“World Health Organization Declines, NASDAQ Hits Record, INVO Bioscience & Netflix Move Higher” – Vista Partners Daily Market Recap For January 23, 2020

The World Health Organization declined to declare an international public health emergency with regard to the coronavirus today which many expected. This inaction seemed to quell a great deal of fear and the selling in the markets experienced in early trading reversed for the most part.

The Nasdaq Composite ended at 9,402.48, +.20% which is a new record high.

The S&P 500 ended at 3,325.54, +.11% after the initial dip into red territory.  The FAANG stocks’ finished with mixed results but Netflix (NFLX) closed at $349.60/share jumping +7.24% after Comcast reported that video subscriber losses will rise in 2020.  Facebook (FB) closed at $219.76/share, -.70%, Amazon (AMZN) closed at $1884.58/share, -.15%, Apple (AAPL) closed at $319.23/share, +.48%, & Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $1486.65/share, +.10%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at 29,160.09, -.09%. Two components disappointed investors with their earnings reports today and fell accordingly. Travelers (TRV) $134.19/share, -5.1% and Procter & Gamble (PG) $124.99/share, -.5%.

The Russell 2000 ticked higher by +.03% ending at 1,685.01.

The “fear gauge” Vix (TVIX) ended at $40.20/share, -.5% and traded in a range of $38.36 – $43.16.

I attended the Tribe Public Keynote Speaker Luncheon event in Scottsdale today that was co-hosted by the CFO David Moss of INmune Bio, (INMB) a La Jolla-based biotech firm that is focused on modulating components of the innate immune system to activate an immune response against cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. INKmune, the company’s lead product, primes patient’s NK cells (natural killer cells) to kill cancer. INmune is targeting residual disease, the cancer cells that survive initial treatments that return to cause the cancer relapse. By controlling residual disease, patients may live longer. Using a novel mechanism of action and a precision medicine approach, INKmune therapy should enhance NK cells’ ability to eliminate residual disease. Their fascinating approach is worth further consideration. Here’s their site.

Economic Reports

On Monday we did not receive any economic data as we observed the MLk Day holiday.

On Tuesday we did not receive any economic data.

On Wednesday, we received the existing home sales report which rose +3.6% month/month in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.54M units while total sales rose +10.8% y/y. The FHFA Housing Price Index report confirmed a move higher by +.2% in January while the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications went down by -1.2%.

On Thursday, we received the Initial claims report for the week ending January 18 which rose by 6k to 211k while continuing claims for the week ending January 11 dropped by 37k to 1.731M. The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI) dropped by -.3% month/month in December.

Investing & Inspiration

“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

No significant economic data reports are due tomorrow.