Top of the Order:
Pain? No Pain: In the Bay Area, all you have to do is walk out of your front door and you’ll trip over a tech company of some sort as you fall down toward the pavement.
There are so many tech companies, from the classics (Apple, Intel, HP), to the relative youngsters (Google, Facebook, Twitter), to those that might be tech companies only because of the apps people use to interact with them (Uber, Lyft, Airbnb), that it would be easy to overlook some of the other industries in the region. Like pharmaceuticals.
Well, Monday was a day for the pharma team to chalk up a win. And that win came from Nektar Therapeutics.
San Francisco-based Nektar said it received positive results from a phase three clinical trial of something that sounds like the working title to a 1970s Steven Spielberg film: NKTR-181. What makes the drug promising is that NKTR-181 is an opioid that in its clinical trials has delivered relief from mild to moderate chronic back pain, but without much of the euphoria that comes with some similar drugs, which can potentially become habit forming.
Nektar said Monday that the latest clinical trials were enough reason for the Food and Drug Administration to give NKTR-181 “fast track” designation for its eventual approval and sale.
“Given the seriousness of the current opioid epidemic in the U.S. and the significant number of people battling chronic pain, we are committed to bringing this new molecule to patients and physicians as quickly as possible,” said Nektar Chief Executive Howard Robin, in a statement about NKTR-181’s successful clinical trial.
That trial was enough to boost the confidence of Nektar’s investors, who on Monday sent the company’s stock up by 42.7 percent, to close at $22.11. You can bet Nektar’s shareholders were feeling no pain with a gain like that.
Middle Innings:
Is Uber Over Oakland?: Not entirely, but the ride-sharing giant isn’t going to have as big a presence in “The Town’s” downtown as had been previously thought. Uber confirmed to the Mercury News that, instead of the 3,000 employees it had been expected to put into the old Sears building in Oakland’s Uptown district, it will only move a few hundred workers into the facility and lease about half of the building’s 380,000 square feet.
Of course, the way things have been going with executives departing from Uber, maybe the company won’t even need all the space its already has at his San Francisco headquarters?
Globalization, Good! When Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks, it’s best to listen. After all, the guy only runs the most-valuable publicly traded company in the world and sits at the top of what is (arguably) the most-recognizable brand in the history of business.
So, when Cook was in China this weekend, and delivered a speech in favor of globalization, it was sure to get some attention. Speaking at the China Development Forum, the Wall Street Journal reported that Cook said, “I think the worst thing would be to — because it didn’t help everyone — is to say it’s bad and do less of that.” Cook discussed globalization and other subjects during his speech, which surely wasn’t going to win him any fans with the Trump administration.
Bottom of the Lineup:
Here’s a look at how some leading Silicon Valley stocks did Monday.
Movin’ on Up: Along with Nektar, gains also came from FireEye, Advanced Micro Devices, Nvidia, IXYS and Aviat Networks.
In the Red: Decliners included SunPower, Accuray, Quotient Technololgy, Impax Laboratories and Servicesouce International.
It was a pretty “meh” day for the nation’s major stock-market gauges. Want proof?
The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index added just 0.5 points, to end the day at 5,901.53.
The blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped by 8.8 points to 20,905.86.
And the broad-based Standard & Poor’s 500 Index also retreated, but only by 5.8 points, to finish at 2,373.47.
Quote of the Day: ” It’s a double whammy for Wells Fargo.” — Ken Thomas, a Miami-based independent banking analyst. Thomas was speaking about Wells Fargo reporting a big drop in new checking accounts in February.
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