Santa’s Little Helper (The Fed) Shows Up As Expected On Hump Day! $AAPL $FATE $INM $INMB, $INVO $NBSE $TSLA Rise!

 

 

Santa Claus, or as some investors like to call him these days, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, appeared and delivered the package that the majority had expected. What was expected or confirmed by the Fed? Basically, the Fed will move to increase the rate of removal of its massive COVID-produced monetary support ($120B a month in bonds) & are expected to hike interest rates three times in 2022. They now see a significant rise in inflation and believe that they need to stabilize growth.  They also expect the U.S. economy to grow 4% in 2022 and that unemployment will drop to 3.5% the year’s end. In an immediate reaction, the markets turned on a dime from session lows & we ended up strongly across the board. 10 of the 11 sectors finished the day powering the move with health care moving up 2.1%, utilities up 1.7%, real estate up 1.5%, & consumer staples up 1.2% leading the way. The energy sector was the only sector to close in the red even though oil prices rose to $70.89/bbl, +.5% on the day. The yield curve edged higher where the 2-yr yield moved up 1 basis point to .67% & the 10-yr yield moved up 3 basis points to 1.47%. The macroeconomic schedule also produced the total retail sales report which confirmed a .3% M/M rose & on a Y/Y basis they were up 18.2% The Import prices came in up .7% in November & export prices rose 1%. The Empire State Manufacturing Survey report confirmed a rise to 31.9 in December. The NAHB Housing Market Index report came in up to 84.0 in December. The business inventories report showed a rise by 1.2% M/M in October. The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report confirmed drop by 4%.

 

In turn, the major indices closed higher as follows: the S&P 500 closed at 4,709.85 (+1.63%), the Dow 30 closed at 35,927.43 (+1.08%), & the Nasdaq closed at 15,565.58 (+2.15%). The small caps on the Russell also rebounded and closed at 2,195.21 (+1.65%), while the micro caps moved up nicely as bids returned widely as the iShares Micro-Cap ETF (IWC) closed at $136.81, +2.07%.  The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI), a barometer of the smaller biotech stocks, hopped around once again today swinging to a session low and creating a new 52-wk low hitting $106.88 and ending the day near a session high at 113.39, +4.25%. The 52-wk range is $106.88 – $174.79. 

 

The U.S. Dollar Index ticked lower .2% to 96.37, gold prices rose $8 to close at $1,781/oz., silver closed at $22.09, +$.12, & Bitcoin (BTC) closed at $48,776.29,+.97%.

 

 

 

 

Apple (AAPL) closed at $179.30, +2.85%. Yesterday a BofA analyst decided to raise Apple from a Neutral Rating to Buy Recommendation while setting a $210 target price. Tesla (TSLA) closed at $975.99, +1.82% and still well off its all-time and recent high of $1,243.49. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk tweeted to Elizabeth Warren, “[I]f you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year.”  Ford closed at $20.19, +.7% today. Reportedly Bill Ford, chairman of Ford, paid $8.5M on Dec. 10 for 412,500 shares at an average price of $20.62.   The Walt Disney Company (DIS) closed at $150.40, +.87% and is valued at $273.376B. Yesterday, 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 prior to closing at $1.97, +3.14% on 3.224M 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 $54.67, +8.97%. 

 

InMed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: INM), a leader in the development, manufacturing and commercialization of rare cannabinoids, closed at $1.48, +7.25% after hitting an intraday high of $1.52. 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.94, +4.69%. 

 

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 $3.74 +3.89% after hitting an intraday high of $3.96, but well off of its 52-wk high of $12.30. INVO shares have risen in 8 consecutive trading sessions. See the 8 candles pictured below. A sell side analyst at Colliers Securities recently published a Buy rating with a $6 price target.

 

 

INVO recently 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 $2.85, +2.89%, but has traded up to $2.93, +2.81% in the aftermarket. Dietrich A. Stephan, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of NeuBase, presented in person at the Jefferies London Healthcare Conference recently.

 

FURTHER AFIELD

 Adam Aron, CEO of AMC Entertainment tweeted the following today: “A Canadian court just ruled that Regal/Cineworld, our largest competitor in the U.S./Europe, must pay nearly $1 billion USD in damages over the failed Cineplex merger. Will be appealed, but anything distracting or destabilizing our biggest competitor brings opportunity to AMC.” Shares of AMC closed trading today at $24.66, +.65%.