Year: 2020

Micro-cap biotech? Check. Up by over 40% in one trading session? Check. Possible COVID-19 treatment? Check. All the ingredients for a familiar narrative in these coronavirus driven times are present. We’re talking about Pluristem Therapeutics (PSTI), a small Israeli biotech with promising preliminary data regarding a possible COVID-19 treatment.Last week, Pluristem released initial results from its compassionate use program for the treatment of patients with acute respiratory failure and inflammatory complications resulting from COVID-19. Specifically, all seven ICU patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) treated so far with Pluristem’s PLX cell therapy have survived, with 6 out of 7 …read more […]

As the economy has fallen into a downward spiral over the last month, behemoth corporations have proven that they are not immune. Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Intel (INTC) and more are all down over 10% from early 2020 highs. However, fortunately for these companies, they have physical products to sell. Twitter (TWTR), SNAP (SNAP), and Facebook (FB) don’t.These social media titans sell services—specifically, ads. Despite the fact that people are home, and are spending more time on social media than ever before, each of these companies is down over 20% since mid-February. Why? As people are at home rather than …read more […]

Standard Chartered Plc is the first major global bank to tell employees not to use Zoom Video Communications Inc during the coronavirus pandemic due to cybersecurity concerns, according to a memo seen by Reuters. The message, sent by Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters to managers last week, also warned against using Alphabet Inc’s Google Hangouts platform for virtual gatherings. Neither service offers the level of encryption of conversations that rivals like Cisco System Inc’s Webex, Microsoft Corp’s Teams or Blue Jeans Network Inc do, industry experts said. …read more […]

Many Americans suffer from “historical amnesia,” a blissful ignorance of the past.
But as Nicholas Vardy shares today, there is a lot we can learn about global wealth and success by looking back at history.

I’ve been watching a course on the English historian Edward Gibbon’s six-volume magnum opus, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in The Great Courses.
I view it as a 30-minute daily antidote to the relentless onslaught of COVID-19 body counts on the world’s news channels.
It’s also a welcome break from the nonstop obsession over “whether the market has bottomed this week.”
Gibbon published the …read more […]

Wall Street loves mergers and acquisitions. They feed the egos of CEOs by increasing their empires and garner big fees for the bankers that help put big deals together. They can also result in a big payday for investor of the firm that gets bought out. But, sadly, for these reasons, most mergers destroy shareholder value over the long haul.For investors, the track record indicates that it can be more lucrative to bet on deals where firms break themselves apart. One such deal that became final less than two weeks ago found two giant defense and aerospace-focused firms merge, but …read more […]