Mostly inspired by reports that the Bank of England wouldn’t be cutting its interest rates after all, the bulls found another reason to fan the buying flames today.
But while the S&P 500 Index closed at 2163.75 on Thursday, 0.53% better than Wednesday’s closing price, not every stock jumped on the bullish bandwagon.
Juno Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:JUNO), Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ:WYNN) and Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRCD) just couldn’t get out of the mud, and ended the day more than a little bit in the red.
Here’s the deal:
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (BRCD)
Robert W. Baird didn’t just upend Brocade Communications Systems on Thursday. Baird crushed it with a rather extreme prejudice, downgrading BRCD to an “underperform,” saying it sees a 15% downside for the communications technology stock.
Baird analyst Jayson Noland wrote:
“It’s become common for a storage reseller to tell us that AFA will become the de facto standard for primary storage applications with HDD-based arrays relegated to back-up and archive solutions. We believe this dynamic puts substantial pressure on the Fibre Channel port opportunity for Brocade… We expect Brocade’s FC SAN revenue to decline at least mid single digits YoY versus current management guidance of flat to down 2%.”
BRCD shares ended the day down 7%.
Juno Therapeutics Inc (JUNO)
Just when it looked like Juno Therapeutics shareholders were going to catch a break — and see JUNO stage a rebound effort — the company undermined its effort, sending the stock down more than 5% as a result.
Juno Therapeutics shares were hit hard last week after the FDA halted its phase-2 trial of leukemia drug JCAR-015. The prep-treatment for the drug had been linked to two deaths, and before the trial could resume, the Food and Drug Administration (as well as the company) wanted a better understanding of what may have caused three deaths among the trial’s participants.
The reprieve came yesterday when the FDA told Juno Therapeutics it could resume the trial. Today though, the company fell back out of investors’ good graces when it reported the death toll from the trial had actually reached four rather than the previously given tally of three.
Wynn Resorts, Limited (WYNN)
Finally, shares of casino name Wynn Resorts were off by nearly 3% today after JPMorgan downgraded the stock, simultaneously cutting its target price on WYNN. JPMorgan lowered its opinion of the company from “overweight” to “neutral,” and lowered its target price from $101 to $94.
That said, the new rating and target prices may have more to do with the recent runup than concerns of systemic problems for the gambling/resort outfit.
Through yesterday, WYNN shares were up 37% year-to-date, and moved firmly higher on Monday on reports of solid gaming revenue growth from Macau. As of the first ten days of July, the month’s Macau top line should roll in more than 8% better than its year-ago figure.
JPMorgan felt that the potential upside of that news and its ramifications had already been priced into the value of WYNN shares.
As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
