Holiday Shortened Trading Week Produces Positive Results/Records For Nasdaq & Tesla Going Into The 4th

Overall the markets ended in positive territory this week with a number of somewhat improving macroeconomic reports, earnings beats by a few companies, a record on the Nasdaq, and a record Q2 for the Dow 30 which closed up 17.8% for the quarter, its best since the 1987 market crash. The positive move was realized in the face of reports that COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, slowing, or delays of reopening steps in states.  Worldwide coronavirus cases also moved up from 9.68M a week ago to 10.69M while we have now seen 516k deaths up from 491k deaths. In the U.S. we are at 2.74M reported cases and now +130K deaths have been reported up from 127k last week.

The macroeconomic schedule brought forth the following reports this week that showed signs of reopening measures that were having a positive effect in its early going. On Monday, we received the pending home sales report which confirmed a 44.3% month/month sizable jump in May. On Tuesday, we received the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index for June which confirmed a rise to 98.1, the Chicago PMI report for June which confirmed a rise to 36.6, & the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index report which confirmed a rise of 4% in April. On Wednesday, we received the ISM Manufacturing Index report for June moved into expansion territory rebounding to 52.6%, the Construction spending report confirmed a drop of 2.1% month/month in May & the ADP Employment Change report for June confirmed that an estimated 2.369M positions were added in the private sector but were short of expectations. On Thursday, we received the June’s nonfarm payrolls report which confirmed a mover higher by 4.8M while June private-sector payrolls rose by 4.767M & the June unemployment rate clocked in at 11.1%vs. 13.3% in May. The June average hourly earnings dropped by 1.2% and the initial jobless claims for the week ending June 27 went by 55k to 1.427M.  We also the Trade Balance report for May confirmed a further widening in the deficit to -$54.6B while new orders for manufactured goods rose by 8% month/month in May. On Friday nothing was released in observance of Independence Day.

MARKET RESULTS & MARKET LEADERS

All 11 sectors moved higher this week with the communications sector leading the way up 5.6%.

The Dow ended the week at 25,827.36 representing a weekly gain of 3.2% and is now down 9.5% YTD. The Russell 2000 closed at 1,431.86 representing a weekly rise of 3.1% and is now down 14.2% YTD. The S&P 500 closed at 3130.01 gaining 4% and is now down 3.1% YTD. The Nasdaq Composite closed at a new record high at 10,207.63 on Friday representing a weekly 4.6% upward move & is now up 13.8% YTD. 

From the financials sector, which was up 2%, this week saw shares of Goldman Sachs (GS) closed trading at $197.40/share up from the $189.19/share last Friday, American Express (AXP) closed at $94.33/share up from the $93.42/share last Friday, Visa (V) closed trading at $195.67/share up from the $189.27/share last Friday & shares of Morgan Stanley (MS) closed at $47.79/share up from last Friday’s close of $47.05/share.

The FAANG’s experienced a good week across the board as follows: Facebook (FB) closed at $233.42/share, -1.74% Thursday  ($216.08/share a week ago), Apple (AAPL) closed at $364.11/share falt on Thursday,($353.63/share a week ago), Amazon (AMZN) closed at $2,890.30/share, .40% Thursday ($2,692.87/share a week ago), Netflix (NFLX) closed at $476.89/share off 1.8% Thursday, ($443.40/share a week ago), & Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $1,464.70/share, +1.85% Thursday, ($1,359.90/share a week ago.)

COMMODITY MOVES

Gold prices closed at $1,782/oz. up from $1,779/0z. last Friday & silver prices closed at $18.20/oz. up from $17.97/oz. last week. North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) ended the week at $3.19/share up from last Friday’s close of $2.96/share. First Majestic Silver (AG) closed at $9.50/share higher than the $9.39/share close last Friday.

Oil prices gained 4.6% to end above $40 again at $40.42/bbl. Energy giant Chevron (CVX) moved higher this week to close at $88.31/share ($86.46, last wk) and Exxon (XOM) moved down closing at $44.08/share ($43.62, last wk.) Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) closed at $17.78/share up 2.13%. Midstream player, Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), closed trading at $17.85/share down .34% and currently sports at an attractive $1.78/share dividend or 9.94%. 

MONEY UPDATE

The U.S. Dollar Index weakened again to end the week at 97.22 up from 97.45 last week.

The 2-yr Treasury yield closed at .15% 1 basis point lower from the .16% mark last Friday, the 10-yr yield closed at .68% up 4 basis points from .64% while the 30-yr yield ended at 1.433% up slightly from 1.374% last Friday.  

NEXT WEEK

We will be back to a full week of trading sessions post the Fourth of July Holiday weekend. We will be seeking the following macroeconomic reports and stocks in view:

MACROECONOMIC DATA

• The Markit PMI Composite index
• The domestic auto sales report
• The Consumer Credit data report

STOCKS IN VIEW

• Shares of Atossa Therapeutics (ATOS) closed at $3.70 on Friday. Interest continues to swell around their breast cancer treatment programs and their COVID-19 drug candidates the trading volatility to the upside this year up from $.76/share.  Atossa announced recently that it has begun the development of a second COVID-19 programusing its proprietary drug candidate AT-301, to be administered by nasal spray as is teaming with nasal spray specialist firm Summit Biosciences. AT-301 is Atossa’s proprietary formula intended for nasal administration in patients immediately following a diagnosis of COVID-19 but who have not yet exhibited symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization. Atossa confirmed that it is intended for at-home use to proactively reduce symptoms of COVID-19 and to slow the infection rate so that a person’s immune system can more effectively fight SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus). Atossa also intends to conduct testing to determine whether AT-301 can be used as a prophylaxis to prevent or mitigate SARS-CoV-2, with the goal that it could become a “bridge to the vaccine” and be useful in the next phase of the coronavirus pandemic. CEO of Atossa, Dr. Steven Quay, MD, Ph.D., author, and physician-scientist, announced the availability of his 158-page 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, beginning Monday, June 8, 2020. Proceeds from the book will go to military veterans performing COVID-19 relief work in their communities. Dr. Steven Quay, MD, Ph.D. was also interviewed on FOX 26 Houston this week and the show was titled “Company developing nasal spray to treat COVID-19.” Please view it here. Again as I mentioned yesterday, I believe it is worth the time as it sheds a great deal of light on the 4 stages of COVID-19 and their potential treatments.

• Shares of INVO Bioscience (INVO) closed at $3.95/share. This week, INVO announced the second closing of its convertible note and unit purchase option private placement. The Company had previously conducted the first closing on May 15, 2020. The combination of both closings resulted in gross proceeds of $3,093,640 (of which $2,950,000 was received in cash and $143,640 resulted from cancellation of indebtedness. Steve Shum, Chief Executive Officer of INVO stated, “We appreciate the financial support from our investors as we execute our mission toward increasing patient access and treatment within the infertility marketplace through our revolutionary INVOcell device, an affordable, scalable and effective solution. We continue to push forward with our global commercialization efforts with our major U.S. partner, along with our current partners in Africa, Eurasia, and India; and are pursuing many other key regions and partners in Central and South America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.” 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. On Thursday, there was focus of a spotlight report published by Birmingham, Alabama-based America Institute of Reproductive Medicine (AIRM) highlighting the success achieved in their practice utilizing INVOcell. “The AIRM clinic became an early adopter and advocate for the use of INVOcell shortly after we received FDA-clearance. We appreciate their willingness to share their story of that successful implementation of INVOcell within their clinical practice, which highlights important aspects of our INVOcell technology solution,” stated Steve Shum, CEO of INVO Bioscience. You can review the report here.

• Shares of Fate Therapeutics (FATE) closed at $33.81/share last Friday and this Friday closed higher at $36.21.Its recent 52-week high is $37.24 and its 52-week low of $12.59.  On June 11th, FATE announced that it 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) closed trading at $8.66/share. 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 diseases caused by mutant proteins with a single, cohesive approach. NBSE was added to the Russell 3000 recently.

• Shares of Stereotaxis, Inc. (STXS) closed at $4.30/share and was added to the Russell 2000 & 3000 recently. 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 as they recently completed a live broadcast of their bi-directional TeleRobotic procedures with physicians navigating catheters from hospitals more than 1700 km apart.

• Shares of Aduro (ADRO) closed at $2.50/share up from $2.17/share last Friday. 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”.

• Tesla (TSLA) shares flew up 26% this week to close a  record of $1208.66/share, sporting a whopping $224B market cap and making it the most valuable car company on the planet. This has come about as electric car companies came into view and momentum investors jumped in as expectations continued to beat. Tesla delivered ~90,650 vehicles in Q2. I am also keeping an eye on little Austin, TX-based electric car firm, Aryo, Inc. (AYRO), which jumped 18.05% closing at $3.27/share on Thursday as investors chase these companies.

Thanks again for your attention this week. Please continue to share your thoughts, questions, & ideas as we move forward. 

Have a wonderful July 4th weekend, and let’s get back to it on Monday and make some money in the markets next week.

In the meantime, please enjoy the balance of the weekly newsletter’s videos, quotes, updates.