June 28, 2013
- The naked mole rat: How this stunningly ugly creature holds the key to a potential cancer cure… and the only company harnessing the rodent’s secrets
- Gold tests another round number: Two charts that signal a long-term recovery to $2,230
- That’ll learn him: Feds seek to ban Corzine from the securities industry
- Lasers and “rail guns”: Byron King eyes the future of weaponry
- Stumbling to the end of the second quarter… the Secret Service versus an ultimate Frisbee league… second thoughts on the palatability of feral hogs… and more!
“After writing this week’s alert,” our tech arbiter Patrick Cox begins with a strange update to one of his favorite biotech plays, “about the benefit to this company from the Supreme Court ruling, another story broke with profound implications for the company.”
In yesterday’s episode, Patrick weighed in on the Supreme Court’s ruling on patenting human genes, its effects on the biotech field and his company’s good fortune as a result.
On top of this, another bit of news surfaced that could lift this company to new heights. This time, in the unlikeliest of places.
Scientists call it “Heterocephalus glaber.”
You know it as the naked mole rat.
Devilishly ugly, yes, but this freakish little guy could hold the key to curing the world of its most horrendous disease.
Yeesh…
“Naked mole rats,” Patrick goes on, “have been the object of scientific curiosity since these East African rodents were discovered by Western researchers.”
Ever since their discovery, the Western researchers have been perplexed by two attractive traits:
One: They live far longer than their Rodentia family, sometimes as much as 10 times longer.
Two: Unlike their brother and sister rodents, the naked mole rat appears to be immune to cancer.
That’s right… cancer.
Somehow, the naked mole rat has been blessed with a complex carbohydrate polymer known as HMM-HA, or HA for short.
“In the body,” Patrick explains, “our own HA plays numerous critical structural and signaling roles. It is a crucial part of cartilage, the skin and many other organs. HA is critical for wound healing and, because it is so hydrophilic, or water-attracting, it lubricates the body.”
Also, “It plays a critical role in embryogenesis, and the umbilical cord consists primarily of HA. When we are young, we have plenty of high-molecular-mass HA. As we age, we produce more HA, but its molecular weight falls, which explains why our skin and joints lose elasticity.”
How does this tie into curing cancer? “Specifically,” says Patrick of two researchers on the case, “Andrei Seluanov and Vera Gorbunova found that the longevity of naked mole rats depends on their rich, cancer-fighting deposits of high-molecular-mass HA.
“I won’t go over their entire experiment but will point out that mole rats that had HA production blocked quickly got cancers and died. The researchers believe that HMM-HA activates the cancer-killing p16 gene.”
Coming back full circle, as far as we know, there’s only one company with the know-how, brains and technology to quickly put this discovery to work…
“From the perspective of an investor,” says Patrick, “the important thing to know is that this company has the only usable HMM-HA available.
“In fact, at least 30 researchers are using their technology in therapies aimed at the repair of the heart, liver, kidney, vocal chords, brain and more. Using it for controlled release of growth factors in animal brains, scientists have seen the first successful repair of damaged brain tissues following a stroke.”
Also, this technology is “already in broad use within the unregulated veterinary community for wound healing and such. This is one reason,” Patrick concludes, “that we can have so much confidence that the technology will perform in humans.”
[Ed. Note: Even though this company is up 426% from Patrick’s entry price, you can still get in today at under $4 a share. That is, if you act quickly. This price won’t last long… and neither will your opportunity to learn how to get in before it’s too late — that ends tomorrow night at midnight. Click here to take advantage before the potential rush tomorrow.]
Stocks are losing ground as the second quarter stumbles to a close.
At last check, the Dow has slipped back below 15,000. The S&P 500 is at 1,610 after trying and failing yesterday to top its 50-day moving average.
“Until we see a meaningful, sustainable push above 1,620 toward 1,650,” advises Greg Guenthner in today’s Rude Awakening, “expect the market to churn sideways or trickle lower.”
Gold dipped below $1,200 when trading opened last night in Hong Kong… but tentatively recovered shortly after 10:00 a.m. EDT.
As we write, the bid is $1,211. The Midas metal is on track for its worst quarter ever, according to Reuters figures going back to 1968. At the end of March, it was still dancing around $1,600.
“I think a gold update will be demanded by 5 PRO readers after this week!” suggested Dan Amoss, the tireless champion of The 5‘s PRO-level edition.
As it happens, he’s received an advance copy of In Gold We Trust — the annual report by analyst Ronald Stoeferle. For years, Stoeferle hung his hat at the legendary Austrian bank Erste Group. Now he’s moved on to Liechtenstein-based Incrementum AG.
“Based on our conservative assumptions, we arrive at a long-term price target of $2,230,” Mr. Stoeferle writes. That’s in line with his previous forecasts.
He shares the view expressed by others in our virtual pages — that gold’s current slump “exhibits strong similarities to the midcycle correction of 1974-76.” Then, gold plunged from $200 to $100… eventually racing up past $800 by 1980.
A couple of things stand out in the report’s 54 pages. First is gold’s tiny share of global financial assets. “The value of global assets amounted to $223 trillion as of the end of 2012,” Stoeferle writes. “The share of investable gold currently amounts to $1.1 trillion, or only 0.5%.”
Compare that minuscule percentage with 1981… when gold made up 26% of global assets. Or 1948, when it comprised 30% of the pie.
We’ll get there again, Stoeferle suggests: “The notable characteristics of gold (global currency with a long-term track record, no credit or counterparty risk, highly liquid and globally traded, very little inflation through mine production) are especially desirable in the current environment.”
To say nothing of gold’s performance in an era of “financial repression.”
That’s when central banks hold interest rates so low they’re effectively below zero once you account for inflation. Gold has a history of outperformance at such times.
“The belief that the gold bull market is over,” Stoeferle writes, “must be accompanied by an expectation of rising real interest rates.” Central banks won’t dare let that happen anytime soon, he says: It would send sputtering economies, barely able to maintain altitude now, into a tailspin.
As for gold stocks, Stoeferle says from a sentiment perspective they amount to “the ultimate contrarian play.” PRO-level readers can scroll down for a menu of junior gold players that can survive the cash crunch facing the industry.
From the too-little-too-late file, the feds have filed civil charges against Jon Corzine.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is seeking unspecified penalties for Corzine’s role in the failure of MF Global. As you may recall, the firm scooped up funds from customer accounts to meet the margin calls in its trading accounts during autumn 2011, when the firm’s bets on eurozone debt started going the wrong way.
Fitting that he appears in the same episode of The 5 as the naked mole rat and (later) feral hogs
The CFTC seeks to ban Corzine from the industry — the ultimate in closing the barn door after the horse got out. Never mind that Corzine was allowed back in the industry after his gig in politics even though he’d let his registration with FINRA, the industry’s self-regulating body, lapse.
“Most customers,” Reuters reports, “have already been reimbursed for about 93% of the value of their accounts.”
That’s probably as good as it’s going to get…
“It’s Star Trek tech… except it’s real!” says Byron King. He was referring to a new era of armaments, naval energy weapons or lasers and rail guns in his new advisory, Byron King’s Military-Technology Alert.
“Among the great selling points for energy weapons,” he explains “is that they place immense levels of energy on a target in a hurry. If it’s a laser, you get intense levels of coherent photons. If it’s a rail gun, it’s ‘kinetic’ energy, with a relatively small metal mass moving at awesome velocity.” The bottom line? Hasta la vista, baby.
But according to Byron, these weapons are also cost-effective — important for Pentagon bean counters these days. “If the other side has, say, cheap drones or low-cost cruise missiles,” he says, “what’s the current military solution? Shoot super-expensive rounds at the cheap drone.” But with laser and rail gun technology, those shots cost just a few dollars for the electricity used.
As an investment opportunity, Byron says the best analogy is missiles before World War II. “We’re early in this game, to be sure,” he says. “It all has to evolve.” But right now, he says, these breakthroughs are moving from the lab and into the field.
Nor will the investment possibilities end with the weapons themselves. As these new systems replace current ones on ships’ topsides, the fleets will require complex power systems. Stay tuned…
Our quest for a little absurdity to start the weekend on the right foot takes us to… where else? The nation’s capital.
For a long time, ultimate Frisbee players gathered each Wednesday night at a park near the White House called the Ellipse. That was, until the National Park Service started planting a bunch of trees that got in their way.
The Ellipse: Its formal name is “President’s Park South”
“Half-jokingly,” according to a report at DCist, “one of the Frisbee league’s organizers, Armand Lione, sent a letter to Michelle Obama, pleading with the first lady’s love of physical fitness to intervene on what the disc-tossers saw as a National Park Service campaign to push their years-old league out of the park.”
Turns out the Park Service wasn’t to blame. The Secret Service was.
D.C.’s nonvoting representative in Congress, Eleanor Holmes Norton, convened a meeting with the relevant agencies. “At this meeting,” she wrote to Lione, “I learned that the trees were planted to increase security at the White House following an incident.”
What the incident was, her letter did not say.
Plant a tree, prevent an “incident”…
All the same, we think the feds are providing Americans a vital cue here: If you plant some more trees on your property, you’ll be doing your part to prevent “incidents.” Maybe the NSA will look upon you more favorably if it analyzes your email and phone-calling habits. Couldn’t hurt…
“Feral hogs,” a reader writes in a thread that’s taken on a life of its own, “don’t taste nearly as bad as they smell.
“But the damage they can render to a car at 85 miles per hour can run into the thousands.”
“Avoid hearsay,” another reader cautions. “I have eaten feral hog meat and been bitten by a feral hog, so that makes me an expert.
“Fresh and truly wild feral hog meat smells and tastes like crap, which you can imagine from their vulture-like diet of things like acorns and roadkill. Of course, if you find a feral hog that manages to live in a cornfield or eats other tasty grains, I can imagine their meat would eventually become ‘normal piglike.’ But that is not really a feral hog, is it?
“The Arkansas razorback I managed to kill after it gored through my leather boot many years ago gives credence to the fact that yes, they are dangerous. I can also tell you that a series of .22 long rifle bullets into their skull will only annoy them. It took a .38/40 to get through its thick skull bone.
“Glad to give firsthand direct testimony. The majority opinion is not necessarily correct.”
“Here in Florida,” writes a third, “the farmers often hold feral hog roasts. Here’s the recipe:
1) Get the whole family together (invite the neighbors) with auto-loading shotguns.
2) Gun down the whole herd.
3) Pile up the carcasses with a front-loader.
4) Pour diesel fuel over the pile and ignite.
5) Stand upwind.
6) Repair the hole in the fence so you won’t have to do it again.”
“It occurs to me,” writes our final contributor, “that shipping a few herds of feral hogs to Afghanistan and freeing them in areas controlled by the radicals might be a very good idea.
“Destroying food crops and attacking the enemy while being untouchable: Sounds like a plan to me.”
The 5: Yeah, but what happens when they consume all the opium poppies?
Have a good weekend,
Dave Gonigam
The 5 Min. Forecast
P.S. We’ve expended much virtual ink in the first half of 2013 examining a phenomenon we provocatively called the “God switch.”
“Most investors,” says Patrick Cox, “look wistfully back at the early days of Google and Amazon.com wishing they’d invested. Back then, however, most of the experts considered these unprecedented enterprises nothing but novelties or fads.
“The vision of this project is as grand as those behind Google and Amazon,” he says.
Our cutting-edge research into this project will remain on our servers for another 18 hours or so. Then it comes down at midnight tomorrow night. Take a look, while you still can.