| The S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted 1.1% losses in Tuesday's session, while the Dow fell 1.0%. The small-cap Russell 2K closed the day with a 1.5% decline. Today, futures are volatile in the premarket, but S&P 500 contracts are currently holding onto a slim gain of about 0.3%. Russia has halted the flow of natural gas down the Nord Stream gas pipeline. The move could place more stress on increasingly tight oil & gas markets, especially in Western Europe. O'Reilly Automotive [ORLY] - Last Close: $698.26 Shares of O'Reilly Automotive are charging higher in today's premarket. The auto parts retailer is gaining in today's premarket after it released a corporate disclosure after yesterday's closing bell. O'Reilly Auto filed an 8-K form that revealed plans to issue shares of common stock in order to facilitate the exercise and sale of ten-year stock options that are set to expire in Jan. 2024. The disclosure was available on the SEC's Fast Edgar system, but details on the number of shares to be issued weren't immediately available at the time of writing. ORLY is leading the S&P 500 with a 4.2% gain. My Take: I like O'Reilly Auto, but I don't think it's a great entry point where we stand. It might be worth going into wait-and-see mode until there's a pullback. Cepton [CPTN] - Last Close: $1.73 Cepton is on the rise after announcing a new major investment in the company. The LiDAR firm announced after Tuesday's closing bell that it has received a non-binding letter of intent for an investment of up to $100 million from Koito Manufacturing. Koito is Cepton's long-term automotive Tier 1 partner and a current shareholder at the company. The transaction marks Koito's third investment in Cepton since 2020, and it will allow the company to further pad its growing war chest. CPTN is up 9.8% on active trading volume. My Take: CPTN is locked in a very narrow trading range, but maybe this rally could break it out of the funk. Overall, the stock looks attractive. LiDAR is a hot growth market, and Cepton has already proven it can turn a profit. Kala Pharmaceuticals [KALA] - Last Close: $0.2821 Kala Pharmaceuticals is surging in today's premarket. The biopharma firm is running hot after a couple of recent news stories hit the market. Yesterday, the micro-cap company announced plans for a reverse stock split, although the split's ratio was not immediately revealed. The matter is still up for shareholder vote, but Kala's board of directors is advising a 'yes' vote from shareholders. Kala also recently announced it would focus its efforts on developing its KPI-012 drug candidate to treat rare and severe ocular diseases. KALA is trading actively with a 20.5% gain in today's premarket. My Take: Hard to say why this one is running hot all of a sudden. The reverse stock split news doesn't seem to add up to this type of rally. Tread lightly here. Nuwellis Inc [NUWE] - Last Close: $0.6301 Upbeat drug data is lifting shares of NUWE.
The medical device company announced today that new clinical data revealed coronary bypass grafting patients using its Aquadex FlexFlow System demonstrated a 100% survival at 30 days. Nuwellis published the study's key clinical data in the Journal of Cardiac Surgery under the title: The Use of Simple Ultrafiltration Technology as a Fluid Management Strategy for High-Risk Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting Surgery, The company says it will continue to gather data about the use of Aquadex for challenging patient populations such as this. NUWE is up 58.7% on active trading volume. My Take: This is a very small-float stock, so it's no surprise we're seeing such a sharp move. Shorts are relatively low at 0.22%, but the small float is throwing extra fuel on this rally. |
