Juno Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: JUNO)
On Tuesday, Juno Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in mid-stage development of promising immunotherapy cancer treatments know as Car-T, saw its stock rise almost 12% before closing the day up 8.6% at $47.32. The move came on more than twice the average daily volume and appears to be driven by a bullish report from FBR Capital, one of the four analysts with ‘buy’ or ‘outperform’ opinions on JUNO. The stock continued its bullish action today reaching a high of $49.35 before closing the day up another 3% at $48.74
JUNO Outlook
The FBR report comes after an investor meeting with the CEO and CFO of Juno.
According to Ed White of FBR,
“The company’s pipeline is deep with ten candidates potentially in clinical trials using either CAR or TCR by early 2016,” White also suggested that investors are focused on treatments for leukemia and solid tumors and are likely “unaware of the advancements that Juno is making in lymphoma.” Yahoo Finance
JUNO Technical Analysis
JUNO’s price action on Tuesday showed significant relative strength. The large gain came as much of the Biotech sector was selling off with IBB, the highly regarded metric for biotechnology traders, once again approaching the lows of 2015. JUNO has also shown relative strength since the Biotech bottom on August 24. While much of the sector has experienced overall weakness with many days of high volume selling, JUNO has maintained a slow, steady consolidation. Today’s price action was in-step with the biotech sector.
The Biotech sector overall has been in a downtrend since late July. While JUNO has been somewhat of an outlier, I continue to focus on intraday setups. The past two days have established a trading range between $47.30 and $48.80. Within that range pivot levels are $47.70, $48, and $48.80. Trade accordingly.
Beyond the consolidation range I expect resistance at $49, where sellers showed up today, and at the high of the day, $49.35. If JUNO goes above this level it will be driven by; a new catalyst, a short squeeze, or overall market strength. Be aware that there is a lot of long-term price congestion between current levels and $54 so tape-reading and trailing stops are important. Also be aware that with 12.15% of the float short, a short-squeeze is likely with any volume driven move higher.
On the short side, support is at $48, $47.30 and $47. Depending on your trading strategy a break below any of these levels requires action. I would be watching $47.00 for key support. A breach of that level has potential to bring the stock down to $46, which was the resistance price breached, triggering Tuesday’s mid-day breakout.
About Juno Therapeutics, Inc.
Juno Therapeutics, Inc. (Juno) is a biopharmaceutical company. The Company is developing cell-based cancer immunotherapies based on its chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T cell receptor (TCR) technologies to genetically engineer T cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. Juno’s product candidates, JCAR015, JCAR017 and JCAR014, utilize CAR technology to target CD19, a protein expressed on the surface of various B cell leukemias and lymphomas. Juno’s other product candidates include JCAR018: CD22, JCAR023: L1CAM (CD171), JCAR020: MUC-16 / IL-12, ROR-1 and JTCR016: WT-1. JCAR015 is in Phase I open label clinical trial stage for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (r/r ALL). JCAR017 is in Phase I/II trial for patients with pediatric r/r ALL. JCAR014 is in Phase I/II trial as a treatment for various B cell malignancies in patients. JTRC016 is in Phase I/II clinical trial for the treatment of AML, myelodysplasic syndrome and chronic myeloid leukemia. Google Finance
