Stocks struggle as short sellers are squealing “wee, wee, wee” all the way home
The 6 W’s: Who, what, where, when, why and what of it
Today’s Gospel: This has been a bad stretch for the RegMed universe and the economy as a whole. One after the other, companies and their CEO’s are being gutted or delayed by FDA regulators while traders – escorted by a volatile market are squealing “wee, wee, wee” all the way home. Short sellers are greasing the RegMed universe skid. Used and manipulated by the wrong hands, such practices have turned dangerous, even fatal in the battle for share price appreciation. However, the long list of financings, ATMs and warrant burdens to recount are but, are just a few of the most important non-catalysts. Bearish fundamentals keep this sector on the … Defensive!
RegMed stocks opened … flat … in a down market and are … bouncing back … mid-day, Monday … with few leader(s) … many more green (ups) and fewer red (downs) and 1 black (flats) on the screen.
- My favorites: Aastrom (ASTM) is up $0.09 <+3.76%> to $2.46 with a dropping mid-day range ($2.31 – $2.47), with very thin volume of 101K shares as is Cytori (CYTX) $0.04 <+1.73%> to $2.35 in an also dropping trading range of $2.28 -$2.34 also with thin trading of 58K pre earnings announcement on Wednesday; Osiris (OSIR) was down but now up $0.03 <+0.63> to $4.81 and Verastem (VSTM) is up $0.58 <+6/11%> to $10.07;
- Also, Dendreon (DNDN) is up pre an earnings announcement at the market close, today … $0.27 <+2.38%> to $11.60; BioTime (Amex: BTX) is up $0.08 <+08 <+2.11%> to $3.88 as is ReNeuron (RENE.L) is up +$0.15 <+4%> to $3.90.
- Minimal upward moves: Geron (GERN), Neuralstem (Amex: CUR), BioMimetic (BMTI), Fibrocell (OTC BB: FCSC), Geron (GERN), Pluristem (PSTI), StemCells (STEM), Tengion (TNGN) pre earnings (LPS) announcement, ThermoGenesis (KOOL), Opexa (OPXA), NeoStem (Amex: NBS) is up $0.025 <+6.38%> to $0.41.
- Minimal downward moves: Advanced Cell Technology (OTC BB: ACTC), Athersys (ATHX), Cytomedix (OTC BB: CMXI), International Stem Cell (OTC BB: ISCO)
- Flats: BioLife Solutions (OTC BB: BLFS), ImmunoCellular (OTC BB: IMUC), .
EconRecon: The CBOE Volatility Index < the best gauge of fear in the market> traded up near 19.
Mid-Day: The NASDAQ is UP +5.14 (+0.17%) to 2,961.48 while the Dow is DOWN -13.09 (-0.1%) to 13,025.18.
Mid-Day Market Commentary: Stocks struggled to turn higher Monday, led by financials, as investors tried to make sense of how the euro-zone will deal with its sovereign debt issues following the French and Greek elections over the weekend.
What’s new in the regenerative medicine/stem cell market … Not much … to know today …
