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Wednesday’s Markets Produce Alphabet’s Earnings Beat, GW Pharma $7.2B Buyout, & An Atossa Therapeutics Skyrocket Move

By John F. Heerdink, Jr.

Wednesday’s trading session was generally positive across the board. The large caps on the S&P 500 closed at 3,830.17 (+.1%) & the Dow 30 closed at 30,723.60 (+.12%). The Russell 2000 also closed in the green at 2,159.7 (+.38%), however the Nasdaq closed slightly lower at 13,610.54 (-.02%). The energy sector led all sectors with a 4.3% jump powered by a combination of the OPEC’s recently announced production cutback coupled with rising belief that reopening is pushing forward took hold. 

MACRO & MONEY 

The macroeconomic schedule delivered the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index report which confirmed a move up to 58.7% in January. The ADP Employment Change report also estimated that 174k jobs were added to private-sector payrolls in January. The IHS Markit Services PMI for January got adjusted higher to 58.3 in the preliminary reading. Generally, the reports continue to suggest that the economy is making progress. 

The 2-yr treasury yield closed even again at .11%, while the 10-yr treasury yield rose another 2 basis points to close at 1.13%. The U.S. Dollar ticked .1% lower to end at 91.13.

FAANG’s, TSLA & Subaru?

The FAANG’s ended mixed overall as follows: Apple (AAPL) shares closed at $133.94, -.78%, Amazon (AMZN) ($3,312.53, -2%) as they beat the street’s earning’s estimates, but Jeff Bezos announced that he is stepping down as CEO, Alphabet (GOOG) ($2.070.07, +7.4%) after blowing away earnings estimates on the power of advertising business surged, Facebook (FB) closed at $266.65, -.16%, & Netflix (NFLX) closed at $539.45/share, -1.59%. 

Shares of the leading EV maker Tesla (TSLA) cooled off closing at $854.69, -2.07%.  Chinese EV producer NIO Limited (NIO) closed at $57.98/share, +3.96%. Subaru of America reportedly sold a record 46k+ cars in january and pledged 100 million meals to Hunger Relief Organization Feeding America.

Shares of hydrogen fuel cell company Plug Power (PLUG) jumped 4.87% as Bernstein analyst pumped into covering PLUG today stating that heavy duty transport vehicles are the most attractive part of the market for using hydrogen fuel cells as a power source. Glad to see others catching up with this name that we started covering in the fall in the $10.50 range! Welcome aboard!

BIOTECH

The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF rose to 164.50, +1.11% while the NYSE ARCA Biotech Index rose to 6,141.30, +1.21%. 

Today, GW Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: GWPH) ($211.37, +44.5%),  a firm focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel therapeutics from its proprietary cannabinoid product platform in a broad range of disease areas announced that it will be acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: JAZZ) ($151.21, -3.9%) for $220.00 per American Depositary Share (ADS), in the form of $200.00 in cash and $20.00 in Jazz ordinary shares, for a total consideration of $7.2 billion, or $6.7 billion net of GW cash. Who will be next?

Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATOS), 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, announced today tupdated findings following 26 months of Expanded Access (or “compassionate use”) single-patient studies of Atossa’s Endoxifen. “To date, the patient has not had a recurrence of breast cancer, as assessed by clinical breast examination and mammography; has not had treatment-related changes in periodic laboratory blood tests and general clinical examinations; and, the treatment has been well tolerated, including an absence of typical vasomotor symptoms commonly associated with tamoxifen (for example, night sweats and hot flashes), an FDA-approved drug frequently prescribed for breast cancer treatment,” commented Sidney Goldblatt, M.D., Principal Investigator. “This patient, like many breast cancer patients, was reluctant to take tamoxifen because of the well-documented side effects associated with that drug and because she lacked the proper liver enzymes to properly metabolize tamoxifen. We are very encouraged by this patient’s experience with our Endoxifen over the past two years. Her experience serves as a model for ongoing development efforts,” commented Steve Quay, Ph.D., M.D., Atossa’s President and CEO.  Yesterday, I hosted  Tribe Public’s Webinar Presentation and Q&A Event with Steven Quay, MD, PhD, CEO & Founder & Kyle Guse CFO of Atossa Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ATOS) who delivered a presentation titled “The Important Role of COVID-19 Therapeutics In A Post-Vaccine World.” They also addressed Q&A session at the end of the presentation. Please view it here.

GOLD, SILVER, & Oil

The iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) closed at $24.93, +1.59%. Silver prices closed at $26.92/oz, +$.03. Gold prices closed at 1,836, -$1.

North American Silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) closed at $5.84/share, -1.35% after establishing a new 52-week high of $8.45 this week. HL’s 52-week range is $1.4 – $8.45.  I was excited to host a Tribe Public Webinar Presentation and Q&A Event yesterday with  Phillips S. Baker, Jr., President, and CEO of Hecla Mining Company (NYSE: HL) where we discussed “The Silver Squeeze” while addressing questions from the Tribe and offering valuable insights on silver prices throughout history and the recent volatility that helped move silver related stocks and the ETF SLV. Please view it by clicking here. 

Oil prices rose another 1.7% to close at $55.70/bbl.



VP WATCH LIST HIGHLIGHTS

  • Shares of next generation of gene silencing therapy firm NeuBase Therapeutics (NBSE) closed trading at $9.75, +3.72%. Last week, NeuBase announced the execution of a binding agreement to acquire infrastructure, programs and intellectual property for several peptide-nucleic acid (PNA) scaffolds from Vera Therapeutics, formerly known as TruCode Gene Repair, Inc. The technology has demonstrated the ability to resolve disease in genetic models of several human indications. The acquisition was reported to bolster NeuBase’s capabilities and reinforces the Company’s position as a leader in the field of genetic medicine. Read the complete story. 
    • 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.
    • NeuBase has 141 institutional owners and shareholders that have filed 13D/G or 13F forms with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). These institutions hold a total of 8,993,130 shares. Largest shareholders include Greenlight Capital Inc (9%), Vanguard Group Inc, BlackRock Inc., Renaissance Technologies Llc, VTSMX – Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Investor Shares, IWM – iShares Russell 2000 ETF, Sio Capital Management, LLC, State Street Corp, VEXMX – Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund Investor Shares, and Geode Capital Management, Llc.
    • We expect to see the company to announce an update on its work in Huntington’s Disease and also sign a corporate deal of some kind prior to the end of April 2021 based on recent conversations & expectations of management.

  • Natural-Killer cell (NKcell) focused biopharmaceutical firm Fate Therapeutics (FATE) closed at $98.24/share, +.77 after recently establishing a new all-time high of $121.16. FATE also recently announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of ~$432 million at $85.50/share. Jefferies, BofA Securities, SVB Leerink and Barclays acted as joint book-running managers for the offering.

    • We started with Fate over 3 years ago when it was in the $3 range. Fate’s 52-wk range is $16.75- $103.86. 

    • 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.”

  • Shares of INVO Bioscience (NASDAQ: INVO) closed at $3.11/share, -.64%. Last week, INVO announced it has advanced its commercialization efforts into the European fertility market by securing initial orders of INVOcell in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. INVOcell will initially be available at three separate existing fertility clinics which have placed orders and commenced training.
    • 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.
    • INVO’s Management Issued a letter to shareholders recently that spoke to their key developments and future initiatives that have positioned their product INVOcell® within the severely underserved fertility market. PLEASE READ IT HERE.
    • INVO received BUY Ratings from both Roth Capital ($5 PT) & Collier International Securities ( $5.75 PT) in December, 2020.  
    • INVO recently announced that it has entered an exclusive distribution agreement with Galaxy Pharma Ltd. to distribute the INVOcell system within Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world with approximately 212 million people. Galaxy Pharma is a leader in providing products and services to the country’s current full-service In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) facilities, and has joint ventures operating an additional 21 facilities focused on administering Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) via OBGYN’s.

  • Shares of Chinook Therapeutics (KDNY), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing precision medicines for kidney diseases, closed today at $15.75, -2.17%. This week, Chinook announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted rare pediatric disease designation for CHK-336, an investigational oral small molecule inhibitor of lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) for primary hyperoxaluria (PH). PH is a group (PH1, PH2 and PH3) of ultra-rare genetic diseases caused by enzyme mutations that result in excess oxalate production in the liver, and in its most severe forms, can lead to end-stage kidney disease at a young age. Inhibition of LDHA with CHK-336 allows for the potential to treat all forms of PH and other disorders arising from excess oxalate, while its liver-targeted tissue distribution profile enables maximal inhibition of liver oxalate production with minimal systemic exposure.
    • I hosted Chinook’s President & CEO Eric Dobmeier at our sister organization Tribe Public’s Presentation and Q&A event, Tuesday, Jan. 26th which you can watch now at Tribe Public YouTube Channel
    • Chinook has well-funded development programs with participation in a $115 million private placement financing concurrent with the close of a merger with Aduro Biotech in Q4 2020 from top-tier healthcare investors including, EcoR1 Capital, OrbiMed Advisors, funds managed by Rock Springs Capital, Fidelity Management and Research Company LLC, Avidity Partners, Surveyor Capital (a Citadel company), Ally Bridge Group, Monashee Investment Management LLC, Northleaf Capital Partners, Janus Henderson Investors, Sphera Biotech and others.

  • Shares of Seattle-based Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATOS) closed at $3.25/share, +16.07% & then legged up in the after market to close at $3.82, +36%. This move came forth after ATOS’s news that I mentioned above. 
    • Yesterday, Atossa announced that based on substantially positive results achieved with the patients enrolled to date in its Australian open-label Phase 2 clinical study of oral Endoxifen administered in the “window of opportunity” between diagnosis of breast cancer and surgery, Atossa has halted the study and is accelerating its Endoxifen program in the United States. “It is a welcome event to halt an ongoing clinical trial because the results are so overwhelmingly positive,” commented Steven Quay, M.D., Ph.D., Atossa’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Data from the first six patients in our Australian Phase 2 window of opportunity study shows a 74% average reduction in Ki-67, which is a common measure of tumor cell activity, and that at the time of surgery all patients had Ki-67 levels lower than 25%, which is an important threshold to improve long-term survival as identified in studies by others. We believe that additional enrollment will not alter these positive results so we are terminating the study early. This saves at least a year on the development time line allowing us to accelerate clinical development in the Unites States. We look forward to reporting final data from all patients in the study and sharing our continued progress in the development of oral Endoxifen.”
    • Atossa Therapeutics, 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’s Dr. Steven C. Quay, MD., Ph.D., President and CEO,  was a panelist at the 2021 Precision Medicine World Conference “21st Century Precision Medicine in the Age of COVID-19” this week. The Precision Medicine World Conference, or PMWC, is the largest, original forum for precision medicine. PMWC is an independent conference that attracts recognized authorities and experts across healthcare and biotechnology sectors. The conference showcases practical content that helps close the knowledge gap between different sectors, thereby catalyzing cross-functional collaboration to further adoption of personalized medicine in the clinic. Additional information about PMWC can be found at https://www.pmwcintl.com/covid/. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci is the spotlight speaker of the event. Dr. Fauci is the Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Advisor to the President. The panel topic is “Development of New SARS-CoV-2 Therapeutics.”
    •  Atossa recently raised ~$80M in gross proceeds affording the company a significant development runway and many more options to be considering. 
    • Atossa is seeking in the near term to get an FDA nod to move into a Phase 2 trial with its nasal spray COVID-19 therapy.



Please review our complete VP Watchlist that includes nine highlighted companies. The pages will allow you to learn more and keep up with these companies daily. 

Also, please make sure that you check out the interesting quotes and selected videos that we have highlighted below. 


Economic Reports

  • On Monday, the ISM Manufacturing Index report for January showed a drop to 58.7%, but still well above the expansion level of 50. The Total construction spending report confirmed a rise by 1% month/month in December. The Total private construction spending report showed a rise by 1.2% month/month while total public construction spending rose by .5%. The key takeaway from the report is that residential construction spending continued at a solid clip, fueled by robust demand for new homes. The January IHS Markit Manufacturing PMI moved up to 59.2.
  • On Tuesday, we did not receive anything. 
  • On Wednesday, we received the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index report which confirmed a move up to 58.7% in January. The ADP Employment Change report also estimated that 174k jobs were added to private-sector payrolls in January. The IHS Markit Services PMI for January got adjusted higher to 58.3 in the preliminary reading.

 

Investing & Inspiration

“No Price is too low for a bear or too high for a bull.” — Anonymous

“Investment is an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future.” Anonymous

“Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it’s doing.” — Peter Lynch

“Wise spending is part of wise investing. And it’s never too late to start.” –Rhonda Katz

“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

Videos

Please consider viewing these interesting videos:



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