Fate Therapeutics rises on Lupus drug data

Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Breakfast, where we cover the top news for investors every morning. Good morning! Today is Tuesday, November 19. I'm Julie Morgan. Fate Therapeutics releases promising data on its lupus treatment. Super Microcomputer has a plan, and Blackstone is reportedly set to acquire a sandwich chain.

Fate Therapeutics closed 12 percent higher on Monday after soaring as much as 73 percent. The increase was on the news that the first patient in the company's Phase 1 autoimmunity study for its CAR-T cell therapy candidate FT819 is in remission for lupus six months after treatment.

The company said the patient, an African-American Asian woman, diagnosed with lupus nephritis received luderebine-free conditioning, followed by a single dose of FT819. The woman achieved clinical remission as of the six-month follow-up, free of all immunosuppressive therapies, as of the data cut-off date of November 11.

The company said it is also enrolling a second treatment arm under the Phase 1 autoimmunity study to evaluate a single dose of FT819 as an add-on to maintenance therapy without conditioning chemo therapy in patients with a different form of lupus. The new arm is being conducted in parallel with the study's conditioning arm.

Data from the Phase 1 studies was presented at the American College of Rheumatology Convergence meeting in Washington, D.C. In a note Monday, B.A.V. said it was upgrading its rating of the stock to neutral from underperform, but keeping its price target at $3.

Biave said that while it viewed the update as supporting the company's pivot from oncology to immunology, it would like to see additional data from more patients before making changes to its model. Biave noted that fate has guided that it will present additional data from the first three dose patients at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, which will be held December 7th to 10th. Fate is up 2% in pre-market action.

Super Microcomputer closed Monday nearly 16 percent higher and is up 31 percent pre-market. This after the company said it has engaged an independent auditor and has submitted a compliance plan to NASDAQ. The company said it has engaged accounting firm BDO USA as its auditor, effective immediately.

This comes after SMCI on Wednesday said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it needs more time to file its latest quarterly earnings report. In its compliance plan to NASDAQ, the company indicated that it believes it will be able to complete its annual report on Form 10K for the year ended June 30th, 2024 and its quarterly report on 10Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30th, 2024.

Blackstone is zeroing in on a deal to buy Jersey Mike's subs in a transaction that will value the sandwich chain at about $8 billion, including debt. The Wall Street Journal reported on Mondays citing people familiar with the matter that an agreement may be announced soon if talks don't break down. Jersey Mike's, which has more than 3,000 locations, is the second biggest sub-style sandwich chain in the U.S. by sales after Subway, according to economic data cited by the journal.

Now I have a few other articles that I'd like to share with you that you can find on Seeking Alpha. Nippon Steel makes an anti-import promise to win worker support for US Steel Deal.

No time to chill, Netflix must fix its live streaming before the Christmas NFL games or lose face. According to Bloomberg, the DOJ will ask a judge to push Google to sell the Chrome browser. And Apple is said to offer a $100 million investment in Indonesia to reverse the ban of the iPhone 16.

On our catalyst to watch for the day, the IPO quiet period ends on WeRide. The Chinese robo-taxi stock has soared since its public debut last month. And the three-day Microsoft Ignite Conference will begin. The tech giant is expected to highlight its latest AI innovations. Last year, companies ranging from Oracle, Asana, to Monday.com were seen benefiting from the updates at the Ignite Conference.

Now let's take a quick look at the markets today as of 6am. Dow S&P and NASDAQ futures are in the red. Crude oil is also down 0.7% at $68 a barrel. Bitcoin is flat at 91,000. In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is down 0.5% and the DAX is down 1.2%.

Symbotic is on our list of the biggest movers of the day pre-market. SYM is up 26% after the company reported strong fiscal Q4 results with revenue growing 47% year over year. On today's economic calendar, at 830 AM, housing starts and permits and at 10 AM, e-commerce retail sales.

That's it for today's Wall Street breakfast. Thanks for listening! For a full offering of news, analysis, ratings, and data on stocks and ETFs, become a premium subscriber. Learn more at seekingalpha.com slash subscriptions. I'm your host, Julie Morgan. Go out and make it a great day!