August 8, 2024 8:12am

The cell and gene therapy sector’s share pricing reflects acrobatics

Economic data: Weekly jobless claims fall to 233,000, less than expected, in a positive sign for labor market

The drumbeat of earnings reports: Agenus (AGEN), AxoGen (AXGN), BioLife Solutions (BLFS), Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) and Verve Therapeutics (VERV)

Financing: Precigen (PGEN closed -$0.17 to $1.18, pre-open -$0.22 to $0.95) priced an offering of 35,294,118 shares at $0.85 per share. Stifel is acting as the sole book-running manager for the offering.

A daily analytic read-out from RMi is constructed of signals thought-provoking share pricing situations.

Never leave an investor uninformed

Remember that overnight and pre-open actions’ futures and markets doesn’t necessarily translate into actual trading in today’s market session.

My interpretation of the morning’s numbers is written to be informative; it’s built on what happened or will happen behind the headline today!

 

Thursday: The pre-open Dow futures are DOWN -0.14% or (-53 points), the S&P futures are UP +0.08% or (+4 points) as the Nasdaq futures are UP +0.10% or (+18 points)

  • U.S. futures fell Thursday,
  • European markets pull back, struggling to keep hold of positive momentum,
  • Asia Pacific markets were mostly down.

 

Henry’omics:

We need to more than consider the economic environment to comprehend the micro re “our” universe of cell and gene therapy companies …

Wednesday: The Dow closed DOWN -234.21 points or -0.60%, the S&P closed DOWN -40.53 points or -0.77% while the Nasdaq closed DOWN -171.05 points or -1.05%

  • Wednesday’s advance/decline line ended with a negative close of 2 incliner, 31 decliners and 2 flats

Economic Data Docket: Initial jobless claims, week ending Aug. 3 (249,000 previously); Continuing claims, week ending July 27 (1.87 million previously); Wholesale inventories month-over-month, June final (+0.2% expected, +0.2% previously)

 

From the title, Precigen (PGEN):

  • PGEN has also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 5,294,117 shares of its common stock. Gross proceeds from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, are expected to be approximately $30.0 million, excluding any exercise of the underwriters' option. The offering is expected to close on August 9, 2024, subject to customary closing conditions.

 

Wednesday’s RegMed Investors (RMi) Closing bell: “As I anticipated, NO follow through session. Earnings season takes its toll. As Nasdaq gives back most of its gains.” … https://www.regmedinvestors.com/articles/13573  

 

Q3/24:

  • August – 1 positive and 4 negative closes
  • July: 1 market holiday. 1 day off, 6 negative, 1 neutral and 12 positive closes

Q2/24: 

  • June – 1 market holiday, 7 positive and 1 negative closes
  • May – 1 holiday, 11 positive and 11 negative closes
  • April - 16 negative and 6 positive closes

 

Companies in my headlights – It’s your decision; I provide ideas and context:

I post about “indication intelligence” devoting my time to collection and analysis of information to assist investors with insight into sector vulnerabilities and strengths. A dictionary definition of “indicate” refers to something less than a certainty; an indication could be a signal of being oversold or overbought, a recommendation, or grounds for inferring or a basis for believing.

I am passing on forecasting the daily indications as expectations are in focus as the aftermarket fluctuated while the pre-open waited for the jobs data …  it is still a mix of ups, downs and just unknowns.

 

The BOTTOM LINE: Thursday’s moves in futures comes after stocks were unable to hold an early rally on Wednesday, fueling concerns that the factors that caused Monday’s sell-off haven’t gone away.

  • The recent jolt of volatility into the market could be a preview of the rest of the year, said Joseph Ferrara, investment strategist at Gateway Investment Advisers. Ferrara told CNBC on Wednesday that economic concerns, geopolitical conflict and the looming November elections could keep investors on edge in the coming months. 

 

Yesterday, Wednesday was a great example of why investors shouldn't rush back into a market at the first uptick. Tuesday kicked off a stock market rally attempt, albeit with a final-hour fade.

  • On Wednesday a strong open quickly turned into losses for the key indexes and stocks.
  • Wednesday marked Day Two of a stock market rally attempt.
  • The rally is intact until the major indexes undercut their Monday lows, but Wednesday's downside reversal was not encouraging.
  • The Dow and Russell 2000 again hit resistance at the 50-day line. So did the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP), which finished down 0.7%. <IBD>

 

For the balance of the month, investors will focus most on share pricing bounce-back share pricing in and earnings EPS and meeting expectations!

  • It’s tough to scale-back or even add sector holdings during earnings’ season, however buy points are a signal for exposure rendition.

 

Due “dates” for Q2 LPS (loss per-share) boding releases:

  • Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics (BCLI), Wednesday, 8/14

 

Watch the “numbers, charts and indicators” measure the daily, weekly, and monthly charts to filter out or lessen the noise of back-and-forth share pricing from the sector rotation.

  • The short-term moving averages help you identify the momentum of the trend — that is, overbought or oversold

 

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!”
  • The sector is what it is, until it isn’t and even then, it doesn’t seem to be… as NOT much changes as the sector’s share pricing rides the waves of volatility, algorithms, electronic trading and short covering.
  • I am more frequently right than consequentially wrong; if I wanted to be liked, I wouldn’t have been an analyst/journalist.

 

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. All investments are subject to risks. Investors should consider investment objectives.

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.  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.

Henry McCusker, the editor and publisher of RegMed Investors could hold or have positions securities referred to in this publication and he will NOTIFY investors of holdings.