September 26, 2016 5:41pm

… Upon today’s pre-ordained negative close and some light on tomorrow’s open

Should I BUY or SELL sector equities – neither, rent them, watch the ETFs and ETNs

 

Pre-open indication’s tally:  2 hits < VCEL and VTGN > and 1 miss <AGTC>

Out and about: BTX and CAPR

 

I answer one question; in which company should investors put, keep and commit their money!

 

Do you care what happened today, you should because it has implications to Tuesday's sector activity?  

Subscribe or lose!

 

I say what others won't, so you can do what others can't!

 

 

There are two things that investors need - interpretation of news and translation of market metrics concerning the stem, cell, gene and regenerative therapy sector to substantiate share pricing.

 

 

U.S. equities closed sharply lower on Monday, with financials and health care lagging, as market watchers kept a close eye on a key OPEC meeting and looked ahead to a U.S. presidential debate.

The NASDAQ closed DOWN -48.26 or -0.91% to 5,305.75 and the DOW closed DOWN -166.62 or -0.91% to 18,094.83.

 

 

A day in the life of the stem, cell, gene and regenerative therapy (SCGT & RT) sector – the advance/decline line scenario of our 43 covered companies:   

  • The open was negative with an A/DL of 12/28 and 3 flats;
  • The mid-day stayed negative with an A/DL of 10/30 and 3 flat;
  • The closing bell  continued negative with A/DL of 9/33 and 1 flats;

 

 

Henry’omics:

The stem, cell, gene and regenerative therapy (SCGT&RT) sector was negative at the opening bell, stayed negative at the mid-day with the sector closing negative.

I keep telling investors in the a.m. to check the indexes:  

  • The iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) indicated a negative open of -0.75% and was DOWN -0.99% at the close while the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology (IBB) was indicated a negative open at -0.90% this a.m. and closed DOWN -1.22% at the close.

Remember, nobody has ever gone broke by taking profits, that's why, I say traders are sure to be “lightening the load” as Q3 ends … as development company losses are expected.

  • Everyone has the presidential debate on their mind …

Irrespective of who wins the first debate, it is important to remember there are two more debates ahead.

  • But, the first one (debate) will set the tone … if we even watch the others …

The economy should be the focus!

  • The polls can swing quickly.
  • Trades are always high-risk while short-term trades are suitable only for aggressive, experienced investors.

I don’t see long-term investment themes; however, if Clinton enhances her position in the debates - pharmaceuticals and biotechs may be hit hard. Watch:

  • PowerShares Exchange-Traded Fund Trust Dynamic Pharmaceuticals Portfolio PJP, -2.00% 
  • iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers ETF IHF, -0.97% 
  • SPDR S&P Pharmaceuticals ETF XPH, -2.62% 
  • iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF XBI, +0.21%  
  • SPDR S&P Biotech ETF XBI, +0.21% 
  • VanEck Vectors Biotech ETF BBH, -1.31% 
  • Those who cannot short can consider ProShares UltraShort Nasdaq Biotechnology BIS, +2.41% 

Those with the stomach for risk and lots of trading experience may consider triple leveraged ETFs Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X Shares LABU, +0.59%   and Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bear 3X Shares LABD, -0.80%   for very, very short-term trades.

  • Those who want to take advantage of volatility with very, very short-term trades may consider volatility ETFs Barclays Bank PLC iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN VXX, -0.62%   and VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short Term ETN XIV, +0.83% <The Arora Report>

We will still NEED more clarity on WHERE the candidates stand …

 

Call me cantankerous, contrarian or even a curmudgeon but at the least I get it right and investors make money!

 

 

Pre-open indication’s tally:  2 hit and 1 miss:

  • Applied Genetic Technologies (AGTC) closed UP +$0.05 – miss;
  • Vericel (VCEL) closed DOWN -$0.15 – hit;
  • VistaGen (VTGN) closed UP +$0.01 – hit;

 

 

Today’s Bottom Line:

The sector has been affected by politicians and the now it’s all about the elections

 

 

Out and about:

BioTime (NYSEMKT: BTX) closed UP +$0.17 to $3.97 …

  • BTX was one of today’s movers, as the company saw its shares rise +3.6%. The move came on modicum volume – 387.3 K shares traded <3 month average = 301.6 K shares>.
  • In the past three-month time frame; BTX traded in September $2.80 to $3.92, August $2.90 to $3.32 followed by July’s $2.70 to $3.15.

T me, there is NO real trend here … yet …

  • Ladenburg Thalmann & Co analyst Kevin Degeeter gave a new recommendation on BioTime of buy and assigned a target price of$6 earlier today. The analyst consensus target for the company is $7 and their consensus is strong buy.
  • The shares climbed to $3.89 from $3.59 in the previous session. Trading volume was quadruple the average for this time of day. BioTime's move compares with little change in the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index, which was down less than 0.1%, and the 0.3% loss in the S&P 500 Index.
  • In addition to the rising stock price, analysts have NARROWED their consensus loss estimate for the third quarter to $0.14 per share from a loss of $0.16 even though they cut their sales estimate to $987 K from $1.23 M in the past four weeks.

The stock is STILL -35% below consensus one- year target price. It returned 2.7%percent so far this year and a gain of 16% in the past 52 weeks.

  • A key ingredient - short interest was 37 times the company's average daily trading and represented 6.9% of the shares available as of the latest quarterly filing.

 

 

Capricor (CAPR) closed DOWN -$0.21 to $3.30 after…

  • Was awarded a grant in the amount of approximately $2.4 M to be used toward establishing a scalable, commercially-ready process to manufacture CAP-2003 (Cardiosphere-Derived Cell Exosomes).
  • Capricor has identified ocular graft-versus-host disease (oGVHD) as the first clinical development opportunity for CAP-2003, and expects to submit an IND for this indication in the first half of 2017.

YET, CAPR was slammed again in the market …

 

 

Review my fear gauge or the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX):

  • Monday traded near 14.3 -16.5% higher;
  • Friday traded near 12.2 – I still don’t see it in our universe;
  • Thursday traded 11.3, -16.46% lower – I don’t see it in the SCG&RT sector;
  • Wednesday traded near 13.9, -2.6% lower;
  • Tuesday traded 15.9;
  • Monday traded near 15.3;

 

 

Decliners:

  • Aduro Biotech (ADRO) -8.94%;
  • Fibrocell (FCSC) -5.18%;
  • Capricor (CAPR) -5.98%;
  • Bellicum (BLCM) 5.93%;
  • Vericel (VCEL) 5.14%

 

Advancers:

  • Northwest Bio (NWBO) +15.55% after Friday’s -3.55% after Thursday’s -12.37% after Wednesday’s -9.87% after Tuesday’s +18.82 % after last Monday’s +23.28%;
  • BioTime (NYSEMKT: BTX) 4.47% after Friday’s +5.57% after Thursdays +3.16%
  • Biostage (BSTG) +4.76%;
  • Spark Therapeutics (ONCE) +1.20%;
  • Stemline (STML) +1.13%;
  • Kite Pharma (KITE) +0.75%;
  • Regenxbio (RGNX) +0.21% after Friday’s -3.31%

 

Flat:                                                            

  • ReNeuron (RENE.L) at $2.625;

                                                                                                                               

 

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.