Today’s Market Soured By Germany’s COVID-19 Reopening Issues

We now have more than 3,083,467 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world with 915,988 cases that have recovered and more than 213,824 worldwide deaths. In the US, we have 1,032,962 confirmed cases with 117,708 that have recovered with 58,986 deaths and counting and we still do not have a reliable treatment or vaccine with confusion and lack of understanding in amazing supply from the top down and across. With yesterday’s positive movement of the markets that had been based partially on the further rollout and excitement surrounding the reopening of a few local economies and the promise of more in our rearview mirrors, the world, unfortunately, received the sobering news that Germany had reported an acceleration of COVID-19 cases after their week-old effort to reopen and the markets today had somewhat soured.  Germans are now once again advised to stay at home as much as possible and continue to practice social distancing. Hopefully, the reopening measures by a few states in the US and contemplated by others will see different results. In the meantime, absent any further negative reopening news the market will most likely continue to receive wind beneath its wings and move higher with the anticipation of more businesses coming back online. 

We also received the following significant economic reports today:

• The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index for April dove to 86.9
• The advance goods trade deficit came in at $64.2B in March, advance retail inventories decreased by -1.3% in March while advance wholesale inventories dropped by -1% in March.
• The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index for February moved higher by +3.5% 

At the end of the day today, the S&P 500 closed down by -.52% as the following sectors weighed heavily: health care was down -2.1%, communication services, down -1.9%, & information technology was down -1.4%.  The Dow notched down -.13% as two components reported better than expected results: Caterpillar (CAT) closed at $115.46/share up +.23% & 3M (MMM) closed at $157.61/share up + 2.58% as it has been riding high on additional profits due to the huge current demand of its N95 respirator masks during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and looks to continue to do so. The Nasdaq retracted 1.40% & the Russell 2000 jumped another +1.26% continuing to do its best to play catch up as it has trailed during the recent large-cap rally. The US treasury yields dropped in concert with the markets today.  The 2-yr US treasury yield dropped by 3 basis points to .20% & the 10-yr yield decreased by 5 basis points to end at .61%. The U.S. Dollar Index weakened by -.2% to end at 99.88. 

The popular FAANG stocks ended down today: Facebook (FB) closed at $182.91/share, down by -2.45%, Amazon (AMZN) closed at $2,314/share, down by -2.61%,  Apple (AAPL) closed at $278.58/share subtracting by -1.62% as it looks to report their earnings on Thursday, & Netflix (NFLX) decreased by -4.16% closing $403.83/share, & Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $1,244.67/share down by -3.31%. 

Oil prices continued dropping today falling -4.6% as it closed at $12.37/bbl after another volatile day that dropped prices int he 22% range again intraday trading. A few of the major energy producers closed up despite the drop. Chevron (CVX) closed at $89.91/share up +.22%, Exxon (XOM) closed at $44.97/share up +2.34% & Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) closed at $15.17/share up +7.21% while the energy sector led all sectors as it rose  +2.2%.

Gold prices ended lower again today at $1,717/oz (-3) while silver prices closed at $15.32/oz (-.04). North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) fell -.4% to end the day at $2.49/share.

MOVERS

• Shares of INVO Bioscience (INVO) moved up +6.85% today as shares have recovered nicely over the last week and volume increases. Recently, INVO announced its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2019, which was highlighted by a 199% increase in their topline revenues in 2019 while gross margins also grew to approximately 91% compared to approximately 82% in 2018. The growth was driven primarily by increased product sales in the U.S. as the Company’s U.S. commercialization partner, Ferring International Center, S.A. (“Ferring”), began to ramp their marketing activities. The Company further reported that the U.S. clinic locations which are trained to offer INVOcell have nearly tripled since their January 2019 agreement with Ferring & confirmed that each clinic location will vary in terms of implementation time and growth. Ferring has established a website, www.invocell.com, which provides information for patients and health care professionals, in addition to providing a tool to search for clinic locations that offer INVOcell. INVO’s lead product, the INVOcell®, is a patented medical device used in infertility treatment and is considered an Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). ART includes all fertility treatments in which both eggs and embryos are handled outside of the body. In general, ART procedures involve removing mature eggs from a woman’s ovaries using a needle, combining the eggs with sperm in the laboratory, and returning the embryos to the woman’s body or donating them to another woman. The main type of ART is in vitro fertilization (IVF). INVO’s INVOcell is the first Intravaginal Culture (IVC) system in the world used for the natural in vivo incubation of eggs and sperm during fertilization and early embryo development, as an alternative to traditional In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Intrauterine Insemination (IUI). INVO’s mission is to increase access to care and expand fertility treatment across the globe with a goal to lower the cost of care and increase the availability of care.

• Shares of SmileDirectClub, Inc, (SDC) legged up another +24.49% today closing at $6.71/share after confirming that they had secured a patent for a retail concept and that they will reopen stores beginning in May.

• Shares of Neubase Therapeutics (NBSE) closed at $7.60/share down 6.98% after announcing that they had raised $31.5M, pricing of an underwritten public offering of 5,250,000 shares of its common stock, at a price to the public of $6.00 per share. The gross proceeds to NeuBase from the offering, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses payable by NeuBase, are expected to be approximately $31,500,000, excluding any exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of common stock. In addition, NeuBase has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 787,500 shares of its common stock at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions, to cover over-allotments if any. Participants in the offering included members of NeuBase’s management and Board of Directors. All of the shares of common stock in the offering are being sold by NeuBase. NBSE is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing next-generation therapies to treat rare genetic diseases caused by mutant genes.

LATE IN THE DAY

Alphabet (GOOG), Google’s parent, reported its Q1 2020 results and realized $41.16B in revenue that beat the street’s expectations, however its earnings per share $9.87 missed expectations. Shares of Alphabet have risen +7.48% in after-hours trading. The company’s advertising revenue from search, YouTube, and google’s network generated 82% of total revenues.

TOMORROW

Tomorrow’s significant economic data report schedule will include the following:

• The advance estimate for Q1 GDP
• The Pending Home Sales for March
• The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index

Economic Reports

• On Monday, we did receive any significant economic reports.
• On Tuesday, we received the following reports:
  • The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index for April dove to 86.9
  • The advance goods trade deficit came in at $64.2B in March, advance retail inventories decreased by -1.3% in March while advance wholesale inventories dropped by -1% in March.
  • The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index for February moved higher by +3.5% 

Investing & Inspiration

“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

Tomorrow

Tomorrow’s significant economic data report schedule will include the following:

• • The advance estimate for Q1 GDP
  • The Pending Home Sales for March
  • The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index