May 18, 2020 8:21am

An oxymoron, a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction

Breathe more life into portfolio cash positions

News: bluebird ((BLUE) proposes 7.6 million share’s offering priced at $56.66

Pre-open indications:  3 Trading Targets and 2 Maintaining SELL into Strength

What I provide is an “intelligence daily” to inform the RegMed/cell and gene therapy sector and its investors utilizing indication and warning analysis. Check the BOTTOM LINE <read more>

Dow future are UP +2.65% (+623 points), S&P futures are UP +2.50% (+72 points) and NASDAQ futures are +2.02% (+184 points)

 

Futures rose on Monday indicating a positive open as investors weighed optimistic comments by Fed Chair Powell on the state of the economy on reopening business over the weekend.

European stocks traded sharply higher as investor confidence rises cautiously with lockdown restrictions around the world being lifted as the pan-European Stoxx 600 jumped 1.8% in early trade

Asia Pacific stocks were little changed as U.S. Fed Chair Powell said the U.S, economy may need a vaccine to fully recover. Mainland Chinese stocks were mixed on the day while, japan, South Korea and Australia closed higher and the S&P/ASX 200 finished its trading day 1.03% higher.

 

Henry’omics:

Friday indexes fell and clawed back its losses with slight gains in volatile trading as markets wrapped up its worst weekly performance since late March

  • Friday’s turnaround also followed better-than-expected data on U.S. consumer sentiment. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index unexpectedly rose in early May as U.S. fiscal stimulus measures “improved consumers’ finances and widespread price discounting boosted their buying attitudes.” <CNBC>;
  • For the week, however, the Dow was down -2.65%, the Nasdaq was down -1.1% and the S&P 500 was down -2.2%.

 

Stocks should spike today but experience choppy trading until it’s clear that state efforts to reopen their economies are prepared to handle any type of events or even spikes in new cases of Covid-19.

 

Friday night’s title:” ending it on a sector good note … although my 35-company coverage list blossomed after being oversold after Friday morning’s pre-open: end it.”

  • the NASDAQ closed UP +70.84 points (+0.79%);
  • Friday closed positive at 24/10 and 1 flat. The percentage (%) of the 24-upside were +0.08% (STML) to +10.97% (CLLS) while the 10-downside ranged from -0.55% (MSXG) to -4.86% (BCLI).    
  • The CBOE Volatility Index (VVIX: INDEX) was down -0.72 points or -2.21% at 31.89; as volume was LOW with 8 out of the 24-upside having higher than the 3-month average volume and 2 out of the 10-downside having higher than the 3-month average volume.

Q2:

  • May registered 5 negative, 6 positive closes – so far
  • April registered 10 negative, 11 positive closes and 1 holiday.

Q1:

  • March registered 11 negative, 10 positive closes and 1 neutral close.
  • 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:

Maintaining Sell into strength:

  • bluebird bio (BLUE) closed up +$2.60 after Thursday’s -$1.76, Wednesday’s -$1.04 and Tuesday’s -$3.37 and even as the FDA initially declining to move forward on the application for their experimental multiple myeloma treatment. Now BLUE proposes an offering – a negative -$1.92 or -3.39% pre-market indication;
  • Athersys (ATHX) closed up +$0.04 after Thursday’s -$0.11, Wednesday’s +$0.045, Tuesday’s down -$0.21 and Monday’s +$0.43 with a lot of volume to sell into as trials will take time plus a negative as far as taking PPP funds from government will simultaneously raising $57.6 M.

Trading targets based on share pricing strength and volume:

  • BioLife Solutions (BLFS) closed up +$0.78 after Thursday’s -$0.33, Wednesday’s -0.33 and Tuesday’s +$0.34 after reporting earnings with solid revenue and a $20 M investment by Casdin Capital Chart looks “peaky”;
  • Cellectis SA (CLLS) closed up +$1.91 after Thursday’s +$3.71, Wednesday’s -$1.29 and has a– an Icarus candidate;
  • Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) closed up +$1.31 after Thursday’s +$0.60, another “peaky” chart”;

 

The BOTTOM LINE:  Breathe more life into portfolio cash positions as I stated on Friday, “We’re still in the “Twilight Zone” of share pricing uncertainty.”

“In the long run and even in the medium run, you wouldn’t want to bet against the American economy. The American economy will recover,” U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Powell said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an excerpt aired Sunday morning on “Face the Nation.”

The question is HOW and WHEN are we going to pay for this period and also for HOW long is “protective welfare” going to last?

All of us wait, can’t wait for this isolation to end and get back to what we hope; as I have stated will be “some sort of new normal” in returning to our old and possibly … usual way of life.

 

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.