24/7 Wall St. » CTIC

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (K, SPLS, TWX, AAP, AZO, JPM, GCI, SIFY, WEN, ONB, GTXI, PBY, TNB, CTIC, PMC)

Paul Ausick — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:04:30 +0000

All three major indexes opened lower again today on weak markets in both Europe and Asia. European markets continued to be weighed down by the lack of a firm agreement on the Greek debt swap. In Asia, the weak US markets on Friday held gains down, and in Shanghai, where the government was expected to ease reserves requirements, the lack of any such move kept the index in the red for its first trading day following the week-long new year holiday. Crude oil traded down today, with WTI crude oil down -0.66% at $98.90/barrel and Brent crude down -0.62% at $110.77/barrel. Gold closed down -0.19% at $1,732.10/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 7 points to 12,653.5 (-0.05%), the NASDAQ fell more than 4 points (-0.16%) to 2,811.94, and the S&P 500 fell -0.25% or more than 3 points to 1,313.02.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Kellogg Co. (NYSE: K) cut to ‘neutral’ at JP Morgan; Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) cut to ‘sell’ at Goldman Sachs; Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) cut to ‘equal-weight’ at Barclays; Advance Auto Parts Inc. (NYSE: AAP) and Autozone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) both raised to ‘buy’ at Goldman Sachs; and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) maintained as ‘buy’ but removed from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Earnings reports since markets closed last Friday have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI) is down -6.77% at $14.19; Sify Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: SIFY) is down -5.4% at $4.74; The Wendy’s Co. (NYSE: WEN) is down -3.03% at $5.05; and Old National Bancorp. (NYSE: ONB) is down -1.90% at $11.86.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

GTX Inc. (NASDAQ: GTXI) is up nearly 49% at $5.86. The drug maker’s shares have been given a new price target of $19/share from Citigroup. We have more coverage here.

Pep Boys – Manny, Joe and Jack (NYSE: PBY) is up more than 23.5% at $14.92 after posting a new 52-week high of $15 earlier in the day. The auto parts retailer has agreed to an acquisition at $15/share. See more of our coverage here.

Thomas & Betts Corp. (NYSE: TNB) is up 13.33% at $71.28 after posting a new 52-week high of $71.80 earlier today. The electrical components maker has agreed to an acquisition by ABB Ltd. for $3.9 billion.

Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) is down nearly -18% at $1.10. The drug maker has withdrawn its application with FDA for approval of its non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma treatment.

Pharmerica Corp. (NYSE: PMC) is down nearly -12% at $12.64. The pharmacy services provider has expressed its wish that a hostile takeover bid from Omnicare Inc. (NYSE: OCR) will be withdrawn, following a Federal Trade Commission suit to block the deal. More coverage here.

Stay tuned for Tuesday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

8:30 a.m. – Employment cost index
9:00 a.m. – Case-Shiller housing price index
9:45 a.m. – Chicago purchasing managers index (PMI)
10:00 a.m. – Consumer confidence index
3:00 p.m. – Farm prices report

Paul Ausick

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Close, The Day Tagged: AAP, AZO, CTIC, GCI, GTXI, JPM, K, ONB, PBY, PMC, SIFY, SPLS, TNB, TWX, WEN

Morning Movers (GTXI, PBY, TNB, CTIC, PMC)

Paul Ausick — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:30:48 +0000

There are several stocks trading more heavily than usual this morning, and also experiencing large gains or drops in share prices. These include GTX Inc. (NASDAQ: GTX), Pep Boys — Manny, Joe & Jack (NYSE: PBY), Thomas & Betts Corp. (NYSE: TNB), Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC), and Pharmerica Corp. (NYSE: PMC)

After the first half-hour of trading, GTX Inc. is up more than 30% at $5.15. Volume is about 8x the daily average of about 188,000 shares traded. The drug maker’s shares have been given a new price target of $19/share from Citigroup.

Pep Boys is up nearly 23% at $14.85 after posting a new 52-week high of $15.00 earlier. Volume is already more than 13x the daily average of about 500,000 shares traded. The auto parts retailer has agreed to an acquisition at $15/share. See more of our coverage here.

Thomas & Betts is up more than 22% at $71.00 after posting a new 52-week high of $71.30 earlier. Volume is already 20x the daily average of about 330,000 shares traded. The electrical components maker has agreed to an acquisition by ABB Ltd. for $3.9 billion.

Cell Therapeutics is down nearly -17% at $1.11. Volume already more than double the daily average of 1.8 million shares traded. The drug maker has withdrawn its application with FDA for approval of its non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma treatment.

Pharmerica is down nearly -13% at $12.49. Volume is already more than double the daily average of nearly 400,000 shares traded. The pharmacy services provider has expressed its wish that a hostile takeover bid from Omnicare Inc. (NYSE: OCR) will be withdrawn, following a Federal Trade Commission suit to block the deal. More coverage here.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, HI/LOW, Market Roundups, The Day Tagged: CTIC, GTXI, PBY, PMC, TNB

Morning Movers (LIVE, CTIC, ADGE, CSKI, BONE)

Paul Ausick — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:30:10 +0000

There are several stocks trading more heavily than usual this morning, and also experiencing large gains or drops in share prices. These include LiveDeal Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVE), Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC), American DG Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: ADGE), China Sky One Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: CSKI), and Bacterin International Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BONE).

After the 45 minutes of trading this morning, LiveDeal is up nearly 23% at $3.76. Volume is already nearly equal to the daily average. The customer acquisition company regained its compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements.

American DG Energy is up about 4% at $1.60. Volume is already higher than the daily average. The energy systems maker has signed a 15-year energy supply agreement with a 225-unit high-rise in New Jersey.

China Sky One Medical is down nearly -19% at $0.92, after posting a new 52-week low of $0.89 earlier. Volume is already more than double the daily average. The nutritional supplement maker’s CFO resigned, following the CEO’s decision last week to take a medical leave.

Bacterin is up about 4% at $2.60. Volume has nearly reached the daily average. The medical device maker’s stock is down -46% for the year and today’s increase likely indicates some value hunting on the part of investors.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Open Tagged: ADGE, BONE, CSKI, CTIC, LIVE

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (C, SHLD, SIRI, YHOO, MCP, FGP, TITN, OPTT, KMGB, DMND, BCSI, FLOW, PCYC, CTIC, GE)

Paul Ausick — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:05:13 +0000

Equity markets opened higher this morning as an agreement on dealing with the Eurozone’s debt crisis boosted markets. Shares climbed during the day, recovering some of the losses in yesterday’s bear market. The consumer sentiment index rose to 67.7, higher than expected, giving the markets another shot in the arm. WTI crude oil is up nearly 1.5%, to $99.48/barrel and gold is up slightly to $1,710.60 shortly before the market closes today. For the week, equity markets are on track to post a small gain, but nothing like last week’s 7% jump.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up about 186 points to 12,184.11 (1.55%), the NASDAQ rose more than 50 points (1.94%) to 2,646.85, and the S&P 500 rose 1.68% or more than 20 points to 1,255.14.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) started as ‘equal-weight’ at Evercore Partners. Other ratings actions today include Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) started as ‘underperform’ at Imperial Capital; Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) started as ‘buy’ with a target price of $2.20 at Citigroup; Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) started as ‘market perform’ at BMO Capital; and Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP) started as ‘hold’ at ThinkEquity.

Here are today’s post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Ferrellgas Partners L.P. (NYSE: FGP) is down -2.7% at $20.77; Titan Machinery Inc. (NASDAQ: TITN) is up about 1% at $23.11; Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPTT) is up 0.63% at $3.20; and KMG Chemicals Inc. (NASDAQ: KMGB) is up 3.4% at $15.67.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Diamond Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND) is up more than 47% at $39.06. The snack food maker got a huge boost today on word from a broker that the accounting issues that have delayed Diamond’s acquisition of Pringles from Proctor & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) will be resolved soon and the acquisition will proceed quickly.

Blue Coat Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BCSI) is up more than 44% at $25.18. The network technology company is being taken private at $25.81/share in an all-cash offer that values the company at $1.3 billion.

Flow International Corp. (NASDAQ: FLOW) is up more than 44% at $3.50. The industrial products company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenues after markets closed last night. The stock also got an upgrade from ‘market perform’ to ‘outperform’ from Northland.

Pharmacyclics Inc. (NASDAQ: PCYC) is down more than -15% at $12.34. The cancer and immune system drug maker was downgraded to ‘sector perform’ at RBC Capital on lowered expectations that the company may be acquired in 2012.

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) is down more than -13%, at $1.19. The cancer treatment maker announced a $20 million sale of preferred stock and warrants that could boost the number of shares of common stock outstanding by 17.4 million.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is up more than 3.5% at $16.90. The conglomerate raised its quarterly dividend from $0.15/share to $0.17/share, the fourth increase since September 2010.

Stay tuned for Monday. Here are some noteworthy events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

11:30 a.m. – Short-term Treasury note auctions
1:00 p.m. – Three-year Treasury note auction
2:00 p.m. – US Treasury budget release

Have a great weekend.

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: BCSI, C, CTIC, DMND, FGP, FLOW, GE, KMGB, MCP, OPTT, PCYC, SHLD, SIRI, TITN, YHOO

24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (MO, VZ, TSO, LNKD, GE, CHKR, BTH, PBY, UEC, AZO, DRI, TOL, LQDT, DMND, SAI, VRA, FRO, CTIC, CRK, VG, HL)

Paul Ausick — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:11:36 +0000

Equities opened a little weaker this morning, but by 10:00 a.m. markets had turned slightly positive and have remained in positive territory for the rest of the day. The gain has not been huge, but it is a gain. The lack of enthusiasm from either buyers or sellers reflected the mood from European bourses as well. WTI crude oil rose 0.11%, to near $101.10 just before today’s close. Gold was off -0.02%, at $1,730.30/ounce.

The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA up more than 52 points to 12,150.13 (0.43%), the NASDAQ fell more than 6 points (-0.23%) to 2,649.56, and the S&P 500 rose 0.11% or nearly 5 points to 1,258.47.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) started as ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank. Other ratings action include Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) reiterated as ‘buy’ with a $44 price target at Argus; Tesoro Corp. (NYSE: TSO) cut from ‘outperform’ to ‘neutral’ with a $34 price target at Credit Suisse; LinkedIn Corp. (NASDAQ: LNKD) raised to ‘overweight’ at JPMorgan; and General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) raised to ‘outperform’ by Berstein.

Here are today’s post-earnings news reactions with prices during the last half-hour of trading: Chesapeake Granite Wash Trust (NYSE: CHKR) is up 0.7% at $19.94; Blyth, Inc. (NYSE: BTH) is down -0.05% at $66.33; Pep Boys-Manny, Joe, and Jack (NYSE: PBY) is down -5.5% at $11.21; Uranium Energy Corp. (AMEX: UEC) is up 0.66% at $3.06; AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) is down -0.12% at $338.56; Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) is down -12% at $41.95; Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) is up nearly 3% at $21.37; and Liquidity Services Inc. (NASDAQ: LQDT) is up nearly 5.5% at $36.74, after posting a new 52-week high of $37.05 earlier in the day. Earnings releases coming after markets close today include Diamond Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND); SAIC Inc. (NYSE: SAI); and Vera Bradley Inc. (NYSE: VRA).

Several other standouts from today are as follows…

Frontline Ltd. (NYSE: FRO) is up more than 19%, to $4.23. The oil tanker company has been suffering from low day rates and lack of cargoes, but today’s injection of $500 million from a Norwegian bank controlled by the company’s major shareholder, John Fredriksen, has pumped up interest in the stock.

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) is up 14%, at $1.31. The drug-maker received notice from the FDA that its new drug application for a treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma is complete.

Comstock Resources Inc. (NYSE: CRK) is up nearly 15%, at $19.39. The oil & gas E&P company has acquired new acreage in the Delaware Basin of west Texas and reported that it had drilled five new producing wells in its Eagle Ford shale acreage.

Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) is down nearly -5%, at $2.52. The VoIP provider did not report any significant news, but the stock has been quite volatile over the past month.

Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE: HL) is up more than 9%, at $6.57. The miner benefited from today’s investors’ interest in gold mining stocks.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. We have noted Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin moderating a panel on grass-roots participation at Baltimore branch of Richmond Fed. Here are other noteworthy events scheduled for Tuesday (all times Eastern):

7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
3:00 p.m. – Report on outstanding consumer credit

Paul Ausick

Filed under: HI/LOW, Market Close Tagged: AZO, BTH, CHKR, CRK, CTIC, DMND, DRI, FRO, GE, HL, LNKD, LQDT, MO, PBY, SAI, TOL, TSO, UEC, VG, VRA, VZ

24/7 Wall St. Top Analyst Calls of the Week (BK, BEAM, CTIC, CSCO, DMD, FSLR, GE, GS, RAX, S, VPRT, AAPL)

Administrator — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 12:54:35 +0000

Each morning 24/7 Wall St. compiles a summary of the analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall St. research firms that are having an impact on stocks. At the end of the week we review these calls to see which ones stand out the most. Some are great calls that were greatly insightful, some are long-term and far-reaching in nature that may be relevant well into the future, and some manage to be just awful. After filtering these calls out, these become the top analyst calls of the week.

This weeks top analyst calls were in the following stocks: Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK); Beam (NYSE: BEAM); Cell Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CTIC); Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO); Demand Media (NYSE: DMD); First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR); General Electric (NYSE: GE); Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS); Rackspace Hosting (NYSE: RAX); Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S); and Vistaprint (NASDAQ: VPRT). We also have a rivaling look at Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) as we look for upside elsewhere.

We have added in summaries, links to more details of these calls, and added in color where applicable.

Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK) has already been punished hard with banks and fiduciary banks. This last Thursday came a call from Zacks, calling it the Bear of the Day due to overhanging issues ahead. Keep in mind that this one has earnings this coming week.

Beam (NYSE: BEAM) is now on its own and we saw in the first week of October that the alcohol producer had been given an Overweight by Barclays and been put on the Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs. Now this last week came a more cautious report from Argus, who only gave a Hold rating. We will be tracking this one as Argus often looks at metrics that many other analyst reports do not take into consideration.

Cell Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CTIC) was given a highly unusual call from Zacks as the Bull of the Day on Friday with full details at BiohealthInvestor.com. This was actually a raise to Outperform based on a likely approval of pixantrone. Analysts often shy away from covering low-priced small cap stocks of this nature.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is well off of its lows and the company is in the middle of its restructuring. A firm called ISI Group started Cisco with a Buy rating and a $20.00 price target this last Friday.

Demand Media (NYSE: DMD) managed to come back strong on Friday, but on this last Wednesday (and the afternoon before) its shares were being hit hard. The controversial online content site was downgraded to Neutral at Goldman Sachs. The new price target was taken down to $8.20 as this one trades at about 33-times consensus earnings estimates for 2011.

Filed under: Analyst Calls, Research, The Week Tagged: AAPL, BEAM, BK, CSCO, CTIC, DMD, FSLR, GE, GS, JPM, RAX, S, VPRT

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (ALTR, BK, BRCM, CTIC, CLWR, COP, DG, GFI, HTS, KR, NTES, NVAX, RAX)

Administrator — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:26:23 +0000

These are some of this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen having an impact from Wall Street research calls.

Altera Corporation (NASDAQ: ALTR) Cut to Neutral at Baird.
Bank of New York-Mellon (NYSE: BK) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) was Underperform and has been dropped from coverage by BofA/ML as fundamentals are not driving the shares.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) Reiterated Buy with $85 target on Focus List at Argus.
Dollar General Corporation (NYSE: DG) reiterated strong buy as Momentum stock of the day at Zacks.
Gold Fields Limited (NYSE: GFI) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.
Hatteras Financial Corporation (NYSE: HTS) Cut to Neutral at Macquarie.
The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
NetEase.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) Started as Buy at Ladenburg Thalmann.
Rackspace Hosting, Inc (NYSE: RAX) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs, but reportedly Downgraded to Hold at a firm called Benchmark.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Analyst Calls Tagged: ALTR, BK, BRCM, CLWR, COP, CTIC, DG, GFI, HTS, KR, NTES, NVAX, RAX

Key Secondary Offerings Impacting Stocks (AHT, CTIC, SYNM, SKT)

Administrator — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:48:48 +0000

No money was injured while filming

The impact of secondary offerings is being felt this morning. Some key deals announced are from Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE: AHT), Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC), Syntroleum Corporation (NASDAQ: SYNM), Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE: SKT). We have identified the offering terms of each deal and provided the appropriate color on each deal.

Ashford Hospitality Trust, Inc. (NYSE: AHT) was supposed to sell 6 million shares but sold 7 million shares at $12.50 per share. Ashford will repay its outstanding debt under its senior credit facility, for general corporate purposes, financing future hotel-related investments, capital expenditures and working capital or repayment of other debt or obligations. Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, KeyBanc Capital Markets, and UBS are managers for the offering and Ashford granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,050,000 shares to cover over-allotments. Ashford closed at $12.44 yesterday and shares are indicated up around $12.50 after being at $13.20 earlier in the week. Its 52-week range is $6.46 to $14.32

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) is down almost 15% at $1.66 after going back to the capital well after closing at $1.96 yesterday. The company sold $30 million of shares of its Series 13 Preferred Stock and warrants to six institutional investors, with each preferred share convertible at the option of the holder into 588 shares of common stock at $1.70 per share as the conversion price for a total of approximately 17,647,059 shares of common stock. The adjusted 52-week range is $1.26 to $3.30.

Syntroleum Corporation (NASDAQ: SYNM) sold 15,900,000 shares of common stock and warrants to purchase up to 7,950,000 shares of our common stock at a price of $1.58 per share with 0.5 of a 5 year warrant to purchase one share of common stock at an exercise price of $2.36. Syntroleum is set to get gross proceeds of $25.1 million from the stock sale and an additional $18.8 million if all the warrants are exercised. The deal was sold for the company’s benefit and by the company through JMP Securities LLC; net proceeds are for general corporate purposes, working capital for its Dynamic Fuels, LLC investment and initial natural gas to liquids project development. Shares are getting pounded as a result of the offering by almost 25% of a drop to $1.49. The new adjusted market cap before the effects of this offering is about $122 million.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE: SKT) announced the pricing of a 4 million share offering at $25.95 per share. The shares were previously sold to Jefferies & Company, Inc., who also happens to be the sole underwriter of the offering. There is a 30-day option to purchase up to 600,000 additional shares to cover overallotments. The company said that it intends to use the net proceeds to pay down funds in its senior unsecured lines of credit and for general corporate purposes. Tanger was at $26.80 earlier in the week and closed at $26.32 yesterday. Oddly, it is getting a boost and shares are up 1.7% at $26.76 on the offering. What helped this morning was that Credit Suisse began coverage with an Outperform rating and a $30 price target.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Secondary Offering, Trading Alert Tagged: AHT, CTIC, SKT, SYNM

Rethinking Cell Therapeutics… As An Acquirer? (CTICD)

Administrator — Thu, 26 May 2011 14:03:04 +0000

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTICD) has long been a controversial stock. It has brought many rewards for investors and it has also brought much pain to investors. We recently featured its positive development in pixantrone with an appeal at the FDA that will allow it to resubmit a new drug application. Keep in mind that the company recently went through a reverse stock split.

Today brings news that Cell Therapeutics, being “consistent with its previously announced pipeline strategy,” has identified a potential acquisition opportunity. Most companies do not telegraph what they are trying to buy and how great the benefits are because they might actually drive the price up. Who wants to bid against themselves?

Cell Therapeutics has said its acquisition opportunity is a phase II drug candidate under study in cancer immunotherapy as protein therapeutics activating macrophages and dendritic cells “to present foreign antigens to T-killer cells and T-memory cells thus activating a tumor specific immune attack with potential lifelong immunity against the cancer.”

The company noted that this is tumor-specific and is an individualized approach for harnessing a patient’s immune system to fight and potentially eradicate cancer. For the company to try to announce that it looks forward to further discussion and to conducting due diligence, this seems like another capital raise is coming.

Another reminder was made about the company having two of its drug candidates in American Society of Clinical Oncology presentations in a week. One is interim data from a study with OPAXIO™ in patients with newly diagnosed high-grade gliomas, and another is interim study results of tosedostat in elderly patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

Most shares tank after their reverse stock splits. These shares went ex-split on a 1-for-6 split just on May 16, 2011 and the stock went from an adjusted $1.62 to $1.59 on that day. Shares are up over 1% so far this morning at $2.12, and the highs in the last week were $2.40 intra-day and $2.26 for a closing price.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Biotech, Mergers and Buy Outs Tagged: CTIC, CTICD

BioWatch: Cell Therapeutics Versus FDA, Before ASCO (CTICD)

Administrator — Tue, 24 May 2011 11:40:32 +0000

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTICD) has been very active since its recent 1-for-6 reverse stock split took place on May 16, 2011. Its share volume has increased on all but one of the last six trading sessions, although its price has risen in four of the last six sessions. Monday’s 13.9+ million shares may be hard to top as we have shares taking a breather in the Tuesday pre-market session.

What is driving shares is that the FDA Office of Oncology Drug Products is meeting with the company in early June to discuss the re-submission of its New Drug Application for pixantrone for accelerated approval to treat patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The FDA meeting is after received a response to the appeal announced on May 3, 2011, Whether or not this leads to an approval is one thing, but the company is now allowed to resubmit its new drug application for approval by the FDA with additional information based on pixantrone’s PIX 301 trial.

The FDA has requested that Cell Therapeutics submit two items… “an additional review of radiographs by an independent panel and additional information regarding circumstances of stopping the clinical trial prior to achieving the planned accrual to assure reviewers that efficacy assessments were not involved in the decision to stop accrual early.”

Cell Therapeutics is also presenting data on OPAXIO and Tosedostat at ASCO next week, and that may act as an additional share-moving event.

It seems unlikely that another 13.9 million shares will be seen all over again as we saw on Monday without any fresh news hitting the tape, but the market gods may have the determining factor there. Cell Therapeutics’ shares are indicated down at $2.07 on almost 45,000 shares with about two hours until the market opens. Shares closed at $2.26 on Monday and the adjusted 52-week trading range after the reverse split is $1.26 to $3.30 and the market cap was about $378 million as of Monday.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Biotech, FDA, Trading Alert Tagged: CTIC, CTICD