April 9, 2020 8:45am

However, Humpty-Dumpty was not an egg but, a cannon that fired, fell off a battlement and was unable to be saved. The rhyme symbolizes Thursday’s action and reveals more serious things of this market and ‘our’ cell/gene therapy universe

News: Mesoblast (MESO & ASX: MSB) its allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) product candidate remestemcel-L will be formally evaluated in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in 240 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by coronavirus infection (COVID-19)

Framing the main takeaway … COVID-19 pricing, volume and machine trading creates volatility and liquidity!  

Dow future are UP +0.46% (+106 points), S&P futures are DOWN -0.09% (-3 points) and NASDAQ futures are DOWN -0.11% (-9 points)

 

Stock futures pointed to a down open on Thursday’s morning trading;

European markets traded higher on the hope that the coronavirus pandemic is reaching a peak, but the latest U.S. unemployment claims data could hit sentiment yet, the pan-European Stoxx 600 climbed +1.2% in early deals;

Asia Pacific were mostly higher as markets gained with Australia, Mainland China, South Korea moved upward however, Japan closed fractionally lower.

 

Data docket: Jobless rolls continued to swell due to the coronavirus shutdown, with 6.6 million Americans filing first-time unemployment claims in the week ended April 4, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That brings the total over the past three weeks to more than 16 million.

 

Henry’omics:

Dow futures fell early Thursday, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures, as investors await weekly jobless claims and a key OPEC meeting over emergency production cuts.

Also, the Dow has a rising relative strength line, reflecting its recent outperformance vs. the S&P 500 index. But the RS line for the Nasdaq has lagged during the coronavirus stock market rally.

Thus, Humpty fired one of its biggest shot yesterday; however, it fell off a castle parapet and shattered “all the Kings horses and all the Kings men couldn't put Humpty together again”. That is the actual meaning to this rhyme a shattering of indexes

From whence the title, “According to a number of military historians, Humpty Dumpty was the name of a cannon used by the Royalists during the English Civil War. The conflict raged from 1642 to 1649, and in June of 1648, Humpty Dumpty was stationed on the walls of Colchester.”

Stocks closed slightly lower on Tuesday, but jumped on Monday, bringing the Dow’s week-to-date gain to 11.3%. The S&P 500, meanwhile, has bounced 10.5% this week.

Keep in mind that while bending and flattening the curve in terms of new cases and deaths is good news for the coronavirus stock market rally, it's just one step. The next is when or how quickly can the U.S. restart its economy?

Watch your corners …!

 

The BOTTOM LINE: Reiterating, share pricing is getting ahead of itself and hard to fathom with volatility being the base line of “our” universe.

There is a LACK of CONFIDENCE and CONVICTION in the RegMed cell and gene therapy sector’s journey through the Q2/2020 cycle – it flips, it flaps and then farts!!

I am staying with “Remain Cautious … where is all the “good” data – is it even being formed as to when the new of the newest normal appear or is it still an apparition.

  • Sector stocks have NOT fully priced-in a potential of an economic breakdown as the coronavirus pandemic shut down the U.S. economy;
  • The most hurtful statement I’ve heard is markets will NOT be able to recover the losses in equities until sometime next year.

 

Wednesday night’s title: “markets are stuck in the middle of anticipation. Optimism moved the sector as the market steamed and COVID-19 continued to dominate trading, there’s still a lot of share pricing damage to make up for; investors need to build-in the next level of expectancy - good and bad. Is the “curve” bending (?), economics depends on when Americans can safely return to work.”

  • the NASDAQ closed UP +203.64 points (+2.58%);
  • the IBB closed up +3.10% and XBI also closed up +3.93%;
  • The CBOE Volatility Index (VVIX: INDEX) was down -3.64 points or -7.77% at 43.07;
  • Wednesday opened positive at 24/11, stayed positive at the mid-day at 31/4 and closed positive at 30/4 and 1 flat (PGEN) of the 35 covered companies;
  • Wednesday’s % of the 30-upside were +0.34% (VSTM) to +18% (PSTI) while the 4-downside ranged from -2.02% (BLCM) to -8.97% (BSTG);
  • 12 out of the 30-upside had higher than the 3-month average volume;
  • 1 out of the 4-downside had higher than the 3-month average volume;

 

Q2:

  • April registered 3 negative and 3 positive closes

Q1:

  • March registered 11 negative, 1 neutral and 10 positive closes
  • February registered 9 negative, 9 positive closes, 3 vacation days and 1 holiday.
  • January registered 9 negative, 10 positive closes and 2 holidays.

 

Companies in my headlights – It’s your decision; I provide an idea and context:

Mesoblast (MESO) Mesoblast (MESO; ASX: MSB) today announced that its allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) product candidate remestemcel-L will be formally evaluated in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial in 240 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by coronavirus infection (COVID-19). This multi-center Phase 2/3 trial will be conducted as a public-private partnership in a collaboration with the Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN), which was established by the United States National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) as a flexible platform for conducting collaborative trials. Mesoblast holds an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use of remestemcel-L in the treatment of patients with COVID-19 ARDS, and will provide investigational product for the trial.

Read the full release here: https://buff.ly/3e6uNGQ  

 

Opinions expressed are those of the author and are subject to change, and not intended to be a forecast of future events, a guarantee of future results, nor investment advice.

Whether information or intelligence is good, bad or somewhere in between; I put into context what is relevant and useful for investors.  All investments are subject to risks. Investors should consider investment objectives.

Henry McCusker, the editor and publisher of RegMed Investors does not hold or have positions in securities referred to in this publication.