Author: Dorian Holden

Spot the right biotech at the right time, and fortunes can be made.

Look at Greenwich Lifesciences (GLSI) for example.  Between Dec. 8 and today, the stock exploded from $5.20 to $86.29.  All after a mid-stage study showed that 100% of patients were still alive at a median of five years after receiving the company’s drug, GP2.  

“Five years is considered the gold standard in follow-up time period for recurrence in breast cancer patients,” according to Investor’s Business Daily. The biotech company administered GP2 after patients underwent surgery and then received Roche’s breast cancer treatment, Herceptin. Greenwich is now preparing to begin a Phase 3 study in 2021.”

Or look at Fate Therapeutics (FATE).

The stock just ran from $60.80 to $95 after posting positive interim data from its Phase 1 study of FT516 in combination with rituximab for patients with relapsed / refractory B-cell lymphoma.

“We are highly encouraged by these Phase 1 data, which clearly demonstrate that off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived NK cells can drive complete responses for cancer patients and that our proprietary hnCD16 Fc receptor can effectively synergize with and enhance the mechanism of action of tumor-targeted antibodies,” said Scott Wolchko, President and CEO of Fate Therapeutics.

“Importantly, the safety profile of FT516 continues to suggest multiple doses of iPSC-derived NK cells can be administered in the outpatient setting, and supports potential use across multiple lines of therapy, including as part of early-line CD20-targeted monoclonal antibody regimens, for the treatment of B-cell lymphoma.”

Longer-term, there’s plenty of opportunity, too.  

In fact, by 2025, the sector could explode to a value of $727.1 billion, says Grand View Research thanks to sizable near-term catalysts.

For one, the sector is still one of the safest, most recession-proof investment around.   After all, we can’t stop folks from aging, or from needing treatments for a large range of medical issues.

Two, an aging population is demanding more treatments in an effort to live longer lives.  At the moment, there are 65 million people over the age of 70 in the United States. As this number continues to grow, we’ll see a need for more medication and treatment options. 

There’s also incredible new innovation in genetics and technology, creating new life-saving and life enhancing opportunities.  And three, big pharmaceutical companies are buying hot biotech companies to keep their pipelines full to avoid revenue shortfalls created by patent expirations. 

The post Top Biotech Stocks That Could See More Upside appeared first on Morningology.

The pandemic is out of control.  

The world is up to 67 million cases, with 1.53 million unfortunate deaths.  In the U.S., the case count is now up to 14.7 million.  India is nearly 9.7 million.  

“The vaccine is critical, but it’s not going to save us from this current surge. Only we can save us from this current surge. And we know precisely what to do,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House CV-19 response coordinator said, as quoted by The New York Post., adding the “fall/winter surge is combining everything that we saw in this spring with everything that we saw in the summer, plus the fall surge going into a winter surge.” 

Cities are closing down to cool the spread.  Hospitals are being overwhelmed.  In fact, some nurses say the virus is pushing hospitals to the brink of rationing care.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its strongest call for masks, urging Americans to wear masks indoors when not at home. 

But we may be closer to seeing a vaccine, and emergency use authorization this week and next – which could help create a big upside opportunity for these three top vaccine stocks.

For one,  Moderna (MRNA) expects an emergency use nod for its vaccine shortly after its Dec. 17 meeting with the US FDA.

Two, Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) could run higher this week.    

All after the US FDA said its vaccine is safe and effective after one dose.  

“The information was made public before a meeting Thursday of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee — an advisory group to the FDA that will vote on whether to advise the agency to grant emergency use authorization of the vaccine in the U.S.,” as reported by NBC News.

The post The Top 3 Vaccine Stocks to Consider Immediately appeared first on Morningology.

The House of Representatives just passed a bill that could delist Chinese companies, like Alibaba Group and JD.com from U.S. exchanges.

That is, unless U.S. regulators are allowed to inspect their financial records within three years.  

Unfortunately, at the moment, a good deal of major Chinese companies do not comply with U.S. regulatory standards, including Baidu, China Mobile, PetroChina and the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, according to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, as noted by The New York Times.

With the vote, the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act will now go to President Trump, who is expected to sign the bill into law.  The U.S. Senate already passed it this summer.  In addition, the U.S. SEC has been working on a plan that could put the responsibility on U.S. exchanges to require audit compliance.

However, investors shouldn’t be alarmed by the news immediate-term.

For one, “It is the expectation amongst lawmakers and trade policy watchers that the move will not be considered problematically escalatory and is not likely to trigger a robust or problematic response from China in retaliation for passage of this bill,” said Henrietta Treyz, director of economic policy at Veda Partners, as quoted by MarketWatch.  “The expectation there is that President Xi will abstain from making any further moves where the U.S. is concerned (or at least material moves) until President-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office.”

And two, as noted by The New York Times, “China is not that worried if the new legislation takes effect, these people said. The stock markets of Shanghai and Hong Kong are much larger and deeper than they were a generation ago, and valuations for many companies are often higher than in New York. So Chinese companies can raise money at home if the United States makes them unwelcome.”

The post The House Just Passed a China Delisting Bill appeared first on Morningology.

Lithium could be one of the biggest winners in New Year 2021.

All on the heels of an electric vehicle boom showing no signs of cooling.  

For one, according to Green Car Congress:

“The underlying demand growth for lithium compounds remains strong, with demand from rechargeable battery applications forecast to exceed 220kt LCE in 2020, representing roughly 70% of total lithium demand.  Forecast growth in Li-ion battery demand from EV applications continues to be strengthened with major markets targeting an earlier transition to EV-only sales, in order to reduce emissions from transport.”

Two, EV sales are only expected to improve from here with Joe Biden.  

As noted on his site, “There are now one million electric vehicles on the road in the United States. But a key barrier to further deployment of these greenhouse-gas reducing vehicles is the lack of charging stations and coordination across all levels of government. As President, Biden will work with our nation’s governors and mayors to support the deployment of more than 500,000 new public charging outlets by the end of 2030.”

And three, countries around the world are pushing for more EVs on the road.  

However, for all of this to happen, the world must have far more lithium supply.

That being said, some of the top lithium stocks to keep an eye on include Albemarle (ALB), Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC), American Lithium Corp. (LIACF), and ETFs such as The Global X Lithium and Battery Tech (LIT).

The post The Top Lithium Stocks to Consider for New Year 2021 appeared first on Morningology.

Cannabis stocks could see higher highs this week.

Later this week, the House will vote on ending a federal ban on medical and recreational cannabis, as announced by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.  Lawmakers are expected to vote on  The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2019.

The UN is also expected to vote on World Health Organization recommendations to legalize, as well. On top of that, there’s speculation Joe Biden could legalize it at the federal level.

After all, Biden has already said he would “decriminalize the use of cannabis and automatically expunge all prior cannabis use convictions,” as quoted by the Boston Globe.

“We believe the Biden win is an important step on the path to federal permissibility of cannabis in the US market through decriminalization and de-scheduling,” said Canopy Growth CEO David Klein, as quoted by CNN.

One of the standout winners could be Canopy Growth (CGC).

Bank of America just raised its price target on the cannabis stock from $27.06 to $32.37 and maintained a buy rating.  “They explained that potential changes to the US federal law on cannabis bode well for the overall cannabis sector, and especially for Canopy Growth as it would enable the Smiths Falls, Canada-based company to expand its activities in the U.S.” as reported by Benzinga.

Other top cannabis stocks to watch on this news include:

·      Aurora Cannabis (ACB),

·      Aphria Inc. (APHA),

·      Cronos Group (CRON),

·      ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ)

·      Sundial Growers Inc. (SNDL)

·      HEXO Corp. (HEXO)

The post MORE Act Vote: The Top 7 Cannabis Stocks to Consider Immediately appeared first on Morningology.

One of the best ways to trade the New Year has been with the Dogs of the Dow.

Well, for most years…

This year, they weren’t so hot with the pandemic.  However, if the virus begins to fade, that could change.  

Historically, the Dogs do quite well.

They returned nearly 20% in 2019. In 2018, the Dogs eked out a 1% gain, as the Dow lost 5.6% for the year, according to Forbes.

In 2017, the Dogs of the Dow returned 19% for the year. 

In 2016, the Dogs returned 16% on average. In 2015, they did okay, returning just 2.6%. In 2014, they returned 10.8%. In 2013, they returned about 35%.  In 2012, 9.9%.  In 2011, 16.3%. In 2010, 20.5%.  And in 2009, they returned nearly 17%.

Better, they all paid out dividends, too.

While 2020 still has a few weeks left, here’s how the Dogs did this year so far. 

·      Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW) – with a yield of 5.21% – ran from $50.42 to $53.86

·      Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) – with a yield of 4.97% — fell from $65 to $39.17

·      IBM (NYSE:IBM) – with a yield of 4.81% — fell slightly from $129 to $125

·      Verizon (NYSE:VZ) – with a yield of 4.11% – ran from $58.88 to $60.66

·      Chevron (NYSE:CVX) – with a of 4.02% – fell from $115 to $88.68

·      Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) – with a yield of 3.91% – ran from $35 to $40.39

·      Walgreens (NASDAQ:WBA) – with a yield of 3.09% – fell from $56 to $38.88

·      Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) – with a yield of 2.95% – fell from $47 to $43.83

·      Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) – with a yield of  2.95% — fell from $53 to $52

This performance isn’t too shocking, though.  Markets had one of their most volatile years on record.  The crash that ended in March 2020 didn’t help.  Looking forward to 2021, we could see higher highs, especially if the coronavirus dies off.

At the start of the year, investors will buy the highest yielding 10 Dow Jones stocks that fell out of favor the year prior.  Invest an equal amount in each. Sell by year end. And repeat. To this day, it’s still one of the best buy and hold strategies.  

The post Dogs of the Dow Were Sent to the Dog House in 2020 appeared first on Morningology.

With the EV boom showing no signs of slowing, all investors should own related stocks.

For one, with the Trump Administration turning the keys over to Biden, green related stocks have begun to explode.  Most notably, electric vehicle related stocks.

“There are now one million electric vehicles on the road in the United States. But a key barrier to further deployment of these greenhouse-gas reducing vehicles is the lack of charging stations and coordination across all levels of government. As President, Biden will work with our nation’s governors and mayors to support the deployment of more than 500,000 new public charging outlets by the end of 2030,” as noted on his site.

Helping quite a bit, governments around the world are pushing for EVs, too.  

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, for example, just signed an executive order that will ban the sale of gas-powered passenger cars in the state starting in 2035.  In Europe, “Automakers need to sell more electric vehicles after EU lawmakers in December 2018 ordered them to cut CO2 emissions by 40 percent between 2007 and 2021.”

With that in mind, it’s not surprising related EV stocks are exploding, including:

·      Albemarle (ALB), a lithium opportunity

·      Nio Inc. (NIO)

·      Li Auto (LI)

·      Blink Charging (BLNK)

And of course, there’s Tesla, which will soon be added to the S&P 500.

From a current price of $547.82, the stock could easily hit $1,000 a share again after it’s added to the index.  After posting its best quarterly profit to date, and with hopes of selling a half million cars this year, the stock is up again.

Even Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives is bullish on the stock, increasing his price target to $560 from $500 a share.  “With the sustained path to profitability and S&P 500 index inclusion achieved, the Tesla bull story is now all about a stepped up EV demand trajectory into 2021,” Ives said, as quoted by MarketWatch.

The post The Top Reasons to Consider EV Stocks Immediately appeared first on Morningology.

Coronavirus fears are mounting.

Cities are nearing lockdowns. Schools and businesses are shutting down.  The CDC has even urged Americans not to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday.

“The CDC’s Thanksgiving warning was some of the firmest guidance yet from the government on curtailing traditional gatherings to fight the outbreak,” reports Reuters. 

“Whether Americans heed the warning is another matter. The deadly comeback by the virus has been blamed in part on pandemic fatigue, or people getting tired of masks and other precautions. And surges were seen last summer after Memorial Day and July Fourth, despite blunt warnings from health authorities.”

At the same time, we may be nearing a vaccine.

In fact, with a treatment that’s reportedly 95% effective with no safety concerns, Pfizer and BioNTech are racing to get the treatment to market.  “Efficacy was consistent across age, race and ethnicity demographics. The observed efficacy in adults over 65 years of age was over 94%,” Pfizer and BioNTech said, as quoted by CNN.

The two companies were set to ask for emergency use authorization late last week.  

“Depending on how fast this [review] is really accomplished, we might get an authorization, or conditional approval already in 2020 which might help us start distribution of the first vaccine batches already in 2020,” said BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin.

If successful, it would be very welcomed news.

To date, the world is up to 57.03 million cases, with 1.3 million deaths.  In the U.S., we have 11.7 million cases.  India is up to nine million.  Brazil is nearly six million.  France is up to 2.13 million.  Russia is up to 2.02 million, with Spain up to 1.5 million.  

The post The World Could Have a Vaccine by Dec. 2020 appeared first on Morningology.

At the moment, we’re just inches from hitting an all-time high of 30,000 on the Dow.

And already, analysts are calling for Dow 40,000 by 2021, which is a very strong possibility.  Despite all of the chaos and a blistering fall in the early part of 2020, the index still managed to run from a March 2020 low of 18,214 to a current high of 29,818.

Now, with a potential vaccine close by, and the possibility of life returning to some sort of post-pandemic normalcy, 40,000 could happen.  

“We talk about maybe 40,000 level on the Dow there next year because of the make-up of that index which is more value, than growth,” said Patrick Spencer, the vice chair of equities at Baird, as quoted by CNBC, without giving a detailed target on when that might happen.

In addition, Baird’s Chief Economist Don Rissmiller noted that winter lockdowns, stimulus, and an eventual cure for the virus could lead to “blockbuster” economic growth by mid to late 2021.  And “Baird’s Nicholas Bohnsack and Ross Mayfield said in the note that in addition to cyclical exposure to the industrial, materials and technology sectors, they were also keeping an eye on “B.E.A.C.H” stocks — bookings, entertainment, airlines, casinos/cruise lines, and hotels. They said these industries were set to benefit from a coronavirus vaccine becoming available and the end of lockdown restrictions.”

In short, 2021 could be another explosive year of opportunity.  

Stay tuned for more.  We’ll share some of our top picks for the New Year shortly.

The post The Dow Could Hit 40,000 in New Year 2021 appeared first on Morningology.

Tesla (TSLA) is up nearly $54 this morning, pushing the NASDAQ into the green.  

All on news it’s joining the S&P 500 on Monday, Dec. 21.

“This is another major feather in the cap for Tesla bulls joining the S&P 500,” said Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, as quoted by CNBC. “It speaks to the sustained profit trajectory that Tesla is now finally getting into this elusive club after much noise on the Street.”

However, given the size of the addition, the S&P Dow Jones Indices is seeking feedback from investors to figure out if Tesla should be added all at once, or in two separate tranches.

“Due to the large size of the addition, S&P Dow Jones Indices is seeking feedback through a consultation to the investment community to determine if Tesla should be added all at once on the rebalance effective date or in two separate tranches ending on the rebalance effective date,” S&P said in a statement, as quoted by CNBC.

However, TSLA isn’t the only EV stock worth paying attention to.

Shares of NIO are pushing higher ahead of earnings on Wednesday.  The stock has been a powerhouse in recent months, running from $10 to $45.58 on strong delivery numbers.  

Citigroup analyst Jeff Chung recently upgraded the stock to the equivalent of a buy rating, according to Barron’s, form a hold.  He also increased his price target to $33.20 from $18.20.  

JP Morgan analyst Nick Lai, who believes electric vehicle penetration could quadruple over the next five years, called Nio a “long term winner in the premium space.”  

Record deliveries are sending the stock higher, too.  

“NIO delivered 5,055 vehicles in October 2020, a new monthly record representing a strong 100.1% year-over-year growth. The deliveries consisted of 2,695 ES6s, the Company’s 5-seater high-performance premium smart electric SUV, 1,477 ES8s, the Company’s 6-seater and 7-seater flagship premium smart electric SUV, and 883 EC6s, the Company’s 5-seater premium electric coupe SUV. NIO delivered 31,430 vehicles in 2020 in total, representing an increase of 111.4% year-over-year. As of October 31, 2020, cumulative deliveries of the ES8, ES6 and EC6 reached 63,343 vehicles.”

Li Auto is another one to watch.

The stock was just upgraded at Citigroup from a Hold to a Buy rating with a price target to $45.60.  The analyst, according to Barron’s, “appears to have become more optimistic about fourth-quarter and 2021 EV sales in China.” 

The post The Top Electric Vehicle Stocks Accelerating to Higher Highs appeared first on Morningology.