US-China Trade Deal Intact, New How Sales Bounce, Gold Rises & Markets End In Green

The markets today finished in the green while the Nasdaq closed at yet another record high ending the trading session at 10,131.37 up .74%. The market’s positive move surprisgly came after the apparently “misinterpreted” White House trade advisor Peter Navarro was quoted stating that the US-China trade deal was “over” on Monday night. This caused a bit of panic and the futures sold off overnight. However, President Trump was reported to have come to the “rescue” and confirmed that indeed the U.S.- China trade deal was “still intact” and then the markets reacted positively across the board.

We also received positive news on the macroeconomic front as the new home sales report for May confirmed a jump of 16.6% month/month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676k. The coronavirus narrative also seemed to also take a back seat in investors’ eyes today even though COVID-19 cases in California, Texas, and Arizona posted their largest daily number of cases. With regard to this subject, the CEO of Atossa Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ATOS) ($3.63/share), Dr. Steven Quay, MD, Ph.D., author, and physician-scientist, was interviewed on FOX 26 Houston this week and the show was titled “Company developing nasal spray to treat COVID-19.” I believe it is worth the time for all to view this story here as it sheds a great deal of light on the stages, etc, regarding COVID-19. 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.

At the end of the trading session today, all 11 sectors ended in positive territory as the S&P 500 closed up .43% at 3,131.29, the Dow gained .50% & the Russell 2000 gained .41%. All FAANG stocks rose except for Netflix as follows: Facebook (FB) closed at $242.24/share up 1.26%, Amazon (AMZN) closed at $2,764.41 up 1.86%,  Apple (AAPL) closed at $366.53/share up 2.13%, Netflix (NFLX) lost .38% closing at $466.26/share, & Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $1,464.41/share up .86%.

Gold closed at $1,773 (+10) & silver prices closed at $18.07/oz (+.17). North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $3.07/share up 1.32% while First Majestic Silver (AG) gained 1.86% closing at $9.29/share.

Oil prices moved lower by .5% closing above $40/bbl again at $40.38. Energy leaders Chevron (CVX) closed at $91.44/share down .16%, Exxon (XOM) closed at $46.70/share up .60% & highly leveraged Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) closed at $19.79/share down .6% as it seems to be capitulating in this range after recovering recently.

The 2-yr US treasury yield closed flat at .19% & the 10-yr yield added 1 basis point to close at .71%. The U.S. Dollar Index weakened by .6% to end at 97.09. 

The 2-yr yield was unchanged at 0.19%, and the 10-yr yield increased one basis point to 0.71%.

MOVERS

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

• Shares of Fastly, Inc. (FSLY), a cloud platform company that enables customers to create great digital experiences quickly, securely and reliably by processing, serving, and securing their customers’ applications as close to their end-users as possible – “at the edge of the internet,” closed up another 3.59% today at $74.40/share.

• Shares of Penn National Gaming (PENN) closed at $36.82 up 17.15%. On June 19 PENN announced that 30 of 41 gaming and racing properties have resumed operations.

TOMORROW

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

• The FHFA Housing Price Index for June
• The weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index

WATCH LIST

• Shares of INVO Bioscience (INVO) closed at $3.60/share after touching $3.99 intraday trading. INVO announced today that the company was to trade under the symbol “INVO” again effective at the beginning of trading on Tuesday, June 23, 2020, this morning. For the period May 26, 2020, through June 22, 2020, the company had traded under the symbol “INVOD” following the previously announced reverse stock split. 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. “We are pleased to have completed this step toward improving the capitalization structure of the Company and overall visibility to the investor community. We are experiencing increased interest in our INVOcell device from prospective partners, physicians, patients, investors, and media. We are steadfast in our mission to increase access to care and expand fertility treatment across the globe with a goal of lowering costs while increasing the availability of care to this dramatically underserved market. We also continue to ramp our commercialization efforts, which we believe will help to expand our international opportunities,” commented Steve Shum, CEO of INVO Bioscience. 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 Fate Therapeutics (FATE) closed at $33.90/share up 2.57%, & still below its recent 52-week high of $37.24, but up from its 52-week low of $12.59. On June 11th, NBSE 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) fell 4.02% today closing at $9.83/share after recently achieving a new all-time high of at $11.78/share prior to closing at $11.51/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,  but it also because it is being added to a Russell index this month. NBSE is now listed on the reconstitution list for the Russell 3000 index now as you can view here. Here are a couple of dates to consider regarding the process:

• • • June 26 – Russell Reconstitution is final after the close of the US equity markets.
    • June 29 – equity markets open with the newly reconstituted Russell US Indexes.

• Shares of Stereotaxis, Inc. (STXS) closed at $5.23/share up 1.16% after hitting an intraday high of $5.44/share. 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 are to be added to the Rusell 2000 and the Russell 3000 indexes this month and will be presenting at the Cowen 5th Annual FutureHealth Conference on Thursday, June 25th at 10:15 pm eastern.

• Shares of Aduro (ADRO) closed at $2.34/share up.43% today. 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”.

Economic Reports

• On Monday, we received the May existing home sales report which confirmed a 9.7% month/month drop bringing us to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.91M.
• On Tuesday, we received the new home sales report for May confirmed a jump of 16.6% month/month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676k.

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