Global Market Comments
September 23, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(SEPTEMBER 21 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(SPY), (INTC), (NVDA), (AMD), (MU) (TBT), (TLT), (AMGN),
(VIX), (CHPT), (TSLA), (GS), (BAC), (MS), (JPM), (USO), (TLT)
Posts
Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the September 21 Mad Hedge Fund Trader Global Strategy Webinar broadcast from Silicon Valley in California.
Q: What would cause you to look for a lower bottom than $330 on the (SPY)?
A: Nuclear war with Russia would certainly do the trick—they’re now threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine—and higher-than-expected interest rates. If we get another 75 basis points after this one today, then I think you’re looking at new lows, but we won’t find that out until November 2. So, the market may just bounce along the bottom here for a while until it sees what the Fed is going to do, not on this rate hike but the next one after that. Other than that, a few dramatically worse earnings from corporations would also allow us to test a lower low.
Q: Is it time to nibble on Nvidia Corporation (NVDA)?
A: Nvidia is one of the most volatile stocks in the market. You don’t want to go into it until you’re absolutely sure the bottom is in. If that means you miss the first 10% of the following move up, that’s fine because when this thing moves, you get a double or triple out of it. I would wait for the indecision in the market to resolve itself before you get too aggressive on the most volatile stocks in the market. The same is true for the rest of the semiconductor sector.
Q: What does a final capitulation look like?
A: The Volatility Index (VIX) ever $40. We’ve had a high of VIX at $37 so far this year. If really get over $40, that would be a new high for the year. That would signal people that are throwing in the towel, giving up the market, selling everything—of course that is always the best time to buy.
Q: How do we get LEAPS guidance?
A: We send our LEAPS recommendations first to our concierge members—we only have a small number of those—and then after that, they go out to all subscribers to the Mad Hedge Global Trading Dispatch. Everyone gets exposure to the LEAPS. By the way, with LEAPS, you can take up to a month to execute a position. What I do is literally buy 1 contract a day, so I get a nice average over the period of a month when the market is most likely bottoming.
Q: Do you see Intel Corporation (INTC) as a good candidate for a Taiwan invasion hedge?
A: Well, first of all, China’s not going to invade Taiwan. I’ve been waiting for this for 70 years and it’s not going to happen. Also, Intel’s new management has yet to prove itself. You have a salesman running the company; I never like companies run by a salesman. I’d prefer to have an engineer run an engineering company. The court is still out on Intel and whether they can turn that company around or not; so, I would much rather buy the market leaders, Nvidia (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Micron Technology (MU) in the semiconductor space.
Q: You talked dollar/cost averaging before. Should we pause on averaging in?
A: No, that's why I say buy one contract a day and put it in order to buy at the bid side of the market. That way, any sudden swoosh down in the market and you’ll get filled. The spreads on these LEAPS are quite wide, so you want to try to buy as close to the middle or bottom end of the spread, and putting in single contract orders over a month, of course, will do that to you.
Q: Does that mean it’s time to sell the ProShares UltraShort 20+ year Treasury Yield (TBT)?
A: I would say yes; (TBT) hit $30.30 yesterday, which is a new multi-year high. I would be taking profits on that because on the next turnaround in bonds, you could get a very rapid move in (TBT) from $30 back down to $20. I’d rather have you keep that profit than try to squeeze the last dollar out of it. Remember, the (TBT) has a negative cost of carry now of 8% a year and that is a big nut to cover.
Q; Market outlook for mid-2023?
A: We could hit my $4,800 target by mid-2023; that is up 28% from here.
Q: Can we buy LEAPS on Amgen (AMGN)?
A: Absolutely yes, you can. Go for the highest listed strike prices on the call side with the longest possible maturity. I would do the January 17, 2025 $350-$360 vertical bull call spread which you can buy now for $1.00. That gives two years and four months to get a tenfold return. That’s enough time for a full-bore recession to happen and then a recovery where markets take off like a rocket. The call spread you bought for $1.00 becomes worth $10.00.
Q: Is there a long position on the beneficiary of government plans to build EV charging stations?
A: There is, but I'm not recommending EV charging stations because it’s a low value-added business. You buy electric power from the local utility, add 10 cents and resell it. The margins are small, the competition is heating up. There are much smarter ways to play EVs than the charging station. ChargePoint (CHPT) is certainly one of them, but it’s not a great investment idea. Look at how ChargePoint (CHPT) has performed over the last six months compared to Tesla (TSLA) and you see what I mean.
Q: Given the very poor investor sentiment, why don’t we get a testing of the lows and result in a (VIX) pop?
A: Absolutely yes—that is what everybody in the market is waiting for. And it could happen as soon as this afternoon. If it doesn’t happen this afternoon, allow for a little rally and then a meltdown on the next piece of bad news.
Q: I’m not able to get an email response from customer support.
A: Try emailing filomena@madhedgefundtrader.com. If that doesn’t work, you can try calling at (347) 480-1034. Filomena will always be happy to take care of you.
Q: What maturity of US Treasury securities would you buy now?
A: I would buy the 30-year. You’re getting close to a 4% yield on that—that is starting to look attractive to people who don’t want to work for a living picking stocks on a daily basis. We are about to see the rebirth of bond investing.
Q: What about banks?
A: Banks will be a screaming buy and a three-year double once recession fears end, which could be in a couple of months. We now have sharply rising interest rates, which banks love, but the bear market in stocks has killed off the IPO business, credit risk is rising, and of course, the Bitcoin business has gone to zero also. So, I would wait for fears of credit quality to end, and then you’ll get a double in the banks very quickly, and notice how they’re all flatlining at a bottom, they’re not actually going down anymore.
Q: Which banks are good choices?
A: Goldman Sachs (GS) and Bank of America (BAC) are two great ones, along with Morgan Stanley (MS) and JP Morgan (JPM).
Q: Do you think the market will bottom by the midterms?
A: I do, I think we will bottom a few weeks before the midterms, or the day after. Sometimes that’s the way it goes, and then it will be off like a rocket for the rest of the year. If we can do this from a much lower level in the SPYs, so much the better. Remember, the next Fed meeting is six days before the election. Yikes!
Q: If OPEC cuts production (USO), won’t the supply/demand cause oil prices to start rising again, increasing inflation and people’s prices at the pump?
A: Yes, but OPEC needs the money. Not necessarily Saudi Arabia, but all the other members of OPEC are starved for cash, and that is always how these shortages end. The smaller members cheat on quotas and bust the price. That's clearly what’s driven us down $50 since the February high, small member cheating. And that will continue. It is a cartel with some serious internal conflicts that will never resolve.
Q: Does it cost $17,000 to mine a Bitcoin?
A: It did four months ago. My guess is it’s more expensive now because of the higher cost of electricity around the world. We may even be up to $20,000 cost, which is why it tends to hang around the $20,000 level on the low side. Below that, miners lose money and the supply dries up, just like you see in the gold market.
Q: Do you have an opinion on Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT)?
A: Yes; credit risk is rising, as are the yields. In a real estate recession, you start to get more defaults on REITS, but the yields on them are very high; so if you are going to play, buy a basket to spread your risk.
Q: Would you buy ProShares UltraShort 20+ year Treasury Yield (TLT) calls spreads now?
A: Yes, but I would go farther in the money, like the mid $90s, because I don’t think we’ll get that low in this cycle. I would also go out another month; instead of a one-month call spread in the mid $90s, I would do a two-month maturity. You could probably take in about $2,000 on a $10,000 position in the mid $90s.
To watch a replay of this webinar with all the charts, bells, whistles, and classic rock music, just log in to www.madhedgefundtrader.com, go to MY ACCOUNT, click on GLOBAL TRADING DISPATCH, then WEBINARS, and all the webinars from the last 12 years are there in all their glory.
Good Luck and Stay Healthy,
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Back at Lake Tahoe
Mad Hedge Biotech and Healthcare Letter
September 20, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(A MONSTER BIOTECH ON ITS WAY TO ANOTHER BLOCKBUSTER)
(BMY), (AMGN), (VTYX)
This year's bear market has pushed a lot of businesses to their breaking points. The S&P 500, the benchmark of stock performance in the US, has fallen by 14.6% in 2022.
What’s making things look gloomier is that the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index, aka the bellwether growth stock index, has plummeted by 22% thus far. Even the Dow Jones Industrial Average, another leading indicator, has dipped by 11.5%. All these firmly place the entire market in the bear market territory.
In response to the headwinds, investors have spotlighted businesses with steady free cash flow, solid leadership teams, and virtually recession-proof sectors.
This is where Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) shines as an excellent example of Wall Street’s reinvigorated desire to pour money on long-forgotten movers in the market.
As one of the leading biotechnology companies worldwide, BMY has once again piqued the interest of investors primarily for its ability to defy the bear market. In fact, the company’s stock is up 12% year to date, clearly outperforming the S&P 500 by roughly 29 percentage points.
BMY’s ascent has taken years, with the business benefitting massively from its $74 billion acquisition of another biotech stalwart, Celgene.
This deal granted BMY access to an extensive oncology and autoimmune diseases portfolio, with back-to-back blockbusters like Revlimid and Reblozyl sales practically paying for Celgene’s acquisition price.
Now, BMY has made another move that brought seismic rearrangement within the biopharma sector, particularly in the highly lucrative psoriasis treatments space.
Earlier this month, BMY disclosed that it received FDA approval for its oral plaque psoriasis treatment deucravacitinib. The company plans to market this new drug under the name Sotyktu.
More impressively, Sotyktu was not given any “black-boxed warning” on its label, which typically indicates that a treatment carries significant safety risks.
Unlike most therapies for psoriasis, which use Janus kinase inhibitors, BMY is the first to use and gain approval for a TYK2 inhibitor. Generally, treatments utilizing Janus kinase inhibitors come with “black-boxed warnings.”
The absence of which, in BMY’s candidate, indicates a cleaner label.
This is terrible news for Amgen’s (AMGN) Otezla, which is currently the leader in the psoriasis space. Since this drug uses Janus kinase inhibitors, it has become a “less safe” option for patients. More than that, Sotyktu managed to outperform Otezla in a head-to-head trial.
Aside from that, a “black-boxed warning” would have offered Amgen some defense in protecting Otezla’s market share.
Meanwhile, Sotyktu’s approval brings good news to smaller biotechnology companies, such as Ventyx Biosciences (VTYX), working on similar treatments that use TYK2 inhibitors.
Regarding costs, BMY’s list price for its psoriasis therapy is notably higher than Amgen’s. According to sources, Sotyktu will be given a price tag of roughly $75,000. In comparison, Otezla is priced at approximately $52,000 annually.
Needless to say, Sotyktu is projected to become another blockbuster in BMY’s arsenal. Simply basing the possibilities on Otezla’s recent sales reports would give us a good picture of this new drug’s future.
In 2021, Otezla raked in $2.2 billion in sales for Amgen. Despite the competition, Otezla is still projected to grow and reach $3.2 billion in annual sales by 2026.
Considering that BMY’s Sotyktu will be playing catch up in terms of marketing and distribution, this psoriasis drug is anticipated to reach $2 billion in yearly sales in 2026.
However, this was estimated before the FDA’s surprise approval. The consensus is that the absence of a “black-boxed warning” would significantly boost the projections.
Overall, BMY has always been quite the oddball among its peers. While the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF rose by a staggering 42% in 2021, the company was barely in positive territory.
Due to the impending patent cliffs at that time, BMY was considered a laggard in the biopharma world. Added to those concerns was the company’s move to buy Celgene for a jaw-dropping $74 billion, substantially increasing its debt-to-equity-ratio. Taken together, these threats made BMY an unfavorable investment from 2020 to late 2021.
By 2022, however, BMY will have transformed into a favorite on Wall Street. Investors have regarded it as a safe harbor amid the ongoing bear market.
Moreover, BMY shares have marched even higher thus far by an impressive 12.5%. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF has recorded a 21.4% loss this year.
While the rest of the market has been struggling to keep things afloat, BMY’s stock isn’t that far from hitting its 52-week high to date. Hence, it would be an excellent move to buy the dip.
Mad Hedge Biotech and Healthcare Letter
August 11, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(BUILDING A RECESSION-PROOF PORTFOLIO)
(AMGN), (GILD), (MRK), (ABBV), (PFE), (JNJ), (BMY)
In my biotechnology and healthcare newsletter earlier this week, I talked about Amgen (AMGN) and how critical it is to determine recession-proof businesses.
In the next quarters and even years, it will no longer be as vital to identify companies that can bring high growth returns in the short term.
Instead, what’s more important is to find stocks that can withstand any bear market and a recession.
Like Amgen, Gilead Sciences (GILD) also performed better than the S&P 500 (SPY) and the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) in the past 12 months.
Considering that we are anticipating a steep recession and a potentially brutal bear market in the following quarters, Gilead Sciences is presenting itself as a solid pick.
Some refer to Gilead Sciences as a one-trick pony, but that’s not an opinion I agree with despite the company’s over-reliance on its HIV programs and antiviral treatments.
For perspective, its antiviral portfolio comprises more than 90% of the company’s 2021 revenues while its top-selling products that year are all from its HIV segment.
Although Gilead Sciences has been expanding its portfolio, the company’s HIV program remains its best moneymaker. In the second quarter of 2022, sales of its HIV treatments have risen by 7% year-over-year.
Demand for treatments in this space has climbed in the past months, which allows for more room for growth in the foreseeable future.
Among the HIV treatments, Biktarvy is the best-selling product. It’s also the treatment that continues to gain a bigger market share.
By the second quarter of 2022, Biktarvy has been reported to claim roughly 44% of the market share in the US, marking a 4% increase year-over-year.
Meanwhile, another potential blockbuster is Lenacapavir. This is a new product, which will be marketed as a long-acting injectable HIV treatment once it gains FDA approval. If this gets the green light, this could rake in an estimated $2 billion in the first year of its release.
Aside from its HIV treatments, Gilead Science’s hepatitis franchise has also been steadily growing.
Amid the competition against the likes of Abbvie’s (ABBV) Mavyret, the company’s combo treatments with Sofosbuvir continue to generate significant cash flows and promising sales.
However, this segment raked in $1.9 billion in sales, down 9% year-over-year. The decline could be attributed to the effects of the pandemic.
Nevertheless, Gilead Sciences have been working on updating this particular program and adding newer treatments to deliver better results.
Another segment that saw a spike in 2021 is the antiviral program, primarily due to Veklury or Remdesivir.
When COVID-19 broke, Veklury was hailed as the first-in-line treatment. This led to a substantial boost in sales since 2020, with the company earning $2 billion from the product at that time.
By 2021, Veklury sales skyrocketed by 98% to hit $5.6 billion.
Frankly, no one truly expected Veklury to reach those figures—even Gilead Sciences’ management. In their first-quarter conference call in 2021, the company estimated full-year sales for the product to be roughly $2 to $3 billion.
While Veklury’s numbers are impressive, I think this product’s days are numbered because of the emergence of more competitors and better alternatives in the market these days.
In any case, this treatment is a testament to Gilead Sciences’ ability to deliver effective and reasonably priced antivirals to market.
Moving forward, Gilead Sciences looks to be exploring the oncology sector.
Its move to acquire CAR T-cell therapies via the $12 billion deal with Kita Pharma in 2017 is one of the clearest indicators of this plan.
On top of that, Gilead Sciences also acquired Trodelvy from Immunomedics in 2020. As far as fast-tracking its expansion in the oncology space goes, this definitely pushes the company to the forefront.
As a standalone treatment, this can reach peak sales of $2 billion to $3 billion.
Other than testing it with its own pipeline as a breast cancer treatment, Gilead Sciences has been collaborating with Merck (MRK) to determine the efficacy of Trodelvy when combined with Keytruda as a first-line treatment for non-small cell lung cancer.
Overall, Gilead Sciences is a great addition to a portfolio of recession-proof companies.
While it may not be as impressive as industry titans like Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), Merck, AbbVie, Pfizer (PFE), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), it definitely bears the early signs of improvement, a promising future, and the ability to withstand a recession.
Mad Hedge Biotech and Healthcare Letter
August 9, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(A REVIVED BIOTECH GAINING MOMENTUM)
(AMGN), (SEGN), (MRK), (REGN), (GILD), (CCX), (BMY)
Biotechnology stocks have been rallying since mid-June, and it looks like the sector doesn’t have plans of stopping anytime soon.
The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI), which keeps track of the segment, has been up by 32.5% since the second half of 2022—a period that saw the S&P 500 rise by only 11.4%.
Nonetheless, doubts still linger in terms of how long this sector’s bull run will last. There are also questions on whether the recent shift in market sentiment indicates a substantive change or merely a momentary blip.
News about the biotech industry has been leaning towards the positive in the past months, and hopes for its recovery were bolstered by the much-discussed potential acquisition of Seagen (SEGN) by Merck (MRK).
The strong earnings reports of Regeneron (REGN) and Gilead Sciences (GILD) also added to the overall positivity of the sector.
Meanwhile, another big mover in the biotechnology world appears to be gearing up for a major move soon.
Amgen (AMGN) recently announced its plans to acquire ChemoCentryx (CCXI) for $3.7 billion.
This all-cash acquisition works out to roughly $52 per share and a whopping 115% premium to ChemoCentryx’s price.
ChemoCentryx is mostly known for its autoimmune disorder pipeline. In 2021, the company received FDA approval for Tavneos, which targets a relatively rare autoimmune condition called ANCA-associated vasculitis.
In the first quarter of 2022, Tavneos delivered $5.4 million in sales.
The announcement boosted ChemoCentryx’s shares to skyrocket by 108.4% while Amgen shares remained flat. However, this jump isn’t all too surprising.
The company getting acquired records a jump in stock price after the announcement because the acquirer typically pays a premium for the deal. It’s a strategic move since the higher the premium, the better the chances that the shareholders will approve the acquisition.
If all goes well, this acquisition is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022.
This move is a good indicator of Amgen’s response to its problem of stagnation. Over the years, this biotech giant has been seemingly left behind in churning out innovative treatments.
Pursuing a promising company like ChemoCentryx is an excellent way to diversify its pipeline and reignite growth.
The deal is especially promising in light of the company’s major setback in 2020 when the Phase 3 clinical trial for its heart failure drug fell short of delivering the promised results.
While issues with new products aren’t exactly new, particularly in the biotechnology sector, Amgen’s failure made investors skittish and led to selloffs.
However, Amgen was not deterred. After all, the setback came following decade-long progress leading up to 2020 when the company’s revenues steadily rose from $15 billion to $23 billion.
In the end, Amgen was still able to surpass its projected revenue to hit the $25 billion mark in 2020 thanks to its strategic move to acquire Otezla from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY).
By 2021, Amgen shared that its 2020 results were up 9%. Last year, the company ignited some momentum and managed to raise its earnings from the year before to $26.2 billion.
Despite these efforts, the company still struggled with organic growth. This is perhaps why it has been aggressive in pursuing multiple revenue streams via M&A to find more ways for multiple expansions.
Part of this plan is the 2021 acquisition of Five Prime Therapeutics for $1.9 billion and Teneobio for $900 million.
Given the deals last year, investors didn’t truly expect Amgen to deliver more growth in 2022. This is possibly why the company’s shareholders were a bit surprised by the new acquisition.
However, this deal with ChemoCentryx will grant Amgen access to a slew of orally administered treatments not only for autoimmune diseases and inflammatory conditions but also for cancer.
Realistically, Amgen’s near-term outlook is not that groundbreaking. However, the overall valuation and potential of its M&A dealmaking are compelling enough to encourage investors patient enough to wait for the rewards in the long run.
Mad Hedge Biotech and Healthcare Letter
July 14, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(GOODBYE BIG PHARMA, HELLO BIG BIOTECH)
(GSK), (PFE), (BMY), (VTRS), (LLY), (JNJ), (AMGN), (GILD),
(MRK), (RHHBY), (AZN), (NVO), (ABBV), (SNY), (ABT)
The moment GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) completes the spinoff of its massive segments marketing drugstore staples, such as Tums and Advil, it will become the latest name to join the list of Big Pharmas shuffling their assets and rebranding itself into a pure-play biopharma stock.
The reorganization of this UK-based company is the culmination of years-long process that has transformed practically all the biggest pharmaceutical companies globally into biotechnology companies on steroids.
This type of transformation, which gets rid of sideline businesses, has been going on for years. Pfizer (PFE) dumped its chewing-gum segment back in 2002 and established another spinoff unit, Viatris (VTRS), with Mylan in 2020.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) decided to spinoff its infant-formula division in 2009. In 2018, a new animal health company came to be from Eli Lilly (LLY).
By 2023, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) expects to complete the creation of a spinoff company and unload its consumer health segment, which offers Tylenol and Band-Aids.
Essentially, they’re turning into Amgen (AMGN) and Gilead Sciences (GILD) but with more money and resources to churn out high-priced, complex treatments for rare diseases.
However, not all Big Pharma names plan to become pure-plays. For example, Merck (MRK) still intends to retain its animal health sector while Roche (RHHBY) wants to keep its diagnostics segment.
As for the rest, including AstraZeneca (AZN), Novo Nordisk (NVO), and AbbVie (ABBV), their plan is to focus on creating new drugs and marketing these treatments—nothing more, nothing less.
The idea of Big Pharma transforming into “Big Biotech” dates back to 1992, when Henri Termeer, the CEO of Genzyme—now owned by Sanofi (SNY)—was summoned to a Senate hearing in Washington to argue and justify one of the most expensive medicines ever put to market.
The medication in question was for a rare genetic condition called Gaucher disease. A year-long treatment for one person needed tens of thousands of human placentas, and the price tag? A jaw-dropping $380,000 annually.
Amid the demand to make the treatment cheaper, Genzyme stood by its decision and the price barely budged after two years.
The company’s tenacity and insistence on standing by its pricing altered the biopharma landscape. That is, drug developers realized that rather than marketing cheaper drugs to combat common diseases, they can focus on biotech-style treatments to target rare conditions.
At that time, Big Pharma companies were battling over pieces of massive markets. They allocated considerable funds to their commercial teams, hoping to outrank one another in crowded spaces.
Meanwhile, biotechs like Genzyme decided on a different strategy.
They concentrated on more innovative approaches. Actually, the biotech focused on biologics at that point. Then, the company simply ignored the pricing rules and set its own prices, which were considerably higher.
A more recent go-to proof of concept for this strategy is Abbott Laboratories (ABT), which was initially a diversified company that offered an extensive range of products like medical devices and even infant formula.
In 2013, the company spun off its branded pharmaceutical sector into AbbVie, which became a pure-play biopharma that focused on developing and marketing the arthritis drug Humira. Since then, Humira has transformed into one of the top-selling drugs in history.
More than that, AbbVie pays substantial dividends while its shares have delivered 500% returns since the spinoff. In comparison, the S&P 500 has returned roughly 220% within the same timeframe.
While this is a shift that investors have clamored to see in the healthcare sector, it also means that the transformations could turn companies with solid revenue streams that have become reliable despite the ups and downs of the drug discovery process into riskier bets.
Although treatments for rare diseases admittedly come with very high price tags, focusing on smaller markets brings with it the inherent risk that these buy-and-stuff-under-the-mattress blue chips could no longer deliver returns as consistently.
These days, though, the advancements have made faster and safer scientific breakthroughs much more plausible.
Companies have gained a better understanding of the human genome, oncology treatments, genetic diseases, and groundbreaking modalities like gene therapies.
The science has now caught up with the demand. More importantly, Big Pharma has finally woken up and started to leverage its resources to take advantage of the opportunities.
This gradual change can be seen in the surge of new treatments in the past years. From 2016 to 2020, the FDA approved an average of 46 new therapies annually.
This is more than half the number between 2006 and 2010 when the organization only approved an average of 22 new treatments every year.
Needless to say, these changes are also partly in response to the overall dissatisfaction of investors with the diversification strategies of Big Pharma.
Basically, the general message here is that Big Pharma should let the investors worry about diversifying their own portfolios and focus on developing safe and effective drugs.
