June 6, 2016 6:55am

There is a gap of who is listening and what they are hearing. What is “fair and balanced”; the threat to “our” universe is the “flash” of resulting perception.

 

Where do investors turn for insight and perspective - I say intelligently what others won't, so you can do what others can't!

 

Investing actions: ADRO, AGTC, BSTG, JUNO, KITE, KOOL and STML

 

 

I offer a handful of pertinent facts defining the who, when, where, which and what of it!

 

Where is today’s market going? 

Indexes and ETFs: the IBB, XLV are UP and the XBI and IWM are DOWN

Dow futures are UP +0.16% and NASDAQ futures are UP +0.17%

 

Stock futures edged higher Monday, as investors were mostly on the sidelines ahead of a speech from Fed chief Janet Yellen, who could offer clues on interest-rate hikes after last week’s disappointing jobs report.

European stocks turned higher following a cautious lead from Asia and a shaky start to the trading session.

Asian markets closed mixed, with Japan shares losing ground, as a disappointing May jobs report in the U.S. on Friday weakened the dollar and bolstered regional currencies, including the yen.

Data docket: There is no big economic data expected … today.

 

 

The stem, cell and gene therapy regenerative medicine (SCGT&RM) sector closed NEGATIVE on Friday, POSITIVE on Thursday and Wednesday and NEGATIVE on Tuesday as last Monday was a holiday.

 

The stem, cell and gene therapy regenerative medicine sector’s record after the last 5 days (of 43 covered companies):

  • Friday closed NEGATIVE with 16 decliners, 26 advancers and 1 flat;
  • Thursday closed POSITIVE with 16 decliners, 24 advancers and 3 flats;
  • Wednesday closed POSITIVE with 16 decliners, 26 advancers and 1 flat;
  • Tuesday closed NEGATIVE, 20 decliners, 18 advancers and 5 flats;
  • Last, Monday was Memorial day;

 

 

Remembering Friday’s post, “… It’s tough to get optimistic; expectations for the summer are weak as interest wains. Reiterating, I say this because of valuation concerns in regard to market comparables … because of low cash positions in many small cap companies. The sector is cheap yet, investors have a limited interest in buying the dip, but they do have a greater impetus in selling into strength.”

  • Shorting and selling on strength is preferred and some believe if traders and speculators can run this a little more, strength will be stronger to sell into!”

The SCGT&RM sector feeds off of the market. If momentum is aligned with sentiment – which it hasn’t, I see more sideways movement  ahead, which does exclude either good or bad event orientation.

  • The historical precedence, strength is being sold into because there is a “gap” between the interests of the company and investor.

Judging by the reaction of “our” universe in the month of May, too many press releases sound “overproduced” and are much about the same! It’s hard to justify “stories” that lack an investing purpose and that also fail to attract wider investor interest.

  • Much of the news investors get each day is created to serve just that purpose!

Conclusions based on “traditional” press releases are beginning to be thought of as irrelevant to a “Bottom Line” characterization; the new internet media “circuit” is and has established a greater relationship to investors, traders and speculators. The issue is that most investors “graze” press releases looking for a justification that define the lack of a purpose statement.

  • However, as someone who dives down deep, for eight to 10 hours into the market on a daily basis, I have witnessed a lot of seesaw actions that prognosticate - a downside.

Lord, I hate being the spoilsport in the crowd!

 

 

You’ve made it to the office, turned on the monitor, having just gotten your coffee and it hits you - what could be today’s trades?  Watch list:

  • The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology (IBB) closed Friday down -1.58% and is UP +0.26% in Monday’s pre-market;

 

  • The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) closed Friday down -2.91%  and is DOWN  -0.07% in Monday’s  pre-market;

 

  • NASDAQ Biotechnology (NBI) closed down Friday -0.01%;

 

  • The Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) closed up Friday -0.33% and is UP +0.17% in Monday’s pre-market;

 

  • The iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) closed Friday down -0.60% and is DOWN -0.15% in Monday’s pre-market.

 

 

This is the end of ASCO Annual Meeting, one of the largest scientific events in the oncology community is closing on Tuesday. The five-day event provides a venue for physicians and scientists to present research results to a global audience of oncology professionals. Clinical trial results and updates presented at ASCO's Annual Meeting represent the extent of progress made each year in the fight against cancer.

  • Drips and drabs of results have appeared as presentation and significant abstracts have been filed June 3 -7, 2016

 

 

Companies in my spotlight:

Aduro Biotech (ADRO) closed DOWN -$0.54 to $11.73. ADRO announced <Saturday> the presentation of updated data from an ongoing P1b clinical trial of its immunotherapy product candidate CRS-207 in combination with pemetrexed and cisplatin (standard of care chemotherapy) as front-line treatment for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). The results from the first of two cohorts were presented today in a poster presentation at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting (ASCO) held in Chicago. Of the 36 evaluable patients, disease control was observed in 94% (34/36), including 3% (1/36) with a complete response, 56% (20/36) with partial responses and 36% (13/36) experiencing stable disease following treatment with CRS-207 and chemotherapy. Prior to receiving chemotherapy, 31% (11/36) of patients experienced some tumor shrinkage (range: -1% to -43%) after receiving CRS-207 alone. The estimated median overall survival was 16.4 months (95% CI: 11.0 – 20.6 months). CRS-207 was generally well-tolerated with no treatment-related serious adverse events or cumulative toxicities when administered with chemotherapy – BUY;

Applied Genetic Technologies (AGTC) closed DOWN -$0.43 to $16.95 after Thursday’s UP of +$0.75. May was a good month as the lows of $13.71 were out weighted by the highs of $17.20. The only issue is that the see-saw has two players and heavier speculators keep pulling their side down. Painfully, as I “like” the company, I Maintaining SELL;

Biostage (BSTG) closed DOWN another -$0.01 after Thursday’s -$0.01 to $1.34. It hasn’t been such as good ride post the unit offering of $1.76. The question is how long until some life springs back into the stock’s appreciation?  There is value to be realized in the “platform” however, BSTG should be finding its bottom around $1.30– HOLD;

Cesca Therapeutics (KOOL) closed DOWN another -$0.04 after Thursday’s -$0.09 following Wednesday’s +$0.25. One patient trial in India and then filing for an IDE – who is kidding whom? If the FDA approves, we should consider their sanity – Maintaining SELL;

Juno Therapeutics (JUNO) closed DOWN -$1.10 to $43.90. JUNO announced <Saturday> that its investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell product candidates are demonstrating encouraging clinical outcomes for adults and children with B-cell malignancies. JUNO is moving rapidly to start potential registration trials for JCAR017 across a range of B cell malignancies, including ALL, NHL, and CLL. JUNO's CAR and TCR technologies genetically engineer T cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. Juno's CAR T cell technology inserts a gene for a particular CAR into the T cell, enabling it to recognize cancer cells based on the expression of a specific protein located on the cell surface. Juno's TCR technology provides the T cells with a specific T cell receptor to recognize protein fragments derived from either the surface or inside of the cell. When either type of engineered T cell engages the target protein on the cancer cell, it initiates a cell-killing response against the cancer cell – BUY;

Kite (PHARMA) closed DOWN -$2.79 to $52.08. The share pricing history of May exhibited a range of a low of $42.07 and a high of $54.87 while April’s range floated $46.15 to $53.72.  However, KITE could receive initial regulatory approvals next year for a type of immunotherapy treatment known as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapies. KITE aims to file this year for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of its therapy, KTE-C19, for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) - BUY;

Stemline (STML) closed DOWN -$0.24 to $8.93. STML presented positive clinical data from its ongoing SL-401 P2 potentially pivotal clinical trial in blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN). The data presented at ASCO cover 24 BPDCN patients treated with SL-401 (19 evaluable for response, 4 recently treated/efficacy assessment pending, and 1 non-evaluable patient). Results demonstrate that SL-401 produced an 89% (17/19) overall response rate (ORR) in BPDCN, with a 100% (12/12) ORR in first-line patients and a 71% (5/7) ORR in relapsed/refractory patients, including one compassionate use patient In 12 evaluable first-line patients (all doses), there were 9 complete responses (CR) and 2 clinical complete responses (CRc) - BUY.

 

 

Opinions expressed are those of the author and are subject to change, and are 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.

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