Market Records Shattered In Shortened But Sweet Thanksgiving Holiday Week

The markets experienced a Thanksgiving holiday shortened & sugar sweetened week that saw all market indices achieve records rising  north of 2 percent across the board. The Dow 30 even hit the coveted and never reached before 30,000 level prior to Turkey Day.

News was overall relatively light, but what we received was somewhat pleasant. There was a positive readout reported regarding another COVID-19 vaccine, more peace and progress regarding the presidential transition as we were hit with a statement from the General Services Administration relaying that they would release enabling funds, and Joe Biden confirmed that he will be nominating a familiar face in former Fed Chair Janet Yellen as his Treasury Secretary. However, it is wise to remember that this move is still in the face of an ever surging coronavirus pandemic that is seeing further shutdowns and/or rollbacks move in across the nation and many parts of the world as we are still searching for vaccines and viable treatments at home and otherwise. 

The macroeconmic schedule produced a mix of relatively light reports as follows: On Monday, we received the preliminary Markit PMI and Services reports for November which were positive. On Tuesday, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index report which ended down at 96.1 in November. The September S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index report confirmed a rise by 6.6% while the September FHFA Housing Price Index report confirmed a rise by 1.7%. On Wednesday, the Initial claims report for the week ending Nov. 21 confirmed a rise by 30k to 778k while continuing claims for the week ending Nov. 14 dropped by 299k to 6.071M. However, New home sales dropped by .3% month/month to 999k in October. Personal income also fell by .7% month/month in October but personal spending increased by .5%. The PCE Price Index was flat. Total durable orders were confirmed to have risen by 1.3% in October and when you exclude transportation, durable orders rose 1.3% month/month. The Q3 GDP stayed pat at 33.1% & the GDP Price Deflator was also flat at 3.6%. The final University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment for November slipped to 76.9. Advance International Trade in Goods deficit move to to $80.3B in October while Advance Retail Inventories rose by .8% & Advance Wholesale Inventories moved up by .9%. 

MARKET RESULTS

The energy sector continues to lead the way as it jumped another 8.6% week-over-week while oil prices rose 7% to end at $45.39/bbl. Energy giant Chevron (CVX) closed at $91.31/share again up from last Friday’s close of $85.79/share and is now up roughly 20 points in two weeks.

The financials sector also moved significantly higher as it jumped 4.6% now having realized a +13% move over the last 3 weeks.  In the sector we also saw the shares of Goldman Sachs (GS) close trading at $235.40/share up from last Friday’s close of $223.35/share, American Express (AXP) closed at $120.59/share up from the $112.58/share close last Friday, Visa (V) closed trading at $211/share up from the $203.88/share last Friday & shares of Morgan Stanley (MS) closed at $63.84/share up from last Friday’s close of $57.81/share. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) closed at $121.22 up from $114.57/share last Friday & Citigroup (C) $56.67/share up from $51.65/share last week. PayPal Holdings (PYPL) closed at $211.39/share up from last Friday’s close of $192.67/share and Square (SQ) closed at $212.52 up substantially from last week’s closed of $195.97/share. 

The balance of the sectors were also in the green, except for real estate which dropped by .4%.

The Russell 2000 had a stellar week as it closed at 1,855.27 (+3.9%) wk/wk (+18.9% over 4 weeks) and is now up a more than respectable 11% YTD.

Peter Thiel co-founded Palantir (PLTR) surged 52% this week (adding approx. $17B in valuation) closing $27.66/share, but only after establishing a new all time high of $33.50/share.  African e-commerce firm, Jumia Technologies (JMIA), closed at $36.89/share after establishing an all-time new high of $40.90/share and is up from $2.15/share its 52-week low…

The electric vehicle (EV) market continued its recent move as Elon Musk’s EV company Tesla (TSLA) shares closed at $585.76/share up nearly $100/share from $489.61/share last Friday.  Chinese EV company Nio Limited (NIO) closed at $54 up again from $49.25 last Friday and closer to its all-time high of $57.20. 

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite also managed a big win this week as it closed at 12,205.85 (+3%) now up a massive 36% YTD. The highly weighted FAANG’s results were mostly up week-over-week and ended as follows: Facebook (FB) closed at $277.81/share, +.81% Friday up from $269.70/share a week ago, Apple (AAPL) closed up .48% on Friday at $116.59/share and down from $117.34/share a week ago. Amazon (AMZN) closed at $3,195.34/share, +.32% Friday & up from $3,099.40/share a week ago, Netflix (NFLX) closed at $491.36/share, +1/31% Friday, up from $488.24/share a week ago, & Alphabet (GOOG) closed at $1,793.19/share, +1.23% Friday up from $1,742.19/share a week ago. 

The Dow ended the week at 29,910.37 (+2.2%) & is now up 4.8% YTD. Around the Dow 30, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) closed at $146.36/share down from last week’s close of $149.90 & Pharmaceutical giant Merck (MRK) closed at $79.86/share closed down again from last Friday’s close of $80.45/share.

Shares of Coca-Cola (KO) closed at $52.70/share basically even with last Friday’s close of $52.67/share. Shares of Disney (DIS) closed at $147.13/share up again from last Friday’s close of $141.07/share after recently reporting that Disney+ subscribers are exceeding expectations and losses from parks were less than expected. Shares of Nike (NKE) closed at $134.25/share up slightly from $132.98/share last Friday as it recently boosted its dividend by 12% as earnings & are expecting to be trending positively.

Shares of Deere (DE) closed at $261.95/share edging up again from last week’s close of $258.56/share & Caterpillar (CAT) closed at $175.08/share up from last Friday’s close of $172.23/share.  Walmart (WMT) closed at $151.60/share slightly up from last Friday’s close of $150.24/share.

Shares of Microsoft (MSFT) closed at $215.23/share up from last Friday’s close of $210.39/share, Salesforce (CRM) closed at $247.63 down from $258.04 last Friday after it was widely reported that it will be buying Slack Technologies (WORK) ($40.67) and will report Q3 results on Tuesday, Dec. 1 after the close. Boeing (BA) closed $216.50 jumping up again from last Friday’s close of $199.62/share as their troubled 737 Max recently got the nod from US regulators.  

The S&P 500 closed at 3,638.35 (+2.3%) wk/wk and is up 12.6% YTD. 

COMMODITY MOVES

Gold prices closed at $1,808/oz. down from $1,871/0z. last Friday & silver prices closed at $23.41/oz. down from $24.22/oz. last Friday. Barrick Gold Corp. (GOLD) closed trading at at $22.69 down from last Friday’s close of $24.28/share up .41% after recently confirming that it had increased its operating cash flow by 80% Q/Q to $1.9B.  North American silver and gold producer Hecla Mining Company (HL) ended the week at $4.79/share down from last Friday’s close of $5.15/share after recently establishing a new 52-week high of $6.79. Hecla recently announced Q3 2020 financial and operating results. Phillips S. Baker, Jr., Hecla’s President and CEO stated, “Because of our strong operating performance and higher prices, Hecla had record adjusted EBITDA, generated the most free cash flow in a decade and repaid our revolver in full. These accomplishments were achieved because of our workforces’ resiliency and our commitment to health and safety. With the Lucky Friday ramp-up ahead of schedule, the expected improvements at Casa Berardi, and our modest planned capital expenditures, we are well positioned to further strengthen our balance sheet, increase exploration activities, and pay our enhanced dividend.” 

MONEY UPDATE

The U.S. Dollar Index weakened to end the week at 92.30 up slightly from 92.73 last Friday.

The 2-yr Treasury yield closed at .14% down from .15% last week, the 10-yr yield moved up 2 basis points ending at .85% while the 30-yr yield ended at 1.576% slightly up from 1.523% last Friday.

NEXT WEEK

We will have a full week of trading week. 

NEXT WEEK’S KEY MACROECONOMIC DATA

The macroeconomic schedule will deliver the pending home sales report, the Manufacturing PMI, & the unemployment rate.

STOCKS IN VIEW NEXT WEEK

• Shares of Atossa Therapeutics (ATOS) closed at $1.74 up from $1.54/share last Friday after recently announcing progress in their AT-301 administered by nasal spray being developed for at home use for patients recently diagnosed with COVID-19.

• • Atossa Therapeutics is 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 recently announced blinded preliminary results from its Phase 1 clinical study using Atossa’s proprietary drug candidate AT-301 administered by nasal spray. AT-301 was found to be safe and well tolerated in this study at two different dose levels in both single and multiple dose forms over 14 days. AT-301 is being developed for at home use for patients recently diagnosed with COVID-19. There are currently no FDA-approved therapies to treat COVID-19 at home. Learn more now.

• Shares of INVO Bioscience (NASDAQ: INVO) closed at $3.22 down from $3.25/share last Friday.

• • INVO Bioscience, Inc. (INVO), the developers of INVOcell®, the world’s only in vivo Intravaginal Culture System, has a mission to increase access to care and expand infertility treatment across the globe with a goal of improving patient affordability and industry capacity. Industry forecasts suggest that only 1% to 2% of the estimated 150 million infertile couples worldwide are currently being treated which presents and interesting opportunity.

• • On Wednesday, INVO filed an 8k highlighting three new partners that they have established to distribute or jointly develop invocell only clinics in Malaysia and North Macedonia.

• • INVO Bioscience recently announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 3,625,000 shares of its common stock at a public offering price of $3.20 per share. The gross proceeds to INVO Bioscience from this offering are expected to be approximately $11.6 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other estimated offering expenses. INVO Bioscience has granted the underwriters a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 543,750 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. The offering is expected to close on November 17, 2020, subject to customary closing conditions. Shares of their common stock  began trading on Friday, November 13, 2020 under the symbol “INVO” on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Roth Capital Partners acted as the sole book-running manager, with Colliers Securities LLC and Paulson Investment Company, LLC acting as co-managers for the offering. Learn More Now. 

• Shares of Fate Therapeutics (FATE) closed at $57.92/share up from last Friday’s close of  $52.65 after recently hitting a new all-time high of $58.91 on Friday.
  
  • Fate is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of programmed cellular immunotherapies for cancer and immune disorders.

• • Last week, Fate reported their business highlights and financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020. Scott Wolchko, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fate Therapeutics stated, “The clinical data across our iPSC product platform continue to solidify our conviction that multiple doses of iPSC-derived NK cells can be administered off-the-shelf in the outpatient setting, are well-tolerated, and can drive anti-tumor activity, including in combination with monoclonal antibody therapy. We have now expanded the scope of clinical investigation for FT516 to solid tumors as well as for FT596 to chronic lymphocytic leukemia after observing clinical activity in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma at the first dose level. In addition, we have initiated first-in-human investigation of the first-ever CRISPR-edited, iPSC-derived cell therapy FT538, which incorporates three engineered elements to enhance multiple mechanisms of innate immunity, in acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma.”

• Shares of NeuBase Therapeutics (NBSE) closed trading at $7.70 up down from the $8.31/share close last Friday.
  • 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 is continuing its progress towards developing treatment candidates in Huntington’s Disease (HD) and Myotonic Dystrophy (DM1) and is expected to release further data prior to year end 2020.

• • RBC Capital Markets recently initiated coverage of NBSE with an Outperform, Speculative Risk rating & a $16 price target. 

• We continue to like clean hydrogen solution provider Plug Power (PLUG) which closed at $26.24 up from $24.36 last Friday after hitting a new all-time high of $28.70 this week. Last week Plug confirmed that they had sold 38M shares priced at $22.25/shares raising a whopping $845.5M which represented about 9.1% of the shares outstanding. 

• Buyout rumors are still surfacing around wireless home system provider, Sonos (SNOS), who recently lost sponsorship from Apple (AAPL) which is thought to be entering the market with their own products. The stock ended the week at $21.24/share up from the $16.62 level 2 weeks ago when we highlighted them. SONO reported better than expected Q4 and fiscal 2020 results on Nov. 18th.

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. 

As always, I will leave you with an insightful quote to help form your investment thesis this week.

“No profession requires more hard work, intelligence, patience, and mental discipline than successful speculation.” – Robert Rhea

Economic Reports

On the macroeconomic side of the coin the schedule produced a mix of reports as follows: On Monday, we received the preliminary Markit PMI and Services reports for November which were positive. On Tuesday, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index report which ended down at 96.1 in November. The September S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index report confirmed a rise by 6.6% while the September FHFA Housing Price Index report confirmed a rise by 1.7%. On Wednesday, the Initial claims report for the week ending Nov. 21 confirmed a rise by 30k to 778k while continuing claims for the week ending Nov. 14 dropped by 299k to 6.071M. However, New home sales dropped by .3% month/month to 999k in October. Personal income also fell by .7% month/month in October but personal spending increased by .5%. The PCE Price Index was flat. Total durable orders were confirmed to have risen by 1.3% in October and when you exclude transportation, durable orders rose 1.3% month/month. The Q3 GDP stayed pat at 33.1% & the GDP Price Deflator was also flat at 3.6%. The final University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment for November slipped to 76.9. Advance International Trade in Goods deficit move to to $80.3B in October while Advance Retail Inventories rose by .8% & Advance Wholesale Inventories moved up by .9%. 

Investing & Inspiration

“No profession requires more hard work, intelligence, patience, and mental discipline than successful speculation.” – Robert Rhea

“The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.” — Peter Thiel

“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

“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

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn

“You cannot save time for your future use however you can invest time for your future.” – John F. Heerdink, Jr. 

“We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.” – Warren Buffett

“Never test the depth of the river with both of your feet.” – Warren Buffet

“Know what you own, and know why you own it.” – Peter Lynch

“Liquidity is only there when you don’t need it.” -Old Proverb

“There is no such thing as no risk. There’s only this choice of what to risk, and when to risk it.” – Nick Murray

“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” – PopeFrancis

“It is impossible to produce superior performance unless you do something different from the majority.” – John Templeton

“Inaction and patience are almost always the wisest options for investors in the stock market.” – Guy Spier

“Remember that the stock market is a manic depressive.”  – Warren Buffett

“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, Former Ceo of Disney

“In the short run, the market is a voting machine. But in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” – Ben Graham

“In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” -Robert Arnott

“The fundamental law of investing is the uncertainty of the future.” -Peter Bernstein

“How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts?” -Robert G Allen

“Greed is all right, by the way. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”-Ivan Boesky

“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

“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

“Blaming speculators as a response to financial crisis goes back at least to the Greeks. It’s almost always the wrong response.” -Larry Summers