RegMed Competitive and Market Intelligence, 1/27/12, stocks decline, exchanges all lower while GDP expanded 2.8% and with consumer sentiment rising

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RegMed Competitive and Market Intelligence, 1/27/12, stocks decline, exchanges all lower while GDP expanded 2.8% and with consumer sentiment rising

January 27th, 2012 Henry McCusker Leave a comment Go to comments

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

Today’s Gospel: Stocks … drift … lower Friday <TGIF> as investors digested a handful of tepid earnings and economic reports in addition to ongoing uncertainties in the euro zone. Meanwhile, the consumer sentiment index rose to an 11 month high in January, climbing to 75, from December’s reading of 69.9, according to a the University of Michigan survey. Economists surveyed by Reuters expected a reading of 74.5.

Mid-Day: The NASDAQ is UP +0.61 (+0.02%) to 2,805.89 while the Dow is also DOWN -69.55 (-0.55%) to 12,665.08.

Mid-Day Market Commentary: Stocks are turning in a lackluster performance in mid-day trading on Friday as traders digest a report on US economic growth in the final 3 months of last year. The major averages have turned mixed on the day after moving modestly lower at the open. Currently, the major averages remain on opposite sides of the unchanged line. The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded above … 18 <yesterday was 18, while Wednesday was 19.

EconRecon: The markets initially reacted negatively to a report from the Commerce Department showing somewhat weaker than expected fourth quarter GDP growth, although selling pressure waned not long after the start of trading. The report showed that GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.8% in the Q4 compared to the 1.8% growth seen in Q3.

Who is UP … in our sub-sector universe: Monday (7), Tuesday (6), Wednesday (8) and Thursday (7) and Friday (14) … Aastrom (ASTM), Athersys (ATHX), BioMimetic (BMTI), BioTime (Amex: BTX). Cytori (CYTX), Dendreon (DNDN), ImmunoCellular (OTC BB: IMUC), International Stem Cell (OTC BB: ISCO), Geron (GERN), Osiris (OSIR), Pluristem (PSTI), StemCells (STEM), ThermoGenesis (KOOL) and Verastem (VSTM).

What’s new in the regenerative medicine/stem cell market … 1 thing to know today …

Verastem (VSTM) goes Public: Verastem will start trading on the NASDAQ today, 1/27.12 having completed an initial public offering (IPO) that raises $55M and values the 1year-old, venture-backed biotech at over $120M. IPO raised $55M from the sale of 5.5M shares at $10 apiece. The price fell precisely in the middle of its range, qualifying it as a unicorn among the rare breed of companies that play in this field. Verastem had actually upped the offering by a million shares over what had originally been planned. http://www.scimitarequity.com/blog/2012/01/27/verastem-vstm-goes-public The Bottom Line: The startup, focused on therapies targeting cancer stem cells; the VSTM offering prospectus noted that investors had agreed to buy up to $16.3M of the offering, a common ploy among the developers which have pulled off the occasional successful IPO over the past 3 years. With more than 19M common shares outstanding, the offering values Verastem at $192M. The share count is up from the 4.5M shares; VSTM expected to offer. VSTM lead candidate is a molecule called VS-507, which is being designed to kill breast cancer stem cells. Among its biggest shareholders are venture capital investors Longwood Founders Fund, Cardinal Partners, MPM Capital and Bessemer Venture Partners. A good indicator for the regenerative medicine/stem cell universe, investment is still available …. In this market!