Q3 Begins With Record High For Nasdaq As We Swiftly Move Towards The Last Day Of Trading This Week

Q3 began with a bit of a bang for the Nasdaq as it closed at a new record high up .95% closing at 10,154.63. Performances from the highly weighted FAANG stocks helped make this day happen for the Nasdaq as they closed overall all strongly as follows: Facebook (FB) closed at $237.55/share up 4.62%, Amazon (AMZN) closed at $2,878.70/share up 4.35%,  Apple (AAPL) closed at $364.11/share down .19%, Netflix (NFLX) gained 6.72% closing at $485.64/share & Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $1,438.04/share up 1.73%.

The S&P 500 also bumped up .5% closing at 3,115.86 as the real estate sector up 2.6%, the utilities sector up 2.3%, & the communication services sector up 2.2% led all sectors. However, the Dow took a breather closing off .3% and the Russell 2000 dropped .97%. 

Just as the results of the market were mixed, three macroeconomic reports surfaced today with mixed messages as well. The ISM Manufacturing Index report for June moved into expansion territory rebounding to 52.6%, the Construction spending report confirmed a drop of 2.1% month/month in May, & the ADP Employment Change report for June confirmed that an estimated 2.369M positions were added in the private sector but were short of expectations.

News of more store closings surfaced from the likes of Apple as cases of the coronavirus continue to escalate in the US and reopening measures continue to slow down or halt any many spots

Gold closed back under the $1800/0z mark closing at $1774 (-17) & silver prices closed at $18.21/oz (-.24). North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $3.22/sharedown 1.53% while First Majestic Silver (AG) lost 1.71% closing at $9.78/share.

Oil prices dropped again down 1.2% closing at $39.76/bbl as the energy sector dropped by 2.55. Energy leaders Chevron (CVX) closed at $87.62/share off by 1.8%, Exxon (XOM) closed at $43.71/share down 2.26% & highly leveraged Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) closed at $17.41/share down 4.86%. Midstream player, Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), closed trading at $17.91/share down 1.43% and currently sports at an attractive $1.78/share dividend or 9.80%. 

The 2-yr US treasury yield moved higher by two basis points to .17% & the 10-yr yield rose 3 basis points to .68%. The U.S. Dollar Index weakened by .3% to end at 97.15. 

MOVERS 

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

• Shares of Aduro (ADRO) closed at $2.50/share today up 8.23%. 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 $3.96/share up another .76% after hitting a new 52-week high of $6.60/share intraday trading. This week, INVO announced the second closing of its convertible note and unit purchase option private placement. The Company had previously conducted the first closing on May 15, 2020. The combination of both closings resulted in gross proceeds of $3,093,640 (of which $2,950,000 was received in cash and $143,640 resulted from cancellation of indebtedness. Steve Shum, Chief Executive Officer of INVO stated, “We appreciate the financial support from our investors as we execute our mission toward increasing patient access and treatment within the infertility marketplace through our revolutionary INVOcell device, an affordable, scalable and effective solution. We continue to push forward with our global commercialization efforts with our major U.S. partner, along with our current partners in Africa, Eurasia, and India; and are pursuing many other key regions and partners in Central and South America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.” The Company had previously announced on May 22, 2020, that it 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. Learn more about INVO by reading my interview: A Vista Partners Interview With Steve Shum CEO of INVO Bioscience Regarding Increasing Access To Care For Fertility Treatment.

• Shares of FedEx Corporation (FDX) rose 11.72% to end trading at $156.66/share as they beat analysts expectations for their fiscal Q4 2020 earings coming in at $2.52 EPS vs the expectations of $.91 EPS.

TOMORROW

As we swiftly head into the July 4th weekend tomorrow will be the last day of trading this week.

Tomorrow’s significant economic data report schedule will be busy with the following:

• The Employment Situation Report for June
• The weekly Initial and Continuing Claims report
• The Trade Balance report for May
• The Factory Orders report for May

WATCH LIST

• Atossa Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ATOS), which is working on two COVID-19 programs, closed at $3.83/share. They did not report any news, but Dr. Steven Quay, MD, Ph.D., author, and physician-scientist, 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 $36.14/share up from its 52-week low of $12.59 and just shy of its 52-week high of $37.24/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 $8.68/share. 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 Stereotaxis, Inc. (STXS) closed at $4.39/share down 1.57%. The 52-week range is $1.70 – $5.82/share. The global leader in innovative robotic technologies for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias continues to gain traction after their webcast symposium was held this weekend where they held a live broadcast of their bi-directional TeleRobotic procedures with physicians navigating catheters from hospitals more than 1700 km apart. They were recently added to the Rusell 2000 and the Russell 3000 indexes.

Economic Reports

• On Monday, we received the pending home sales report which confirmed a 44.3% month/month sizable jump in May.
• On Tuesday, we received the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index for June which confirmed a rise to 98.1, the Chicago PMI report for June which confirmed a rise to 36.6, & the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index report which confirmed a rise of 4% in April.
• On Wednesday, we received the ISM Manufacturing Index report for June moved into expansion territory rebounding to 52.6%, the Construction spending report confirmed a drop of 2.1% month/month in May & the ADP Employment Change report for June confirmed that an estimated 2.369M positions were added in the private sector but were short of expectations.

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