Russell 2000 Closes At New Record High (Above 2000) During Wednesday’s Market Session

Today was certainly the little little guys or small caps on the Russell 2000’s day to shine.  The Russell achieved a new all-time record high & closed above 2000 for the first time at 2,007.10 (+.87%). The Dow 30 also closed in the green too at 30,129.83 (+.38%) as did the S&P 500 which closed at 3,690.01 (+.07%). The high flying tech heavy Nasdaq managed to close down at 12,771.114 (-.29%).

A couple of points of interest seemed to excite investors regarding their economic outlook.  An increased stimulus package was squarely in the picture as President Trump’s request that stimulus checks should be increased to $2K from $600 was found favorable by the Democrat led House. Another positive was the confirmation that Pfizer (PFE) (37.44, +1.9%) & BioNTech (BNTX) ($100.06, -.5%) had come to an agreement with the U.S. government to supply another 100M doses of their version of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

It was also a busy day in the macroeconomics department which was mixed in results but overall somewhat positive  in that they pointed to supporting of an ongoing low interest rate/market supportive directive by the FOMC. The Personal income report confirmed a drop by 1.1% month/month in November while personal spending dropped .4%. The PCE Price Index report came in even while the Core PCE Price Index was felt too. The Initial claims report for the week ending December 19 shoed a drop by 89k to 803k while continuing claims for the week ending December 12 fell by 170k to 5.337M. New home sales dropped a sizable 11% month/month to 841k in November while on a year/year basis, new home sales is up 20.8%. New orders for durable goods rose .9% month/month in November and when excluding transportation it rose .4%. The final reading for the December University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment was moved down to 80.7 as  consumer sentiment improved from November. The FHFA Housing Price Index report for December confirmed a rise 1.5%. The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index moved by .8%.

FAANGS, EV, PLUG, FUBO, & JMIA!

The heavily weighted & popular FAANGs were overall in the red today as follows: Apple (AAPL) shares closed at $130.96/share down .5%,  Amazon (AMZN) ($3,187.25, -.66%), Alphabet (GOOG) ($1,732.38, +.52%), Facebook (FB) ($268.11, +.38%) & Netflix (NFLX) closed at $514.48/share, -2.44%. 

Shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla (TSLA) closed at $645.98/share,+.88%. Chinese EV concern NIO Limited (NIO) closed at $47.01/share, -1.2%.  

Leading provider of hydrogen engines and fueling solutions enabling e-mobility, Plug Power (PLUG), closed at $36.14/share, adding another 1.26% after establishing a new-alltime high today of $37.11. Last week, PLUG announced that is expanding is relationship with Walmart (WMT). 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 $46.44/share down 2.58 after adding a solid 14.15% yesterday and establishing a new all-time high today of $49 In Q3, Jumia’s total payment volume on their JumiaPay was up 50%Y/Y.

fuboTV Inc. (FUBO), a media streaming network, cooled down considerably and closed at $52.59/share down 15.18% after its recent run of +51.36% in 2 days. This week, the CEO appeared on CNBC and the company reported that it’s examine sports content deals. The stock has moved up from a 52-wk low of $5. Needham also raised its Price target to $60 this week. 

GOLD & SILVER

Precious metals rose today. Silver prices closed a US $25.66/oz, +.17 & gold prices closed at US $1,874/oz, +9.

North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $6.04/share (+2.34%). 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 $22.82/share, +1.33%.

OIL

Oil prices rose 2.3% and closed at $48.09/bbl while the energy sector rose 2.2%. 

MONEY

The 2-yr treasury yield moved up 1 basis point to close at .13% while the 10-yr yield closed at .96% up 4 basis points. The U.S. Dollar Index weakened today closing at 90.31. 

TOMORROW’S MACRO

Christmas Eve & Christmas will not see any reports.

The stock market closes at 10am pacific/ 1pm eastern on Thursday and is closed on Friday. 

VP WATCH LIST HIGHLIGHTS

• Shares of Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATOS) closed at $.8957/share up 1.78% on 24.14 Million shares of trading volume after recently announcing that they received $37M gross proceeds between two equity raises over the last couple of weeks. 

• •  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.

• • Atossa recently announced 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.  

• Shares of INVO Bioscience (INVO) closed trading at $3.08/share.
  • 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.

• • Last week, Colliers International Securities analyst Kyle Bauser, Ph.D. initiated coverage on INVO with a BUY rating and a $5 Target Price. His report is titled “A More Affordable Option Than Traditional In-Vitro Fertilization.” You can contact him at kyle.bauser@colliers.com.

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

• Shares of NeuBase Therapeutics (NBSE) closed trading at $7.87 up .9%.

• • 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.

• • Yesterday, I hosted a FREE Presentation & Q&A Event for our sister organization Tribe Public with the CEO & Founder of NeuBase Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NBSE) ($7.80/share), Dietrich Stephan, Ph.D., an industry veteran who is considered one of the fathers of the field of precision medicine. The presentation is titled “Accelerating the Genetic Revolution with a New Class of Synthetic Medicines.” You can view the recording at the Tribe Public Channel. 

• Natural-Killer cell (NKcell) focused biopharmaceutical firm Fate Therapeutics (FATE) closed at $100.95/share up +7.33%.  Fate’s 52-wk range is $16.95- $103.86. 

  • We started with Fate over 3 years ago when it was in the $3 range.  

  • Recently, Fate presented a patient case study from the Company’s Phase 1 clinical trial of FT596, its universal, off-the-shelf, CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer (NK) cell product candidate, at the 62nd Annual Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition and the street loved it. NK cells are the body’s first line of defense against viral infections and cancerous cells with an innate ability to rapidly seek and destroy transformed cells. NK cell therapy has the potential to 1) target multiple pathogenic antigens with measurably more efficient cytotoxicity, 2) be better controlled to reduce risk of cytokine storms and 3) be produced from a variety of sources without relying on patient-specific immune cells. Dr. Wayne Chu, Senior Vice President, Clinical Development of Fate Therapeutics stated, “The safety, pharmacokinetics and clinical activity observed following both the first and second single-dose treatment cycles of FT596 are compelling, especially when considering that the administered cell dose was significantly lower than the recommended cell dose of FDA-approved autologous CD19-targeted CAR T-cell therapies and that the heavily pre-treated patient was refractory to last prior therapy. We are excited the CAR component of FT596 has shown clinical activity at this low dose level, and we continue to enroll patients in dose escalation with FT596 as a monotherapy and in combination with rituximab. Our recent Phase 1 clinical data with FT516 in combination with rituximab, which demonstrate the potential of our novel hnCD16 Fc receptor to potentiate ADCC and drive complete responses, support our belief that the multi-antigen targeting functionality of FT596 may offer best-in-class potential for patients with B-cell malignancies.” 

    
    

Economic Reports

• On Monday, no reports came forward.
• On Tuesday, the Existing home sales report confirmed a drop by 2.5% month/month in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.69M as the supply of existing homes is currently at an all-time historical low. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index report confirmed that it fell to 88.6 in December. The third estimate for Q3 GDP moved up to 33.4% while the GDP Price Deflator moved down to 3.5%.
• On Wednesday, the Personal income report confirmed a drop by 1.1% month/month in November while personal spending dropped .4%. The PCE Price Index report came in even while the Core PCE Price Index was felt too. The Initial claims report for the week ending December 19 shoed a drop by 89k to 803k while continuing claims for the week ending December 12 fell by 170k to 5.337M. New home sales dropped a sizable 11% month/month to 841k in November while on a year/year basis, new home sales is up 20.8%. New orders for durable goods rose .9% month/month in November and when excluding transportation it rose .4%. The final reading for the December University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment was moved down to 80.7 as  consumer sentiment improved from November. The FHFA Housing Price Index report for December confirmed a rise 1.5%. The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index moved by .8%.
• No reports will be deliver on Thursday and Friday this week.

Investing & Inspiration

“It amazes me how people are often more willing to act based on little or no data than to use data that is a challenge to assemble.” ― Robert Shiller

“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