News Articles
It remains to be seen if the bleeding in the markets has been cauterized by last week's Market retreat as the deleveraging and the unwinding of speculative positions continued in the [pandemic/Tech centric stocks] Technology, Pharmaceutical, and Crypto space.
On Saturday the 22nd, Bitcoin [BTC], which trades 365 days a year 24/7, touched $34064 from early Friday mornings quote of $42000 as it was revealed Russia would not allow Crypto mining. As of this writing, it trades at $ 35895.
Monday, January the 24th, sees Asian markets open weaker but USA futures steady to firm. Wall Street this week sees the Federal Reserve pondering interest rate rises on Wednesday and assorted quarterly earnings from majors; IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Visa, and Tesla.
Elsewhere, in the pharmaceutical sector, Moderna [MRNA], which hit a record $484 in early August last year, was the third-best-performing stock in the S&P. However, by Friday, January the 21st, had retreated rapidly to $160, where it's now capitalized at just $ 67 billion.
Researchers suggest that while Moderna is still only a 'One Product' company, its Covid 19 vaccine against previous variants has been much less effective against Omicron. Overly optimistic expectations last year had consequently led to an overvaluation of Moderna, but $17 billion of cash sitting on its balance sheet and its unique expertise in RNA vaccines suggests a 'strategic opportunity' for developing other products with the prospect of future revenue streams.
Moderna's 4th quarter earnings are expected at the end of February. Since disappointing in previous quarters, the numbers will be awaited with more than usual apprehension.
Stephane Bancel, the 49-year-old CEO and brains behind Moderna, founded the firm in 2011. The French national owns an approximate 8% stake and was at one point worth more than $12 billion. Last November, in a candid moment, he foresaw a material drop in vaccines' effectiveness, which put the skids under the entire sector.
Meantime, with the pharmaceutical sector in general, and Pfizer in particular focus, The British Medical Journal [BMJ], a respected weekly scientific periodical, demanded the full and immediate release of all Data pertaining to Covid vaccines and treatments, accusing pharmaceutical companies of 'reaping vast profits without adequate independent scrutiny of their scientific claims.' The BMJ continued, "We are left with publications but no access to the underlying data on reasonable request."