Broad Markets Tread Water As Microcap Bids Resurface This Week – See $ATOS $INVO $INMB & $KDNY

Happy Saturday All!

I hope that all of you had a great week and once again made progress towards creating generational wealth for you and your family.

The markets seemed to be working against us in the early-to-mid part of the week, but in the back half somewhat of a positive tone seemed to even things out a bit in the broad markets leaving us basically in place. However, having stated this and to my pleasure and many others, it was a very profitable week if you were invested in a number of smaller names as investors found fertile ground broadly in the microcaps as bids were of plenty. Maybe growth investors were seeking alpha in another spot this week as the cryptocurrency markets turned south post Elon Musk tweets, the China crackdown, & the U.S. Treasury’s call for stricter cryptocurrency compliance with the IRS, maybe it was a reaction to the Fed’s steadfast belief and reconfirmation with the FOMC minutes regarding their belief that inflation is currently transitory in nature, or maybe it was the news that the Biden admin is now seeking only $1.7T. 

I have to admit that is allot of ‘maybe’s’, but regardless of the reason, its was certainly a welcomed realization to see a large increase in bids for the little guys and a willingness of a broader group of investors to invest in many of these speculative companies across all sectors, especially tech and biotech. This postive turn was also evidenced in several issues that we had positions in this week i.e. a number of our VP Watchlist Stocks including INmune Bio (INMB). INMB moved up $4.16/share up from the $9.78 close at the end of last week to touch $14.09 on Friday, prior to closing at $13.81. On Tuesday, May 18th, I hosted Immune Bio’s CEO RJ Tesi at the Tribe Public Presentation & Q&A Event for a fascinating discussion and his presentation titled “Advancing Treatment To Repair Our Aging Innate Immune System to Fight Alzheimer’s.” To learn more and to view the event video please click here.  Chinook Therapeutics (KDNY), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing precision medicines for kidney diseases, also closed at $17.75 jumping $3.1/share an up from last week’s $14.85 close.

Switching back to the broad markets, the major indices ticked lower week over week with only the Nasdaq closing slightly in the green: The Dow 30 closed at 34,207.84 (-5%) for the week & remains up +11.8% YTD & the S&P 500 closed at 4,155.86 (-.4%) for the week and remains up +10.6% YTD. The Nasdaq closed at 13,470.99 (+.3%) for the week and is now up +4.5% YTD. The smalls on the Russell 2000 closed at 2,215.27 (-.4%) for the week & remain up +12.2% YTD. The sectors that dragged us down a bit included the energy sector which closed down 2.8%, the industrials moved down 1.7%, the materials fell 1.4%,the consumer discretionary closed lower by 1.2%m & the financials were down .9%.

The FAANGs ended basically flat overall as follows: Apple (AAPL) shares closed at $125.43 down $2.02 from last Friday’s close of $127.45, Amazon (AMZN) closed at $3,203.08 down $19.82 from last Friday’s close of $3,222.90, Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $2,345.10 up $28.84/share from last Friday’s close of $2,316.16, Facebook (FB) closed at $316.23 down $3.14/share from last Friday’s close of $319.94 & Netflix (NFLX) closed at $497.89 up $4.52/share from last Friday’s close of $493.37/share.  

Leading EV car maker Tesla (TSLA) moved lower again this week to close at $580.88 & down $8.86/share from the $589.74 close. Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF closed at $150.84 down .7% on Friday and well off her 52-wk high of $159.70. Apparently, she now believes that Bitcoin is going to $500,000. See her interview in the video section below. Bitcoin closed at $37,458.13 this week after taking another hit from its all-time high and recently established high of $64,863.10. 

THE MACRO & RATES 

On Monday, the macroeconomic schedule produced the NAHB Housing Market Index report for May which clocked in flat at 83. The Empire State Manufacturing Survey report also dropped to 24.3 in May. On Tuesday, the total housing starts report confirmed a drop by 9.5% m/m to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.569M units and well under the consensus estimates. The total permits report confirmed a rise by .3% m/m to 1.760M. On Wednesday, the weekly MBA Mortgage Applications Index report confirmed a rise by 1.2%. On Thursday, the Initial jobless claims report for the week ending May 15 which confirmed a drop by 34k to 444k, however continuing claims for the week ending May 8 rose by 111k to 3.751M. The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI) report confirmed a rise by 1.6% month/month in April. The Philadelphia Fed Index report showed pullback to 31.5 in May. On Friday, the existing home sales report confirmed a drop by 2.7% month/month in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.85M, while total sales in April were 33.9% y/y during the early part of the shutdown. The preliminary IHS Markit Manufacturing for May rose to 61.5 & the preliminary IHS Markit Services PMI for May rose to 70.1. Next week, the schedule will proved the GDP report, the building permits report, & the Core PCE deflator report.

The yield curve was relatively calm this week as the 10-yr yield fell 1 basis point wk/wk to close 1.63, while the 2-yr settled rose 1 basis point wk/wk close at .15% as investors resolved to the Fed’s transitory position.  Here’s an interesting chart that shows the fall in government bond yields over time which was created by FactSet showing the 10-Year Government Treasury Yield through 5/20/2021.

The U.S. Dollar Index also ticked lower from 90.32 to 89.99. 

VISTA STORIES FROM THE DOW 30

Microsoft To Say Goodbye To Internet Explorer & Hello To Edge!

J.P. Morgan Secures Top Spot As European Web Transaction Acquirer

Goldman’s Consumer Business CFO, Sherry Ann Mohan To Join JPMorgan Chase Business Banking Unit

IBM’s ‘Hybrid Work Plans’ For Returning To Work Post Pandemic

IBM Acquires Salesforce Partner Waeg

Home Depot Rides High On Q1 Earnings, Crushes Estimates

Verizon Opens Recruitment Nationwide For 1,000 Roles, Amid Surge In Customer Demand

BIOTECH ‘FOUND GROUND’ THIS WEEK

The Biotech sector found a little ground this week as a number of issues moved forward somewhat indiscriminately. The Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (IBB) closed at $151.38 up 1.7 points from last week’s close of $149.68. The NYSE ARCA Biotech Index (^BTK) closed at 5,595 up 30.43 points from last week’s close of 5,564.58. The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) closed at $126.67, basically even with last Friday’s close of $126.92 but moved up nicely intraday during the week. The XBI’s 52-wk range is $$97.15-$174.79 and had been getting hit harshly since the early part of March!

GOLD REACHES FOR $1900 & SILVER MOVES HIGHER

Gold prices closed significantly above $1800/oz again this week at $1,884, up $39 from the $1,845 close last week. This Friday silver prices closed at $27.69/oz. up $.15 from the $27.52/oz. close last Friday. Hecla Mining (HL) reported impressive Q1 2021 financial and operating results recently and closed at $8.68 up $1.12 from the $7.56 close last Friday after establishing a new-52-wk high of $9.14.  See our update story here for greater details.

OIL

Oil prices moved lower by 2.3% this week to close at $63.85/bbl and remains up +31.6% YTD.  I might hold off buying a Tesla if oil continues to fall…lol.

TRADING

We are back to 5-trading sessions again next week leading into the Memorial Day Weekend Holiday. 

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

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

Investing & Inspiration

1. “In my view, the biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital. Not only is the mere drop in stock prices not risk, but it is an opportunity. Where else do you look for cheap stocks?” – Li Lu
2. “Modern medical advances have helped millions of people live longer, healthier lives. We owe these improvements to decades of investment in medical research.”– Ike Skelton
3. “Stock market goes up or down, and you can’t adjust your portfolio based on the whims of the market, so you have to have a strategy in a position and stay true to that strategy and not pay attention to noise that could surround any particular investment.” – John Paulson
4. “Your mindset matters. It affects everything – from the business and investment decisions you make, to the way you raise your children, to your stress levels and overall well-being.” – Peter Diamandis
5. “Inflation destroys savings, impedes planning, and discourages investment. That means less productivity and a lower standard of living.” – Kevin Brady
6. “Cash – in savings accounts, short-term CDs or money market deposits – is great for an emergency fund. But to fulfill a long-term investment goal like funding your retirement, consider buying stocks. The more distant your financial target, the longer inflation will gnaw at the purchasing power of your money.”  – Suze Orman
7. “Bitcoin, in the short or even long term, may turn out be a good investment in the same way that anything that is rare can be considered valuable. Like baseball cards. Or a Picasso.” – Andrew Ross Sorkin
8. “I think you have to learn that there’s a company behind every stock and there’s only one real reason why stocks go up. Companies go from doing poorly to doing well or small companies grow to large companies.” – Peter Lynch
9. “Historically, there has been a bull market in the commodities every 20 or 30 years.” – Jim Rogers
10. “The markets generally are unpredictable, so that one has to have different scenarios. The idea that you can actually predict what’s going to happen contradicts my way of looking at the market.” – George Soros
11. “Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy or the elections.” – Warren Buffett
12. “An important key to investing is to remember that stocks are not lottery tickets.” – Peter Lynch
13. “Learn everyday, but especially from the experiences of others. It’s cheaper!” – John Bogle
14. “When purchasing depressed stock in troubled companies, seek out the ones with the superior financial positions and avoid the ones with loads of bank debt.” – Peter Lynch
15. “No stock price is too low for bears or too high for bulls.” –  John F. Heerdink, Jr.
16. “Investment is most successful when it is most businesslike.” – Ben Graham
17. “Value stocks are about as exciting as watching grass grow, but have you ever noticed just how much your grass grows in a week?” – Christopher Browne
18. “Even the intelligent investor is likely to need considerable willpower to keep from following the crowd.” – Benjamin Graham
19. “Individual who cannot master their emotions are ill-suited to profit from the investment process.” – Benjamin Graham
20. “I made my first investment at age eleven. I was wasting my life until then.” – Warren Buffet
21. “I don’t look to jump over seven-foot bars; I look around for one-foot bars that I can step over.” — Warren Buffett
22. “There are only three measurements that tell you nearly everything you need to know about your organization’s overall performance: employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and cash flow. It goes without saying that no company, small or large, can win over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.” – Jack Welch, former CEO of GE
23. “Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble” ― Warren Buffett
24. “If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.” – Warren Buffet
25. “How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts? I rest my case.” — Robert G. Allen
26. “It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price, than a fair company at a wonderful price.” – Warren Buffett
27. “A market downturn doesn’t bother us. It is an opportunity to increase our ownership of great companies with great management at good prices.” — Warren Buffett
28. “Every once in a while, the market does something so stupid it takes your breath away.” — Jim Cramer
29. “The person who starts simply with the idea of getting rich won’t succeed; you must have a larger ambition.” — John D. Rockefeller
30. “Know what you own, and know why you own it.” – Peter Lynch
31. “Although it’s easy to forget sometimes, a share is not a lottery ticket… it’s part ownership of a business.” – Peter Lynch

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

33. “Invest for the long haul. Don’t get too greedy and don’t get too scared.” – Shelby M.C. Davis

34. “Fear incites human action far more urgently than does the impressive weight of historical evidence.”
    -Jeremy Siegel

35. “With a good perspective on history, we can have a better understanding of the past and present, and thus a clear vision of the future.” — Carlos Slim Helu
36. “If we like a business, we’re going to buy as much of it as we can and keep it as long as we can. And when we change our mind, we don’t take half measures.” – Warren Buffett
37. “The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.” — Peter Thiel
38. “Never depend on a single income, make an investment to create a second source.” Warren Buffet“Games are won by players who focus on the playing field –- not by those whose eyes are glued to the scoreboard.” ― Warren Buffett
39. “The key to making money in stocks is not to get scared out of them.” – Peter Lynch
40. “Courage taught me no matter how bad a crisis gets … any sound investment will eventually pay off.” — Carlos Slim Helu
41. “Investing puts money to work. The only reason to save money is to invest it.” – Grant Cardone
42. “As time goes on, I get more and more convinced that the right method of investment is to put fairly large sums into enterprises which one thinks one knows something about and in the management of which one thoroughly believes.” — John Maynard Keynes
43. “Given a 10% chance of a 100 times payoff, you should take that bet every time.” — Jeff Bezos
44. “Money is always eager and ready to work for anyone who is ready to employ it.” ― Idowu Koyenikan
45. “The secret to investing is to figure out the value of something – and then pay a lot less.” – Joel Greenblatt
46. “We don’t have an analytical advantage, we just look in the right place.” – Seth Klarman
47. “Men, it has been well said, think in herds. It will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” – Charles Mackay
48. “It’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.” – George Soros
49. “In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” — Robert Arnott
50. “Don’t look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack!” — John Bogle
51. “No Price is too low for a bear or too high for a bull.” — Anonymous
52. “Investment is an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future.” — Anonymous
53. “Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it’s doing.” — Peter Lynch
54. “Wise spending is part of wise investing. And it’s never too late to start.” –Rhonda Katz
55. “If there is one common theme to the vast range of the world’s financial crises, it is that excessive debt accumulation, whether by the government, banks, corporations, or consumers, often poses greater systemic risks than it seems during a boom.” — Carmen Reinhart
56. “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
57. “A bull market is like sex. It feels best just before it ends.” — Barton Biggs
58. “The investor’s chief problem — even his worst enemy — is likely to be himself.” — Benjamin Graham
59. “No profession requires more hard work, intelligence, patience, and mental discipline than successful speculation.” – Robert Rhea
60. “The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.” — Peter Thiel
61. “Money is like a sixth sense – and you can’t make use of the other five without it.” – William Somerset Maugham
62. “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” — Albert Einstein
63. “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.” – Warren Buffett
64. “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
65. “Investing puts money to work. The only reason to save money is to invest it.” – Grant Cardone
66. “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn
67. “You cannot save time for your future use however you can invest time for your future.” – John F. Heerdink, Jr. 
68. “We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.” – Warren Buffett
69. “Never test the depth of the river with both of your feet.” – Warren Buffet
70. “Know what you own, and know why you own it.” – Peter Lynch
71. “Liquidity is only there when you don’t need it.” -Old Proverb
72. “There is no such thing as no risk. There’s only this choice of what to risk, and when to risk it.” – Nick Murray
73. “If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline.” – Richard Branson
74. “Fear incites human action far more urgently than does the impressive weight of historical evidence.” – Jeremy Siegel
75. “In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” – Robert Arnott
76. “Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up.” – Charlie Munger
77. “The entrance strategy is actually more important than the exit strategy.” – Edward Lampert
78. “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” – PopeFrancis
79. “It is impossible to produce superior performance unless you do something different from the majority.” – John Templeton
80. “Inaction and patience are almost always the wisest options for investors in the stock market.” – Guy Spier
81. “Remember that the stock market is a manic depressive.”  – Warren Buffett
82. “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin
83. “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
84. “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
85. “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
86. “If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion.
    -George Bernard Shaw
87. “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, Former Ceo of Disney
88. “In the short run, the market is a voting machine. But in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” – Ben Graham
89. “In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” -Robert Arnott
90. “The fundamental law of investing is the uncertainty of the future.” -Peter Bernstein
91. “How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts?” -Robert G Allen
92. “Greed is all right, by the way. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”-Ivan Boesky
93. “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
94. “The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.” -Jawaharlal Nehru
95. “I talk about macro themes a lot because they are fun to talk about, but it is the risk management that is the most important thing. The risk control is all bottom-up. I structured the business right from the get-go so that we would have lots of diversification.” -Michael Platt
96. “Blaming speculators as a response to financial crisis goes back at least to the Greeks. It’s almost always the wrong response.” -Larry Summers