RegMed Investors’ (RMi) pre-open: hammered as “limit down” hits early

March 16, 2020 7:57am

An admission of failure to contain or capitulation to liquidity issues?

Pre-open indications: No expectation

March continues as a rollercoaster theme month – my version of the morning’s numbers is written to be informative; it’s what is about to happened

Dow future are DOWN -4.56% (-1041 points), S&P futures are DOWN -4.79% (-129 points) and NASDAQ futures are DOWN -4.55% (-360 points)

Stock futures were down sharply as investors want to see coronavirus cases peaking and falling in the U.S. before taking on more risk in equities;

European markets plunged as many countries shutdown and closed borders to prevent the spread of the coronavirus with the pan-European Stoxx 600 plunging -8%;

Asia Pacific markets fell Monday as they reacted to the Fed’s action, with the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia leading losses among the region’s major markets as it dropped -9.7%, Mainland Chinese stocks, Hong Kong and Japan stocks dropped while the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index declined -4.99%.

Henry’omics:

Stock futures plunged last night even after the Fed embarked on a massive monetary stimulus campaign to curb slower economic growth amid the coronavirus outbreak and the major averages all surging more than 9% on Friday.

Stock market futures hit “limit down” levels of 5% lower, a move made by the CME futures exchange to reduce panic in markets. No prices can trade below that threshold, only at higher prices than that down 5% limit.

The market and hopefully the cell and gene therapy may be getting close to reaching a bottom as sentiment keeps dropping and technical signals are far from suggesting – yet, a buying opportunity is close but, is not totally apparent.

Friday night’s title: “the sector carousel kept turning after dips stopped and upside motion re-started; the algorithmic “rules” in electronic trading has weaponized volatility.”

• the NASDAQ closed UP +672.43 points (+9.34%);
• the IBB closed up +6.34% and XBI closed up +6.44%;
• the close was positive with an A/D line of 29/6, 0 flat of 35 covered;
• the range of the 29-upside was +0.53% (VYGR) to +29.45% (ADVM) while the 6-downside ranged from -0.95% (AGTC) to -26.25% (BSTG); 
• 24 out of the 29-upside had higher than the 3-month average volume;
• 3 out of the 6-downside had higher than the 3-month average volume;

Q1:

• March registered 6 negative and 4 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.

Q4:

• December register 11 negative and 10 positive closes
• November registered 8 negative, 12 positive and 1 holiday closes;
• October registered 14 negative, 10 positive and 1 neutral closes;

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.