September 5, 2025 4:43pm

Dramatic inclines usually end up in the toilet by follow-up sessions

News: BioNTech (BNTX +$8.90 to $112.40) its experimental breast cancer treatment met a pre-specified bar for success in a pivotal study after BNTX tested the drug in patients with advanced breast cancer. Trastuzumab pamirtecan, which was developed with China's DualityBio, is a next-generation antibody drug conjugate (ADC). These treatments send toxic chemicals directly to proteins present on tumor cells, limiting the damage to healthy tissue. An independent data monitoring committee says patients who received the experimental ADC lived for a longer period of time before worsening than those given another ADC from Roche (RHHBY).

Remember, “The sector is what it is, until it isn’t, even if it doesn’t seem to be, it yet will be.”  Never leave an investor uninformed! 

TGIF 

I answer or qualify the sector’s equity’s movement; with an emphasis on which company is gaining or losing stride in your portfolio for the short-term

 

Friday’s RegMed Investors’ (RMi) pre-open: Anticipation versus expectation … Breaking jobs data moves futures … https://www.regmedinvestors.com/articles/14093

RegMed Investors (RMi) Research Note: Harvard Apparatus GT (OTCQB): Just another wrinkle – Q2/25’s 10-Q – liabilities exceed cash position … https://www.regmedinvestors.com/articles/13812

 

Friday: The Dow closed DOWN -220.43 points or -0.48%, the S&P closed DOWN -20.58 points or -0.32% while the Nasdaq closed DOWN -7.306 points or -0.03%

  • Theme of the session, to worries about a slowing economy following weaker-than-expected August jobs figures.

Henry’omics: We need to more than consider the economic environment to comprehend the micro re “our” universe of cell and gene therapy

  • The August jobs report saw the U.S. economy add 22,000 jobs on the month. That’s below the 75,000 that economists had expected. The unemployment rate also rose to 4.3%, in line with expectations.

Friday’s my covered sector’s advance/decline line opened positive with 33 incliners, 4 decliners and 2 flats ending with a positive close of 35 incliners, 5 decliners and 0 flat

Metrics:  Friday, the IBB was up +2.77%, the XBI was up +2% while the VIX was down -0.11 points or -0.72% at 15.19

 

Q3 – 1 holiday, 1 negative and 3 positive closes

  • August – 12 negative and 9 positive closes
  • July – 1 market holiday, 13 positive and 9 negative closes

 

Friday Closing UP (10 of 35) after Monday’s holiday   

  • BioNTech SE (BNTX +$8.96 after Thursday’s +$3.08 after Wednesday’s -$0.20 and Tuesday’s +$0.62),
  • IQV Holdings (IQV +$3.68 after Thursday’s -$0.45, Wednesday’s +$0.90 and Tuesday’s - $3.07),
  • Beam Therapeutics (BEAM +$2.34 after Thursday’s -$0.22, Wednesday’s +$2.34 and Tuesday’s -$0.05),
  • CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP +$2.12),
  • Lenz Therapeutics (LENZ +$2.06 after Thursday’s +$0.65),
  • Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS +$1.88 after Thursday’s -$1.14, Wednesday’s +$3.00 and Tuesday’s +$14.86),
  • Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (ARWR +$1.08 after Thursday’s +$0.20 after Wednesday’s +$2.12 and Tuesday’s +$3.65),
  • Mesoblast (MESO +$0.87 after Thursday’s +$0.64 and Wednesday’s -$0.24),
  • Moderna (MRNA +$0.86 after Thursday’s +$0.23 and Wednesday’s -$0.14),
  • Capricor (CAPR +$0.80),

Flat (0)

Friday’s Closing DOWN (5 of 5): after Monday’s holiday   

  • Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY -$1.54 after Thursday’s +$6.11 after Wednesday’s +$0.43 after Tuesday’s +$0.49),
  • Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX -$0.81 after Thursday’s +$0.31 after Wednesday’s -$4.38 and Tuesday’s +$9.98),
  • Precigen (PGEN -$0.20)
  • Harvard Apparatus RT (OTCQB: HRGN -$0.08)
  • Solid Biosciences (SLDB -$0.06)

 

 

The BOTTOM LINE:  More of the … WHYs …

Cell and gene therapy sector equities closed positive on Friday after a negative close on Thursday after Wednesday’s positive and Tuesday’s positive close … fiancings and catalysts drive forward pricing motion

... BUT, but be ready for "uncle algo and his electronic trading dwarfs" to come over for a short visit next week as the "frig" is full!

 

The US economy added just 22,000 jobs in August after a weaker-than-expected August jobs report with the unemployment rate rising to 4.3%, compared with 4.2% the previous month.

  • Revisions to data from July and June in Friday's report suggest that over the last 3 months, the US economy has created fewer than 30,000 new jobs. The revisions also showed a negative print in June, the first labor market shrinkage since 2020.

The Dow, S&P and the Nasdaq remained in negative territory to close trading on Friday.

  • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called for a review of the Fed's functions
  • In an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, Bessent wrote that "'extraordinary' monetary-policy tools unleashed after the 2008 financial crisis have transformed the Federal Reserve's policy regime, with unpredictable consequences."

After an early 1% outperformance, small caps on the Russell 2000 pared gains. That index was up 0.1% in recent action

 

Finally, someone joins me in being a heretic, “Goldman's top stock picker warns AI's next phase may not justify the hype around its stocks. AI may be dominating the stock market, but its future growth is far from guaranteed. "This trade is very nonlinear and volatile in nature," Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan said on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid.” < Yahoo Finance's Francisco Velasquez>

 

Take heed, worth mentioning ... upside initiative:  B. Riley (brockage) reiterates a Buy rating on Wave Life Sciences (WVE) with a $19 price target after the company announced RestorAATion-2 data. The data were positive and demonstrated first-ever therapeutic restoration of acute phase response in homozygous for the Z mutation alpha-1antitrypsin deficiency patients, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Riley believes the disclosure de-risks both WVE-006 and Wave Life’s next RNA-editing candidate. It thinks RNA editing may be a safer alternative to gene editing, and sees a “material disconnect” between Wave Life’s current valuation and its multi-asset probability-weighted commercial opportunity. The firm remains an “aggressive” buyer of the stock. <TipRanks>

 

Welcome to my world of defining the “grey’ in our universe!

  • Right up front, “I also hate to be so negative or contrarian but, this is a NO spin zone and facts are its product; I can always be WRONG but … I am mostly EARLY!”
  • Yet, I was again on target … this 5 a.m.

The S&P 500 closed at a record on Thursday after the latest wave of labor market data cemented bets on a September rate cut with a major August nonfarm payrolls report on tap. <Barron’s>

  • The Nasdaq advanced 1%; while small caps on the Russell 2000 also powered up 1%.
  • Volume was modestly lower on the Nasdaq compared with Wednesday.
  • While the 10-year Treasury yield dropped to 4.19%.
  • The yield on the 2-year Treasury note dropped to 3.59%. The 10-year yield dropped to 4.18%. <IBD>

August nonfarm payrolls report will be the more important datapoint.

  • “In the short term, markets may embrace that data because it should increase the odds of Fed rate cuts. But if the numbers deteriorate too much, it could raise concerns about the health of the economy.” < Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley>

 

September: understand the “flow” …

  • 9/5 - Friday closed positive with 35 positive, 5 negative and 0 flat
  • 9/4 – Thursday closed negative with 17 positive, 21 negative and 2flats of 40 covered
  • 9/3 - Wednesday closed positive with 22 positive, 16 negative and 2 flats
  • 9/2 -Tuesday closed positive with 22 positive, 18 negative and 0 flat
  • 9/1 -Monday was a holiday

August’s final week:

  • 8/29 – Friday closed negative with 7 positive, 27 negative and 1 flat of 35 covered
  • 8/28 – Thursday closed negative with 15 positive, 17 negative and 3 flats
  • 8/27 – Wednesday closed negative with 16 positive, 17 negative and 2 flats
  • 8/26 – Tuesday closed positive with 25 positive, 9 negative and 1 flat
  • 8/25 – Monday closed negative with 4 positive, 29 negative and 2 flats

 

“I hate to be so negative or contrarian but, this is a NO spin zone and truth is its product; I can always be WRONG but, I am mostly EARLY!”

  • If I have learned one thing as a former research analyst in a venture and public fund, operating executive, x-FBI, x-military officer and an adjunct (MBA) business school professor now a journalist; my life and your portfolio are largely tied to knowledge of price movements and questioning pricing targets and more.
  • I was once told by a “very” prominent figure early in my career, “write it right, keep it tight without hype and never lose the stride to guide the reader” – they were pretty simple instructions to follow!

 

Why do I keep repeating, so investors can make the connection …

The top three (3) performing in the session:   

  • Friday: BioNTech (BNTX), IQVIA Holdings (IQV) and Beam Therapeutics (BEAM)
  • Thursday: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), BioNTech (BNTX) and BioLife Solutions (BLFS)
  • Wednesday: Ionis Pharmaceuticals IONS), Beam Therapeutics (BEAM) and Arrow Pharmaceuticals (ARWR)
  • Tuesday: Ionis Pharmaceuticals IONS), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) and Arrow Pharmaceuticals (ARWR)
  • Monday was a holiday
  • Last Friday: IQVIA Holdings (IQV), Lenz Therapeutics (LENZ) and Vericel (VCEL)

The worst three (3) in the session: 

  • Friday: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) and Precigen (PGEN)
  • Thursday: Ionis Pharmaceuticals IONS), IQVIA Holdings (IQV) and Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT)
  • Wednesday: Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), wave Life Sciences (WVE) and Vericel (VCEL)
  • Tuesday: IQVIA Holdings (IQV), Vericel (VCEL) and Mesoblast (MESO)
  • Monday was a holiday
  • Last Friday: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), Mesoblast (MESO) and BioNTech (BNTX)

 

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. Regulation Analyst Certification (Reg AC): The research analyst primarily responsible for the content of this report certifies the following under Reg AC: I hereby certify that all views expressed in this report accurately reflect my personal views about the subject company or companies and it’s or their securities.

I also certify that no part of my compensation was, is or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this report.