Blue Horseshoe Stocks: Pharma News Watchlist & More

Pharma News Watchlist:

We’ve got a trio of pharma plays to add to our watchlist on the heels of fresh news releases for each of them this morning. Each stock is gapping up significantly in the premarket, and we’ll be waiting in the wings once the session commences to see if we can use the resulting activity to our advantage.

Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. AKBA – Per the newly announced agreement out today, AKBA has entered into a Collaboration and License Agreement to carry forward with the development of one of its treatments. The deal comes with an immediate payment of $125M, a cash infusion that represents roughly 40% of the company’s total market cap as of yesterday.

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ACADIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ACAD – In the case of ACAD, we’ve gotten word of positive top-line results in a Phase II study it was conducting on the company’s Alzheimer’s drug.  To leverage the present activity to our advantage here, we’re going to track the ACAD Weekly $28-31 Calls. (>>View PR)

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Conatus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CNAT

Here we have another collaboration and licensing deal, for CNAT’s liver drug, which is going to be bringing a $50M cash infusion Conatus’ way. That’s just the initial tranche, with more payments to follow as outlined in the relevant filing (>>View 8-K)


Globalstar, Inc. GSAT

We put GSAT on watch as a possible momentum play in yesterday morning’s premarket report, and while it didn’t break out in a major way, it did continue the trend of solid upward momentum that has been observed in recent sessions. From an early low of 1.25, the stock ran as high as 1.60; a 28% pop.

The performance, while not astronomical, was certainly enough to hold our interest in continuing to monitor GSAT’s activity moving forward.


Cellectar Biosciences, Inc. CLRB – Reminder

We just wanted to take a quick moment to reiterate a possible bottom-play selection we made last week in the form of CLRB. We’re still tracking this one, and think it has a good chance to produce a recovery, possibly following the holiday break. So we’re going to want to leave a space on our watch screens reserved for CLRB in the days and weeks ahead.


Extended Watchlist:
AXPW, CAPS, MFST, ENDV, ETRM, EXAD

Blue Horseshoe Stocks: Shipping Watchlist & More

Shipping Sector Watchlist

Earlier this fall, we found an incredible amount of success within the shipping sector, as an industry-wide wave of bullish activity carried many related stocks to record moves.

That rush tuckered out a few weeks back, but we want to circle back around this morning to cast a light on several of these stocks that we think could be gearing up for a recovery. Each of the following had been in a drastic downturn leading into yesterday’s session, and each of them began to show some major signs of life in coming off their bottoms.

We’ll want to keep all of them in mind in coming sessions, and watch for signs that a more sustained uptrend could take effect.

Dry Ships, Inc. DRYS

Sino-Global Shipping America, Ltd. SINO

Diana Containerships, Inc. DCIX

Diana Shipping, Inc. DSX

Seanergy Maritime Holdings Corp. SHIP

Euroseas Ltd. ESEA

Global Ship Lease, Inc. GSL


Catalyst Biosciences, Inc. CBIO

We stipulated yesterday that if CBIO held above .80 on any early pullbacks, that we’d be interested in tracking its activity through the session, and it did just that.

The intraday machinations of the stock actually provided two separate opportunties for swing trades. First, the initial run out of the gate that took it from 1.12-1.42 (+27%) and a subsequent dip-and-rip pattern from .855 back to 1.12 later on in the day (+31%).

With volatility sufficient to provide over 50% in cumulative gains on the day, and the fact that it maintained support above our designated level, we’ll keep CBIO on our radar for the time being.


Eli Lilly and Co. LLY

On strong 2017 guidance released this week, LLY beat Wall Street’s forecast outlook estimates for the first time in 3 years. As a result, the stock started to climb, and has begun to fill a large gap on the chart to the upside.

What we want to do here is highlight both a short term and extended term options trading idea to correspond with the present situation. For swing trades this week, we’ll look at the LLY Weekly $72 and $72.50 Calls, and to take advantage of the possibility of an extended uptrend, the LLY 01/20 $75 Calls.


Extended Watchlist:
LSCG, TRUU, ERFB, TTCM, AIRW, NDEV, AXPW

Blue Horseshoe Stocks: IDXG, MJPI & More

Interpace Diagnostics Group, Inc. IDXG

We had a few solid performers from yesterday morning’s report, but IDXG was definitely the cream of the crop. We saw a huge initial surge out of the gate followed by a steady ramp-up for the remainder of the session.

From a low of .3619, IDXG traded as high as 1.20, which represents an intraday run of 232% and it occurred on more than eighteen times the 30-day average volume. Not only that, but it managed to close above the dollar mark at 1.01. With price action and momentum like that combined with the fact that we’re seeing another gap-up here in the premarket, we’ll defintiely be on the lookout for further activity today, possibly in the form of a dip-and-rip scenario.

The big move was largely catalyzed by the release of a PR alluding to the fact that Aetna has agreed to cover Interpace’s ThyraMir™ test for all of its 46 million members. (>>View Full PR)


MJP International Ltd. MJPI

MJPI extended its gains yesterday and secured its status as a multi-day runner. We tagged this stock on Wednesday at a low of .85 and witnessed a decent run to 1.18 (+39%). Yesterday we recapped its performance, including the very bullish close and high volume,  and mentioned that a continued run could be in the cards.

We turrned out to be spot on in our assessment, and MJPI persisted in its uptrend, trading up from a morning low of 1.20 and reaching a new high of 1.63. That worked out to an intraday push of 36%, and extended our two-day gains on this play to a highly-respectable 92%


Options Recap

Twitter, Inc. TWTR – After furnishing us with double-bag gains yesterday, our target contracts that we initially put forth last Thursday, the TWTR 01/20 $19 and $20 Calls, recorded some modest intraday gains and added to our cumulative totals.

01/20 $19 Calls – Range: 1.33-1.70 – Max Gain: 28%
01/20 $20 Calls – Range: .94-1.22 – Max Gain: 30%

There is a gap on the TWTR chart that runs from roughly $21-24, and with a 01/20 expiration, we’ll continue to track these options, and if it appears the gap will begin to fill, roll up our strike prices accordingly.
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Fresh Idea:

Wynn Resorts Ltd. WYNN – We’re looking for a possible recovery play for WYNN in the wake of a damning China UnionPay policy change that implements further restriction of the maximum daily allotment for ATM withdrawals in Macau. With 60% of WYNN’s revenue coming from Macau, the stock got hammered during yesterday’s session.

It appears as if some measure of a recovery will take effect this morning, with the stock gapping up in the premarket, so we’re going to be monitoring the WYNN Weekly $96-98.50 Calls for potential quick-strike trades.


Extended Watchlist:
IMUN, PIOI, LEXG, AXPW, ACNV, MSTX