Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:CNCE) shares skyrocketed today following the news that Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) will acquire Concert’s deuterated Kalydeco variant, CTP-656, for $160 million upfront with up to $90 million in milestones. The drug is currently in phase 2 studies in monotherapy, with results expected in the fourth-quarter of this year. J.P. Morgan analyst Cory Kasimov commented, “We believe this acquisition is a prudent move for VRTX as it fends off potential competition to Kalydeco, not only important as a monotherapy but also as a backbone in future triple combos. This move is also in-line with VRTX’s...
I’ve talked tirelessly (well, I haven’t gotten tired of it, maybe you have) about the extent to which markets are or aren’t correctly pricing event risk around Europe’s trio of electoral trials by fire. For obvious reasons, the French elections have gotten the most attention. That’s probably justified given the fact that there’s a non-negligible chance that France accidentally elects a populist lunatic with designs on taking her country out of the EMU, a move that would i) effectively mark the beginning of the end for the currency bloc, and ii) may mark the beginning of the (financial) end for France which, if it exited the e...
Stocks Inside Box Since 1982 The Value Line Geometric Index is a broad, equally-weighted index that can be used to monitor the health of the stock market beyond the capitalization-weighted S&P 500. As shown in the monthly chart below, the orange box acted as both support (green arrows) and resistance (red arrows) several times between 1982 and 2016. At the end of February 2017, the Value Line Geometric Index closed above the orange box; a potentially bullish development from a long-term perspective. The concept of consolidation, or a rectangle, as outlined on StockCharts.com: Rectangles represent a trading range that pits the bulls again...
President Trump has demonstrated extraordinary hostility towards the news media, calling it the “opposition party” and refusing to allow journalists from The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) in particular to attend a White House briefing. However, it appears his actions are benefiting the NYT stock price. At least, we see a correlation with the constant slander and NYT. These events, combined with what we view as solid fundamentals and a competitive industry position, present a unique chance to buy NYT. Recent Events Highlighted On Feb. 24, President Trump called journalists “the enemy of the people.” According to President T...
The Reserve Bank of Australia has a monetary policy meeting this evening . While the central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged, the Australian dollar is the best performing currency this year and its strength could worry the RBA. Since Jan 1, AUD is up more than 5.5% versus GBP, more than 4.5% versus USD and CAD, and over 4% versus EUR, NZD and Chinese Yuan. As shown in the table below, there have also been areas of weakness. Labor market conditions in particular deteriorated significantly at the start of the year, inflation expectations have fallen, service sector activity slowed, parts of the Chinese economy is losing...
The fintech industry is becoming one of the go-to places for entrepreneurs looking to launch their careers into the internet space, and this not only creates business for the already thriving players in the market but also opens more doors for new ones to enter. Fintech is the short form for financial technology, and thanks to pioneers of the industry like PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), and Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) AliPay in Asia, it has now become a common place in the online community to the extent that every business must think about it before launching an online platform. At first, it was all about sending and receiving p...
TM editors’ note: This article discusses a penny stock and/or microcap. Such stocks are easily manipulated; do your own careful due diligence. Over the past month, BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics (Nasdaq: BCLI) has made a significant effort to increase the credibility of the story to investors. On March 6, 2017, the company announced that Ralph Z. Kern, Senior Vice President and Head of Worldwide Medical at Biogen, will join the company as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Medical Officer (CMO). The hiring of Dr. Kern brings an instant credibility boost to BrainStorm. The news follows the announcement last month when BrianStorm app...
Written by StockNews.com Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL) shares were down as much as 4% on Monday morning [Mar 6, 2017 | 11:05am], after the airline operator cut its forecast for a key revenue metric, citing a lower-than-anticipated fare rebound....
Headwinds that are starting to assail deep structural flaws in the US and global economies form the basis for my 2017 economic forecast, which looks like an all-out economic crisis building throughout the world. Some of these headwinds are global; some more locally focused within the United States, but that which brings down the US economy wounds the world anyway. Ultimately, global concerns threaten the US, and US concerns threaten the globe. We’re all in this together, even as we seem to be flying apart in political whirlwinds everywhere and fracturing national alliances all over the world. Even in the US where the Trump Triumph ...