March 6, 2025 7:52am

For upside motion to the cell and gene therapy sector’s share pricing before “uncle algo and his electronic trading dwarfs” strip the positive flip

Unfortunately, econs drill-downs have an eye on weekly jobless claims due today

Pre-open Indications: 6 Negative and 2 Positive Indications

No false narratives or fake news; to read insights and analysis on the latest sector action, check out Pre-Open Brief …

Never leave an investor uninform


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 or could happen to make “it” happen today!

 

Wednesday’s night’s … RegMed Investors (RMi) Closing Bell: spinning a continuous upside … https://www.regmedinvestors.com/articles/13827

 

Thursday: The pre-open Dow futures are DOWN -0.93% or (-400 points), the S&P futures are DOWN -1.15% or (-67 points) and the Nasdaq futures are DOWN -1.43% or (-295 points)

  • Stock futures were under pressure Thursday,
  • European stock markets were lower,
  • Asia-Pacific markets were mostly higher.

 

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 UP +485.36 points or +1.14%, the S&P closed UP +64.48 points or +1.12% while the Nasdaq closed UP +267.57 points or +1.46%

The major averages have struggled this week as trade tensions increase, losing more than 1% each week to date.

On top of that, surveys of businesses this week including the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book and the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing reading indicated fear of rising input costs because of the tariffs, along with general rising uncertainty over Trump policies. <CNBC>

Economic Data Docket: weekly jobless claims

  • U.S. employers announced 172,017 layoffs for February, up 245% from January and the highest monthly count since July 2020, Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported.
  • January’s planned reductions brought the total through the first two months of the year to 221,812, also the highest for the period since 2009 and up 33% from the same time in 2024.
  • On the upside, firms announced plans in February to hire a total of 34,580 new workers, putting the year to date total up 159% from a year ago. <CNBC>

 

Q1/25:  March sessions with 1 positive and 2 negative closes

  • February – 1 holiday, 11 negative and 8 positive closes
  • January – 2 holidays, 1 market close, 10 negative and 10 positive closes

Q4/24:

  • December 1 holiday, 15 negative and 5 positive closes
  • November 10 negative and 9 positive closes
  • October: 8 positive and 15 negative closes

 

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

I post about “indication intelligence” looking toward investment conferences … 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.

Pre-Open indications: a chutes and ladder’s approach …

Negative:

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY +$6.30 after Tuesday’s -$0.60 after Monday’s -$3.22 with a negative -$0.24 or -0.10%

AxoGen (AXGN) closed down -$0.41 with a negative -0.90 or -4.94%

BioLife Solutions (BLFS +$1.41 after Tuesday’s +$0.33 after Monday’s +$0.51 after earnings release with a negative -$0.12 or -0.46%

Blueprint Medicine (BPMC +$0.54 after Tuesday’s -$0.38 after Monday’s -$6.82 with a negative -$1.72 or -1.91%

CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP) closed up +$0.39 after Tuesday’s +$1.16 after Monday’s -$1.63 last after Friday’s -$0.30 with a negative -$0.78 or -1.78%

Editas Medicine (EDIT) closed up =$0.29 with a negative -$0.14 or -6.83%

 

Positive:

Ionis Pharmaceuticals (IONS) closed up +$0.80 after Tuesday’s +$0.35, Monday’s -0.59 after last Friday’s +$1.84 with a positive +$0.27 or +0.80%

Vericel (VCEL) closed up +$0.39 with a positive +$0.46 or +0.89%

 

The BOTTOM LINE: the new month, March …

Econ releases sustains uncertainties creating sector and market volatility as traders attempted to trade the risk.

  • 1 Positive and 2 Negative closes

 

Reiterating, “I think it's important just to take a step back, focus on the fundamentals, be selective. I mean, this has definitely been a “sucky” January and February from a stock-picker standpoint given the up/downs. And so, I am relatively neutral across today/Friday’s equity strategy.

  • Reiterating, “Take the emotion out of the sector, think of the reality of the “plays” that exist of who’s really buying.”

It’s earnings season “sparking” a quarterly life crisis…

  • Cell and Gene therapy earnings continue to be important; LPS (loss per share), revenue uplifts and lags, clinical progress with some program uncertainty, a dearth all followed by estimate misses
  • The coming batch of quarterly earnings will provide last years, FY2024’s LPS (loss-per-share), some EPS, consensus meets and non-greets, cash positions, runways and partner status for investors

 

Think about it; one of the biggest problems with the cell and gene therapy sector’s share pricing is …  99% of them have no earnings! If rates are higher for longer, that means that sector companies will continue to struggle or be unable to raise capital and therefore be subject.

 

I think speculative behavior in this current market has ascended to a level beyond common sense

  • Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity; sector companies will seek opportunities to sell to better financed companies that can "deal with these additional costs associated of R&D and escalating SG&A.”
  • NOT much has changed, as I have written, “uncle algo and his trading dwarfs” determine the heights or lows of share pricing”

Prepare for earnings and more market volatility related to inflation oriented econs …

  • Earnings are STILL a-comin’ … from Q4/24 and FY24 are due …

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

  • 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.