Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc shares were moving to the downside Tuesday after the vaccine maker released interim Phase 1 data for the study that is evaluating its DNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Inovio’s Interim Phase 1 Efficacy, Safety Readouts: Announcing results from the first two cohorts of the Phase 1 trial, the Plymouth, Pennsylvania-based biotech said multiple immunology assays showed that 94% of participants demonstrated overall immunological response rates.

The readout includes humoral and cellular immune responses conducted for the 1 mg and 2 mg dose cohorts after two doses at week six…CLICK for complete article

The Federal Reserve disclosed Sunday afternoon the amounts and the company names of the corporate bonds that it started buying for the first time ever in the week ended Friday, June 19. They’re not even rounding errors on the Fed’s balance sheet. The purchases of individual corporate bonds amounted to $428 million (with an M). By comparison, in the week ended April 1, when the Fed was doing a lot of heavy breathing, it bought $362 billion (with a B) of Treasury securities.

In addition, the Fed said in the disclosure that it held a total of $6.8 billion in bond ETFs as of June 19, up from $1.5 billion a month ago.

These bond ETFs and individual corporate bonds combined account for 1/10th of 1% of the Fed’s $7.1 trillion in total assets.

The Fed buys these corporate bonds and bond ETFs in its Special Purpose Vehicle that it calls Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF). Like the Fed’s other alphabet-soup bailout SPVs, the SMCCF is an LLC entity…CLICK for complete article

Heads up, investors: Wednesday’s selloff in the stock market may be the start of something bigger, for the five key reasons I cite below.

The good news is we’re not going to see a full retest of the March lows or anywhere near that kind of decline, thanks to several positive factors in the mix (also below).

US index futures swung in an illiquid overnight session in which Bloomberg’s Richard Breslow said “volumes have been utterly abysmal”, concluding a volatile week for stocks, this time ignoring the resurgence in new virus infections across the country that sent them lower earlier in the week. European shares gained on low volumes, 10Y yields dropped by 1.5bps, while the dollar was unchanged.

And speaking of Breslow, he summarizes the overnight moves perfectly:

You know it’s going to be a tough day when the answer to the question of “why thus-and-so has done what it has, such as it has,” is simply, “because.” Ask for more color than that and you get a blank stare. Or, that the S&P 500 was up yesterday, so it’s sagging this morning.

Is it 1999 or 2007? Retail investors flood the market as speculation grows rampant with a palpable exuberance and belief of no downside risk. What could go wrong?

As Barron’s recently noted:

“Free trading app Robinhood has added more than three million retail accounts in 2020, and now has over 13 million. The median age of its retail customer is 31. The Covid-19 lockdowns and the plunge in markets in March persuaded millions of new investors to open accounts. Some of the action appears to be from people who would otherwise be gambling or betting on sports—both of which were shut down.”

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