current fertility care that would be ideal locations for an INVO Center. As an important development to our ability to expand the INVO Center model, we will regain full U.S. commercialization rights to INVOcell® from Ferring in early 2022, which removes certain limitations we had on expanding this business model in the U.S. Further, it allows us to resume direct sales to IVF clinics in our home territory and further expand our channel development plan. With our strong team of leaders highly experienced in commercializing advanced reproductive technologies, we are optimistic about our prospects as we pursue our multi-channel market expansion strategy. In addition to the opening of our INVO Center in Monterrey, Mexico, we continue to advance our international commercialization plans. Clinical validation of INVOcell® continues to grow with four poster abstracts presented at ASRM this year. We are excited about the recent developments to advance commercialization of the INVOcell® solution. We look forward to leveraging the recent success of our INVO Centers, particularly in the U.S. With a great team, board of directors, and key advisors in place, we believe we have laid a strong foundation to achieve our goal of democratizing advanced fertility treatment with the INVOCell® solution, which should lead to strong revenue growth going forward.”

 

Shares of NeuBase Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NBSE) a biotechnology platform company Drugging the Genome™ to address disease at the base level using a new class of precision genetic medicines, closed  at $2.77, -3.15%, but has traded up to $3, +8.30% in the aftermarket. Dietrich A. Stephan, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of NeuBase, presented in person a corporate overview at the Jefferies London Healthcare Conference recently.

 

FURTHER AFIELD

Shares of Allbirds, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIRD), a global lifestyle brand that innovates with naturally derived materials to make better footwear and apparel products in a better way, closed at $15.24, +17.59%.On November 30 BIRD reported their financial results for the third quarter of 2021 ended September 30, 2021 & highlighted that net revenue rose 33% to $62.7 million compared to the third quarter of 2020 and increased 40% versus the third quarter of 2019.

According to Bloomberg, collaboration software startup Airtable has raised new funding at an $11.7 billion valuation, making it part of a rarefied club of companies to reach decacorn status — a more than $10 billion valuation.

Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER, $37.26, +4.28%) CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, according to Reuters,  stated on Tuesday that the company is looking sell stakes in what it considers non-strategic investments in other companies, including its shares in Chinese ride hailing company Didi Global Inc (DIDI, $6.32, -1.56%). “Our Didi stake we don’t believe is strategic. They’re a competitor, China is a pretty difficult environment with very little transparency,” the Uber CEO said.