Scimitar Equity Blog

     The 6 W’s: Who, what, where, when, why and what of it …

Today’s Gospel : The hazard for investors in a … low volume environment is once the pendulum shifts one way … bullish or bearish … the market tends to move in that direction … and with very little to help shift course … with the path of least resistance … is DOWN!

Mid-Day: The NASDAQ IS DOWN -26.27 (-1.0%) to 2,598.93 while the Dow is DOWN -136.57 (-1.11%) to 12,154.78.

Mid-day Market commentary: Stocks on Wednesday, 12/28/11 were trading near session lows Wednesday, 12/28/11 as the euro fell despite 2 successful Italian bond auctions and as investors … remained on the sidelines (or at home) amid what is … a light news week. The erosion in equities came “as tension in the Gulf (by the Iranians) and lingering doubt in the EU conspired to undermine earlier optimism on the Italian T-bill auction.

What’s new in the regenerative medicine/stem cell market:

Celltex opens new stem cell facility:  Celltex Therapeutics has opened its adult stem cell facility inSugar Land,Texas; the facility will be 1 ofNorth America’s largest adult stem cell bank and labs. It will use a culturing method licensed from Korean firm RNL Bio to reproduce cells for future use.

Science Brief: Molecule turns stem cells into beating heart cells: Chinese researchers used a zebrafish system to create a molecule that can induce the transformation of stem cells into beating heart muscle cells. The finding could lead to new treatments for heart disease, according to the study in the Journal of Chemistry and Biology.  

CORD BLOOD AMERICA INC (“CBAI-L”): Exclusive Agreement with National Children’s Leukemia Foundation to store stem cells. Cord Blood America has signed an exclusive agreement to store stem cells at itsLas Vegas laboratory for the National Children’s Leukemia Foundation (NCLF), New York.

Lack of funding and focus puts US at risk of brain drain: Recent legislation that increases the NIH’s budget does not make up for more than $300M in previous cuts, and policymakers’ continued lack of attention to science could send promising young researchers to other countries, writes Nobel Laureate Carol W. Greider, director of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Students and postdoctoral fellows largely depend on the support of the public sector to finance the training and research that will make them world-renowned scientists,” Greider writes. “They’re worried about their future and their capacity to establish and sustain careers in a tough fiscal environment.”