Today - Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals (CYCC) - Had it's Highest Volume Day, and Highest Close in a Month:

I haven't talked about my favorite microcap biotech company in a while, because there hasn't been a lot to talk about...There have been some interesting developments in the past month or so, that haven't increased the share price of the stock, even though I think one of them should have...

The first piece of interesting news has to do with a patent infringement case between Celgene (Nasdaq - CELG) and Cyclacel:

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J., June 18, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:CYCC - News) (Nasdaq:CYCCP - News), a biopharmaceutical company developing oral therapies that target the various phases of cell cycle control for the treatment of cancer and other serious disorders, today announced that it filed its Answer and Counterclaims to the declaratory judgment complaint filed by Celgene Corporation. Cyclacel has filed counterclaims charging Celgene with infringement of each of four Cyclacel-owned patents and seeks damages for Celgene's infringement as well as injunctive relief. The four patents directly involve the use and administration of Celgene's ISTODAX(R) (romidepsin for injection) product.

The declaratory judgment complaint seeks to have the four Cyclacel patents, which claim the use of romidepsin for injection in T-cell lymphomas, declared invalid and not infringed by Celgene's products.

The four Cyclacel patents which are the subject of this action do not involve Cyclacel's clinical development candidates or its commercial products.

(The bottom line here is Celgene is infringing on Cyclacel's patents!...not the other way around...If CELG loses this patent infringement case, they will owe CYCC a nice chunk of change...IMO)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Cyclacel-Answers-Celgenes-pz-2925157020.html?x=0&.v=1

On June 28, 2010 it was PR'd that:

CYCC had been added to the Russell Microcap Index:

(This means that a lot of Hedge Funds must buy shares of CYCC if they don't already own them...)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Cyclacel-Pharmaceuticals-pz-3695109373.html?x=0&.v=1

The most interesting development was the announcement on July 1st that:

Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals Announces FDA Orphan Drug Designation for their lead drug Sapacitabine in Both AML and MDS:

"Orphan drug designation for both AML and MDS significantly strengthens the value proposition represented by sapacitabine and enhances our opportunity to advance this promising product candidate to late stage clinical development and commercialization," said Spiro Rombotis, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cyclacel.

Orphan drug designation entitles Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals to seven years of marketing exclusivity for sapacitabine upon regulatory approval, as well as the opportunity to apply for grant funding from the U.S. government to defray costs of clinical trial expenses, tax credits for clinical research expenses and a potential waiver of the FDA's application user fee. Orphan status is granted by the FDA to promote the development of new drug therapies for the treatment of diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States.

(There was a huge Volume spike that day, but not much upward movement of the share price that day or in the days that followed...Personally, I think this is HUGE news and the share price should've move north because of it, but the overall market was in dump mode during this period and the biotech sector as a whole was pretty badly beaten up...)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Cyclacel-Pharmaceuticals-pz-2152455345.html?x=0&.v=1

Yesterday, the company announced the date they'll release Q2 Earnings and host a Conference Call:

Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals to Announce Release of Second Quarter 2010 Financial Results:

CYCC will announce second quarter 2010 financial results on Thursday, August 5, 2010. The Company will host a conference call and live webcast at 4:30 pm Eastern time on the same day.

Conference call information:

U.S./Canada call: (877) 493-9121/ international call: (973) 582-2750

U.S./Canada archive: (800) 642-1687 / international archive: (706) 645-9291

Code for live and archived conference call is 91437070

For the live and archived webcast, please visit the Corporate Presentations page on the Cyclacel website at www.cyclacel.com The webcast will be archived for 90 days and the audio replay for 7 days.

(EarningsWhispers.com says their projected earnings for last quarter are ($0.17), which would beat the previous quarter's actual earnings of ($0.18) by a penny...Also notice in the Analysts Recommendation section CYCC is listed as a "Strong Buy":)

http://www.earningswhispers.com/stocks.asp?symbol=CYCC

And now for the charts:

As you can see, the candlestick hit the upper Bollinger Band (BB) on the daily chart for the first time in three months...Unfortunately, I never buy AT the upper BB even if the candlestick formed today is very tall, white, bullish, and closed only two cents below the high of the day...I'm not saying it can't go up any further, but this is where I usually take profits if I was actually trading in and out of this stock...Which I'm not...I own a nice block of shares bought at $1.45 on July 20th when the hourly (and daily) chart said it was time to get back IN:

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=52462152

Now that I'm up nearly three grand, did I take profits today?....NO!...Why?...Because news about the SPA is nearly a month overdue from when the CEO said to expect it during last quarter's conference call...Why the delay?...Because SPA's are a back and forth dialog between the FDA and the company that creates a Phase III trial that uses the FDA's design protocols...While SPA's are not guarantees that the Phase III trial will be successful and lead up to FDA approval of the drug, it greatly increases the chances for success...I think the delay in announcing the SPA has been due to a continuing dialog between the FDA and the company that is in the process of altering and improving the Phase III trial design...So there has been another delay...So what?...If the trial is now on track to be safer and more effective, I don't mind another small delay...I truly believe that if the SPA had been denied, we would have heard about that by now...

The reason I won't sell my block of shares today is because news about the SPA could come anytime between now and the CC, and if you're not IN when this news is PR'd, you will miss out on a nice spike up, and you'll be chasing the price higher after the PR is released...Especially if the SPA is followed immediately by news of a partnership with a big pharma company to help fund and execute the Phase III trial...If that happens, I'm pretty sure we will see a very large spike up in a very short period of time...And when I see that spike, I'll probably lock in my profits as close to the top as I can, because there will be a long quiet period for news after these two things are announced...

More Technical Analysis:

Today's close gave us the highest Volume day, and the highest closing price since June 29th when they announced Orphan Status for their lead drug...Today's candle looks very Bullish, even if it is AT the upper BB...The 5MA has crossed up thru the 15MA very sharply, which hasn't happened for a long time...The CCI is getting a bit toppy by rising above the +100 line, but Stochastics isn't very Overbought yet with a reading of only 69 for the fast line, which is above the slow line and upticking very sharply...The MACD is looking Bullish with the Histogram upticking sharply today (blue bars), and the fast line did too and is above the slow line which is also upticking...



The chart below has a few more technical indicators on it: Starting with the dark green Chaikin Money Flow at the top, it's at a two month high...On Balance Volume (red line) and Accumulation/Distribution (black line) are upticking sharply, and also close to two month highs...We already covered the CCI, STO, and the MACD on the previous chart...The ADX shows the green DI+ is above the red DI- and they are diverging further apart...The green line at the bottom is the RSI - Relative Strength Index, and it's AT two month highs...

Add everything together, and these charts are screaming BULLishness!...

The only negative I can see is today's candle AT the upper BB, because it is almost always a level of Resistance...Only increasing Volume early next week will be able to start to bend the upper BB up, and allow the price to keep bumping up against it as it moves up...



The weekly chart clearly shows that CYCC is in the bottoming process...It's bouncing up off of the lower BB, this week's candlestick is a Bullish Hammer (and so was last week's, and the week before was an Inverted Hammer showing a Reversal)...It convincingly closed above the 5MA for the first time since early June...The weekly Volume doesn't look so great because each day this week preceding today had record setting low Volume, so the weekly averages out to roughly the same as the weeks before this one...The CCI has just given a Buy Signal by crossing up thru the -100 line...Stochastics is fighting it's way up out of totally Oversold territory, and the fast line has finally convincingly crossed up above the slow line, which is Bullish...The MACD Histogram (blue bars) had a nice uptick this week, and the MACD's fast line (black) looks to be finally leveling off...IF this stock continues to go up next week, the Resistance Levels ahead of it are the 15MA at $1.91 and the middle BB at $2.04 and if it can start closing above the middle BB there was some Resistance for four weeks at $2.20 from mid-May to early June...There is some more Resistance in the $2.50 -2.55 area in the beginning of May, and then it has NO more Resistance after that all the way up to the upper BB Resistance at $2.71 But if it is headed up to the upper BB on the weekly chart, by the time it takes it to get up there, the upper BB will have dropped some from what it reads now...

This weekly chart is beginning to show MUCH more Bull than Bear!...



I think we are overdue some GREAT news, and it could come as early as the pre-market session on Monday, which is a favorite time this company releases PR's...If not, we are SURE to hear something interesting later in the week, when they announce Q2 earnings numbers and hold a conference call to discuss important things going on with the company and the FDA and hopefully some real clarification about what's going on with the SPA...

Good Luck to All CYCC Investors!...

zigzagman

H.R. 5741 Slave Bill Now in Committee:

Slavery has a new name: “Mandatory Service” - Introduced July 15th 2010 by Rep. Charles Rangle (D).

(If Americans sit still for this, then they deserve to be slaves...)

Rob Dew - July 26, 2010

http://www.prisonplanet.com/h-r-5741-slave-bill-now-in-committee.html

H.R. 5741 will give the president the authority “To require all persons in the United States between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform national service, either as a member of the uniformed services or in civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, to authorize the induction of persons in the uniformed services during wartime to meet end-strength requirements of the uniformed services, and for other purposes.”

Barely a year after introducing H.R. 1444, which was supposed to form a “Congressional Commission on Civic Service to study methods of improving and promoting volunteerism and national service, and for other purposes”, Congress has upped the ante.

Anyone between 18 and 42 will be eligible for a two year commitment of civilian or military service.

With more college graduates working for the fast food industry, a depression era unemployment rate and less people retiring; the government will have plenty of eligible able bodies to move into the slave ranks.

This echos the sentiment of President Obama who asked Congress in Febuary 2009 to send him a bipartisan bill in the spirit of national service. His Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel outlined a similar plan in his book The Plan.

But even Emanuel aims low looking at only 18 to 25 year olds for three months of compulsory service. Under this new legislation nearly all, able bodied Americans will be sentenced to two years of forced labor.

The infrastructure is already in place for those unwilling to participate in mandatory service and now the army is looking to fill it’s ranks with Interment/Resettlement Specialists.

There are very few loopholes to opt of out national service, even CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS (SEC. 109) will be forced to choose the mandatory option of A. noncombatant service (as defined by the President) or B. national civilian service. It seems the congressional commission on civic service will no longer be needed thanks to the hard work of a suspected Congressional tax cheat from New York.

The slavery bill is currently in debate in the House Committee on Armed Services chaired by Rep Ike Skelton a democrat from Missouri. Those who oppose mandatory slavery should contact Rep. Skelton. Many bills die in committee and this bill should meet the same fate.

Democrats Call Off Climate Bill Effort:

By Carl Hulse and David M. Herszenhorn

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/us/politics/23cong.html?ref=science&pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON — The effort to advance a major climate change bill through the Senate this summer collapsed Thursday even as President Obama signed into law another top Democratic priority — a bill to restore unemployment benefits for millions of Americans who have been out of work for six months or more.

Bowing to political reality, Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, said the Senate would not take up legislation intended to reduce carbon emissions blamed as a cause of climate change, but would instead pursue a more limited measure focused on responding to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and tightening energy efficiency standards.

“We know where we are,” Mr. Reid told reporters after reviewing the state of energy legislation with Senate Democrats and administration officials. “We know that we don’t have the votes.”

The decision was a major disappointment to conservation groups and lawmakers who had invested months in trying to negotiate legislation. The House last year passed its own climate change bill, a proposal that has created a backlash for some politically vulnerable Democrats. The outcome was also viewed as a setback by some utility executives who had hoped that Congress would set predictable rules governing carbon pollution.

Carol M. Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, who appeared with Mr. Reid and Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who is a chief author of the climate bill, said the Obama administration was not happy but would support Mr. Reid’s decision.

“Obviously, everyone is disappointed that we do not yet have an agreement on comprehensive legislation,” she said.

Congressional and White House officials said the decision was a pragmatic move that could produce some legislation rather than bogging down the Senate over a bill that had no chance given strong opposition from most Republicans and some Democrats. They noted that the White House had acted on its own to raise fuel efficiency standards and had pushed the development of alternative fuels.

Democrats said the slimmer package would ensure that BP would pay for the cleanup of the gulf oil spill, and would promote further production of natural gas as well as the manufacturing of natural gas vehicles, especially big trucks. They said it would also tighten household energy efficiency requirements and increase financing of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

But even the Senate’s ability to pass a bill with significant bipartisan elements before its scheduled August recess was in doubt given the intense focus on the November elections.

Separately on Thursday night the Senate rejected a House version of an emergency spending bill that also contained billions of dollars for domestic programs, including $10 billion to help states and local school districts avert teacher layoffs. Instead the Senate sent the House a version focused mainly on financing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While Senate Democrats revised their energy plans, the House voted 272 to 152 to send Mr. Obama a $34 billion six-month extension of unemployment pay for Americans who had exhausted their standard 26 weeks of aid. Signing the measure hours later, Mr. Obama said it would “restore desperately needed assistance to two and a half million Americans who lost their jobs in the recession.”

The bill had been the subject of a partisan battle, with Democrats saying that the economic crisis was an emergency that justified deficit spending, while Republicans argued that the cost should not be added to the deficit.

“We want to help those who are struggling with the current economic slowdown,” said Representative Charles Boustany Jr., a Louisiana Republican. “But we also agree with the American people that new spending must be paid for.”

In the final vote, 31 Republicans joined 241 Democrats in supporting the measure. Voting against it were 142 Republicans and 10 Democrats.

Democrats called the Republican opposition shameful given the financial struggles of many families. The bill had been stalled since late May, and advanced in the Senate this week only with the arrival of a new Democratic senator to succeed the late Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia.

“It shouldn’t have been so hard,” said the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California.

John M. Broder contributed reporting.

The Worst Crisis Since the Great Depression is Unfolding – Slowly But Surely

July 18, 2010

http://www.munknee.com/2010/07/draft-worst-crisis-since-the-great-depression-parts-1-2/

It’s easy to lose perspective on where the global economy stands – to be confused by the daily deluge of information – so let’s look at the big-picture of where we are today. As an investor it can mean the difference between making and losing a lot of money. So let’s take a look and see where we are at and what events are unfolding - slowly but surely.

Lorimer Wilson, editor of www.FinancialArticleSummariesToday.com, provides below further reformatted and edited excerpts from the Bryan Rich’s (http://www.moneyandmarkets.com) original articles for the sake of clarity and brevity to ensure a fast and easy read. Rich goes on to say:

We have endured the sharpest fall in global economic activity since the Great Depression and one of the most threatening financial crises ever and, according to studies by the IMF, recoveries of past recessions with these dualities tend to be longer and slower than normal recoveries — typically around five years until economies sustainably resume trend growth. That means, if you mark the start of the recent crisis as late 2007, we’re less than three years in! Therefore, we should expect more bumps in the road ahead. Furthermore, history also shows us that financial crises are generally followed by sovereign debt crises, which is where we are now.

The 4 Stages of Sovereign Debt Crises:

Stage #1 - Burgeoning Deficits:

In a financial crisis government spending increases dramatically in attempts to stabilize the financial system and stimulate economic activity. Tax revenues fall, fiscal surpluses turn into deficits and economies with existing deficits keep piling it on – and that is just what is unfolding now.

The leading economies of the world have all seen their deficits shoot higher, some to record levels. In fact, the deficit spending that’s gone on in recent years can be summed up as follows: Over 40 percent of world GDP comes from countries that are running deficits in excess of 10 percent.

Stage #2 - Ballooning Debt:

When economies are contracting or even growing slowly, bringing these deficits back down to earth becomes an unenviable challenge. Governments have to make ends meet by turning to the markets. Then those burgeoned deficits turn into growing debt loads – and that is just what is unfolding now.

When debt reaches 80 percent of GDP threshold, the borrowing costs for governments starts ticking higher and so does the market scrutiny. The IMF says five of the top seven developed countries in the world will have debt levels exceeding 100 percent of GDP in the next four years.

Stage #3 - Credit Downgrades:

When deficits and debts rise and economic activity appears unlikely to curtail fiscal problems, the credit worthiness of the government falls under intense scrutiny. That’s when we see downgrades – and that is just what is unfolding now.

Greece’s sovereign debt rating has been downgraded to junk status. Spain has lost its AAA rating and the UK could lose its AAA status if its deficit isn’t addressed. Japan’s outlook has been cut to negative and rating agencies have even warned the U.S.

Stage #4 - Sovereign Debt Defaults:

This is the final and most deadly stage because downgrades only make the vicious cycle of weak economic activity and growing dependence on debt worse. When investors see more risk, they require more return [and, as such,] the borrowing costs for these troubled countries rise. Then it becomes harder to finance spending needs and harder to finance existing debt and that’s when we see defaults – and that is on the verge of unfolding.

When S&P downgraded Greece to junk status, it warned debt holders [that they] should be prepared to receive just 30 cents on the dollar… [in spite of the] $1 trillion rescue package committed by the EU and IMF. [Then there is] Spain, an economy that represents 12 percent of GDP for the euro zone, [which is] rumored to be next in line for a massive funding request.

In sum, a sovereign debt crisis has arrived – the fuel for contagion is fear – and unless governments can demonstrate they’re willing to take tough steps to reign in debt this crisis can spread quickly.

Currenncy Crises Are Likely Next:

History shows us that financial crises tend to be followed by sovereign debt crises – and that sovereign debt crises tend to lead to currency crises, i.e. a loss of confidence in countries’ currencies which is something we’ve seen very clearly in recent months with the euro. A study from MIT on historical currency crises lays their progression out as follows:

The Three Stages of a Currency Crisis:

Stage #1 - Loss of Confidence:

The number one cause of a currency crisis is when investors flee a currency because they expect it to be devalued – and when the euro zone stepped in and threatened to cough up $1 trillion dollars in an attempt to save the euro monetary union, it was a conscious decision to devalue the euro.

Stage #2 - Herding Mentality:

When it’s thought that investors are moving out of a currency, others follow. [A case in point is the euro which] currently is being shorted [moreso than ever before in history] and when the market is heavily positioned one way — and the fundamentals support it and an intentional devaluation appears underway — big institutions have to react. Put simply, they have too much to lose by getting caught the wrong way. As such, for example, Iran’s central bank has announced they will be diversifying euro exposure by trading into gold and U.S. dollars while China and the UK have shown a significant increased interest in owning U.S. dollars as opposed to euros.

Stage #3 - Contagion:

Contagion is a phenomenon in which a currency crisis in one country triggers crisis in other countries with similar weaknesses. A crisis that started in Dubai now confronts Greece, Spain, Portugal … and will likely spread to the UK, Japan and even the U.S.

Conclusion:

The day-to-day ebb and flow of economic data and news can be distracting. That’s why it’s important, especially with all that is going on, to keep the big picture in perspective. History shows us that a global recession when combined with a financial crisis tends to stifle economic activity longer than normal recessions. History also shows us that financial crises tend to lead to sovereign debt crises, which tend to lead to currency crises so, with that in mind, it’s fair to say that a V-shaped economic recovery has always been very unlikely.

We are going to see more shocks to the global economy, more challenges and more investors fleeing risky investments in favor of safe havens. [Got gold?]

Stocks rise as investors sort through mixed earnings; Apple scores but Yahoo falls short.

Seth Sutel and Bernard Condon, AP Business Writers, On Tuesday July 20, 2010, 5:04 pm

NEW YORK (AP) -- Investors are trying to get a read on the economy using earnings reports. They're finding it's not so easy.

The result Tuesday was yet another erratic day of stock trading. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 75 points after having fallen 140 in early trading in response to a series of disappointing revenue reports. Analysts were hard-pressed to come up with a reason for the turnaround. But trading was extremely light, and that tends to skew stock prices.

Analysts said some investors were getting a little more upbeat as they awaited earnings reports from Yahoo Inc. and Apple Inc. after the close. But those reports came in mixed, just like those from the many companies that have also reported second-quarter results. Apple's stock surged in after-hours trading, but Yahoo fell. Like IBM Corp., Johnson & Johnson and Goldman Sachs Inc., its revenue fell short of expectations.

Investors have been quick to sell on even a whiff of bad news. Early Tuesday, they were motivated by the reports from IBM, J&J and Goldman. Investors have been focusing on revenue rather than bottom-line earnings because of the link between companies' sales and the economy. If revenue is down because consumers aren't spending, that's a sign that the economy could remain weak.

Investors seem to have decided as Tuesday wore on that earnings didn't look quite as bad as they first thought. Analysts noted that Goldman's drop in revenue was similar to those reported by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. Their revenue fell not because of a weak economy, but because their customers decided to avoid the financial markets' turbulence during the spring.

Some analysts said there were technical factors involved in the market's moves.

"Investors may have been anticipating the market heading back to early July lows so when it didn't fall apart in early trading, they slowly came back in," said Michael Sheldon, chief market strategist at RDM Financial Group in Westport, Conn.

Those investors were looking at charts that track the movements of indicators including the Standard & Poor's 500. When the S&P reaches, or doesn't reach, a specific level, that can prompt investors to buy or sell.

It was hard to predict what turn trading might take Wednesday. Yahoo and Apple are considered indicators of the overall economy, but their mixed results weren't giving investors a clear-cut direction for stocks.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 75.53, or 0.7 percent, to 10,229.96. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 12.23, or 1.1 percent, to 1,083.48 and the Nasdaq composite index rose 24.26, or 1.1 percent, to 2,222.49.

Advancing stocks were ahead of losers by 4 to 1 on the NYSE, where volume came to an extremely light 1.1 biillion shares.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Stocks-are-higher-on-mixed-apf-1741651426.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=

Nothing Was Sacred: The Theft of the American Dream...

http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/2010/07/phil-it-is-end-of-world-as-we-know-it.html

Posted by Jesse at 1:07 PM - July 17, 2010

America must decide what type of country it wishes to be, and then conform public and foreign policy to those ends, and not the other way around. Politicians have no right to subjugate the constitutional process of government to any foreign organization.

Secrecy, except in very select military matters, is repugnant to the health of a democratic government, and is almost always a means to conceal a fraud. Corporations are not people, and do not have the rights of individuals as such.

Banks are utilities for the rational allocation of capital created by savings, and as utilities deserve special protections. All else is speculation and gambling. In banking, simpler and more stable is better. Low cost rules, as excessive financialisation is a pernicious tax on the real economy.

Financial speculation, as opposed to entrepreneurial investment, creates little value, serving largely to transfer wealth from the many to the few, often by exploiting the weak, and corrupting the law. It does serve to identify and correct market inefficiencies, but this benefit is vastly overrated, because those are quickly eliminated. As such it should be allowed, but tightly regulated and highly taxed as a form of gambling.

When the oligarchy's enablers, hired help is the politer word, and assorted useful idiots ask, "But how then will we do this or that?" ask them back, "How did we do it twenty years ago?" Before the financial revolution and the descent into a bubble economy and a secretive and largely corrupted government with a GDP whose primary product is fraud.

Other nations, such as China, are surely acting for their own interests, and in many cases the interests of their people, much more diligently and effectively than the kleptocrats who are in power in Washington and New York these days. How then could we possibly subvert the Constitution and the welfare of the people to unelected foreign organizations? If this requires a greater reliance on self-sufficiency, then so be it. America is large enough to see to its own, as the others see to theirs.

Economics will not provide any answers in and of itself. Economics without an a priori policy and morality, without a guiding principle like the Constitution, is a heartless monster easily manipulated to say whatever one wishes it to say, if they are willing to pay enough economists to say it. Its reputation as a science is greatly exaggerated.

"Eliminating government" is a trap put forward by the plutocrats for those unable to reason except by prejudice, as they desire to exercise their power unimpeded by the rule of law. Once you knock down the protections and the safeguards in the name of reform, the wolves will turn on the public in an orgy of looting and exploitation. This is an old story, and sadly it often works.

Efficient markets hypothesis is almost as great a hoax as the benefits of globalization and 'free trade' have been to the American people as a whole. These things are promoted by the few, at the expense of the gullible many, for their own personal benefit.

Hatred, mean spiritedness, and resentment of the weak, the old, the different, is a trick played on the masses by oligarchs and would be dictators from time immemorial. They play to the darker side of the crowd. It is a trap, and the means to the demise of freedom. And these tricksters play it well, because deceit is their specialty, their stock in trade.

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mohandas K. Gandhi

So it will not be easy, and it is a mistake to think that it will be. But what greater task can we set ourselves to, other than justice and freedom for ourselves and children?


It’s the End of the World As We Know It:

By Phil of Phil’s Stock World

What are 308,367,109 Americans supposed to do?



First of all, despite clamping down on immigration, our population grew by 2.6M people last year. Unfortunately, not only did we not create jobs for those 2.6M new people but we lost about 4M jobs so what are these new people going to do? Not only that, but nobody is talking about the another major job issue: People aren’t retiring! They can’t afford to because the economy is bad – that means there are even less job openings… The pimply faced kid can’t get a job delivering pizza because his grandpa’s doing it.

There are some brilliant pundits who believe cutting retirement benefits will fix our economy. How will that work exactly? Pay old people less money, don’t cover their medical care and what happens? Then they need money. If they need money, they need to work and if they need to work they increase the supply of labor, which reduces wages and leaves all 308,367,109 of us with less money. Oh sorry, not ALL 308,367,109 – just 308,337,109 – the top 30,000 (0.01%) own the business the other 308,337,109 work at and they will be raking it in because labor is roughly 1/3 of the cost of doing business in America and our great and powerful capitalists have already cut their manufacturing costs by shipping all those jobs overseas, where they pay as little as $1 a day for a human life so now, in order to increase their profits (because profits MUST be increased) they have now turned inward to see what they can shave off in America.



How does one decrease the cost of labor in America?

Well first, you have to bust the unions. Check. Then you have to create a pressing need for people to work – perhaps give them easy access to credit and then get them to go so deeply into debt that they will have to work until they die to pay them off. Check. It also helps if you push up the cost of living by manipulating commodity prices. Check. Then, take away people’s retirement savings. Check. Lower interest rates to make savings futile and interest income inadequate. Check. And finally, threaten to take away the 12% a year that people have been saving for retirement by labeling Social Security an “entitlement” program – as if it wasn’t money Americans worked their whole lives to save and gave to the government in good faith. Check.

As Allen Smith says:

“Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan pulled off one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated against the American people in the history of this great nation, and the underlying scam is still alive and well, more than a quarter century later. It represents the very foundation upon which the economic malpractice that led the nation to the great economic collapse of 2008 was built. Essentially, Reagan switched the federal government from what he critically called, a “tax and spend” policy, to a “borrow and spend” policy, where the government continued its heavy spending, but used borrowed money instead of tax revenue to pay the bills. The results were catastrophic. Although it had taken the United States more than 200 years to accumulate the first $1 trillion of national debt, it took only five years under Reagan to add the second one trillion dollars to the debt. By the end of the 12 years of the Reagan-Bush administrations, the national debt had quadrupled to $4 trillion!“

Both Reagan and Greenspan saw big government as an evil, and they saw big business as a virtue. They both had despised the progressive policies of Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson, and they wanted to turn back the pages of time. They came up with the perfect strategy for the redistribution of income and wealth from the working class to the rich. If Reagan had campaigned for the presidency by promising big tax cuts for the rich and pledging to make up for the lost revenue by imposing substantial tax increases on the working class, he would probably not have been elected. But that is exactly what Reagan did, with the help of Alan Greenspan. Consider the following sequence of events:

1) President Reagan appointed Greenspan as chairman of the 1982 National Commission on Social Security Reform (aka The Greenspan Commission)

2) The Greenspan Commission recommended a major payroll tax hike to generate Social Security surpluses for the next 30 years, in order to build up a large reserve in the trust fund that could be drawn down during the years after Social Security began running deficits.

3) The 1983 Social Security amendments enacted hefty increases in the payroll tax in order to generate large future surpluses.

4) As soon as the first surpluses began to role in, in 1985, the money was put into the general revenue fund and spent on other government programs. None of the surplus was saved or invested in anything. The surplus Social Security revenue, that was paid by working Americans, was used to replace the lost revenue from Reagan’s big income tax cuts that went primarily to the rich.

5) In 1987, President Reagan nominated Greenspan as the successor to Paul Volcker as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Greenspan continued as Fed Chairman until January 31, 2006. (One can only speculate on whether the coveted Fed Chairmanship represented, at least in part, a payback for Greenspan’s role in initiating the Social Security surplus revenue.)

6) In 1990, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, a member of the Greenspan Commission, and one of the strongest advocates the 1983 legislation, became outraged when he learned that first Reagan, and then President George H.W. Bush used the surplus Social Security revenue to pay for other government programs instead of saving and investing it for the baby boomers. Moynihan locked horns with President Bush and proposed repealing the 1983 payroll tax hike. Moynihan’s view was that if the government could not keep its hands out of the Social Security cookie jar, the cookie jar should be emptied, so there would be no surplus Social Security revenue for the government to loot. President Bush would have no part of repealing the payroll tax hike. The “read-my-lips-no-new-taxes” president was not about to give up his huge slush fund.

The practice of using every dollar of the surplus Social Security revenue for general government spending continues to this day. The 1983 payroll tax hike has generated approximately $2.5 trillion in surplus Social Security revenue which is supposed to be in the trust fund for use in paying for the retirement benefits of the baby boomers. But the trust fund is empty! It contains no real assets. As a result, the government will soon be unable to pay full benefits without a tax increase. Money can be spent or it can be saved. But you can’t do both. Absolutely none of the $2.5 trillion was saved or invested in anything.

That is how the largest theft in the history of the world was carried out.

300M people worked and saved their whole lives to set aside $2.5Tn into a retirement system that, if it were paying a fair compounding rate of 5% interest over 40 years of labor (assuming an even $62Bn a year was contributed), would be worth $8.4Tn today – enough money to give 100M workers $84,000 each in cash!

The looting of FICA hid the massive deficits of the last 30 years in the Unified Budget. Presidents and Congresses were able to reduce taxes on the wealthiest Americans without complaint from the deficit hawks, because they benefited. The money went directly from the pockets of average Americans into the pockets of the rich.



Now that it is time to repay those special bonds in the Trust Fund, we are inundated in opinion pieces in the leading newspapers and magazines complaining about Social Security and its horrible impact on the budget. Government finances have been trashed by foolish tax cuts, unpaid wars, tax loopholes for corporations and the very wealthy, the failures of economists, the greedy search for greater returns in financial markets and the collapse of moral values in giant businesses, but Social Security is supposed to be the problem that needs fixing…

Social Security is not “broken“–the money is in the Trust Fund. But the people who manage the finances of the United States don’t want to repay the bonds held by the Trust Fund. They want to default selectively against average people, their fellow citizens, who paid their taxes expecting to be protected in their retirement. Refusing to repay the $2.54 trillion dollars in bonds held by the Social Security Trust makes the US look like Greece, just another nation unable to govern itself coherently. The people who manage US finances come from the financial elites, the best that Wall Street and enormous corporations have to offer. Selective default exposes them as charlatans. The claims of the economics profession to expertise are puffery. Their theories about the benefits of tax cuts are proven false. Their mathematical proofs about free markets collapse in the real world.



So, what is this all about? It’s about forcing 5M people a year who reach the age 65 to remain in the work-force. The top 0.01% have already taken your money, they have already put you in debt, they have already bankrupted the government as well so it has no choice but to do their bidding. Now the top 0.01% want to make even MORE profits by paying American workers even LESS money. If they raise the retirement age to 70 to “balance” Social Security – that will guarantee that another 25M people remain in the workforce (less the ones that drop dead on the job – saving the bother of paying them severance).

What’s next? Is it fair to say that children can’t work in a struggling family business? Isn’t it to everybody’s benefit that kids should be allowed to help out at the family store? That will be the next step towards turning America into a 3rd World country. The seemingly innocent concept of “letting” kids work will deprive another 5M people of paying jobs – throwing them out into the labor force as well and driving labor costs down even further.

There’s an expression that goes “give them an inch and they’ll take a yard.” The top 0.01% of this country have taken their inches and they are foreclosing on the yards and they will come for the rest of your stuff next. If you think you are “safe” from the looting of America, it is only because they haven’t gotten around to you yet. As I explained in “America is 234 Years Old Today – Is It Finished?” – the game is rigged very much like a poker tournament. The people at the top table don’t care how well you do wiping out your fellow players at the lower tables, they know they will get you eventually and your efforts to scoop up a pile of cash for yourself simply makes their job easier when they are ready to take it from you.



The average American is $634,000 in debt thanks to the efforts that Reagan and Greenspan put in motion 30 years ago and the richer you are, the more of that money is going to come out of your hide eventually and the more you lobby to make sure that the “rich” are not taxed unfairly, the less fair it will be to you because, no matter how rich you THINK you are, unless your income is measured in MILLIONS PER MONTH, you aren’t even close to the top 30,000.

No progressive tax? That means that people and corporations who make $1M PER DAY should pay no more tax than a person making $1M per year, right? Well that means that the $2.5M debt that your family of four owes will be paid by you over 2.5 years of labor while the $2.5M owed by your Billionaire competitor will be paid over a long weekend, after which he can turn his attention back to crushing your business by creating cheaper goods – maintaining profit margins by driving down local labor costs and outsourcing the rest.

It’s a new world, America, and you’d better get used to it – we were sold down the river on a slow boat to China long ago and we’re only just beginning to feel the first effects of waves that wash back to our own shores. The people who own the media don’t want CHANGE. That’s why you never hear this stuff in the MSM – things are going exactly according to plan and the old money crowd is playing a long, patient game and they already have most of the chips – the last thing they want is people questioning the system…

http://www.philstockworld.com/2010/07/17/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it/

My Thoughts for The Summer:

I won't be making a video again this week...

Of the $SPX daily and weekly charts...

We're in the busiest weeks for earnings reports, and that can cause a lot of volatility to the indexes...As far as the recent move to the upside early last week, it was waaayyyyyy overdone and was nothing more than a suckers rally IMO...It was more like a Pump Before The DUMP...

Earnings can be (and are) manipulated, as you will see this coming week when many of the biggest banks/brokerage houses report...News for the overall economy continues to be very weak, and I'm still thinking we'll see 950 before we see 1250-1300 like some of the Elliot Wavers here on IHUB are calling for (chichi2)...Even Pretcher put out an article this past week calling for Dow 1000 (not a typo) over the next few years...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/your-money/04stra.html

In my last two or three videos, I called for the Head & Shoulders chart pattern that's formed on the weekly chart to yield down to 950 or so, and if/when that happens, I'll get back to posting videos again...This chart pattern is still in effect IMO, and the fall to 950 (if it happens) will most likely not be straight down, but will have a few oversold rallies like we saw two weeks ago...The 50MA on the weekly chart is and will continue to be a major area of resistance IMO...

So for a while to come, I'll be enjoying the summertime and spending less time paying attention to the market...I am 100% cash except for a small position in one microcap biotech stock (CYCC), and I continue to accumulate physical gold and hide it in various places, in and out of the country...

Happy Trading!...
zigzagman

Beware the Technical Trap:

Commentary: Investors shouldn't be fooled by another breakout...

By Tomi Kilgore - July 15, 2010, 12:01 a.m. EDT

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Being fooled twice is enough to shame any investor, but how about three, or even four times?

The current rally marks the fourth time since early May that the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA 10,287, -80.22, -0.77%) has bounced more than 5%. Previous bounces have taken the Dow above key resistance levels, and yet subsequent declines have resulted in even lower lows. Essentially, the recent pattern surrounding key technical breakdowns and breakouts suggests the Dow is nearing yet another turning point.

It is easy for bulls to fall into another technical trap, since the Dow has climbed above the 50-day simple moving average, which has acted as resistance since the Dow first fell below it in early May, and is now peeking above a downward sloping line that started at the April 26 high and connects the June 21 high. But rather than embolden bulls, the apparent breakout should actually make them skeptical, especially following a six-session rally.

There have been several false breakdowns and breakouts since the correction started in late April.

The first bounce started after the Dow fell below the 200-day moving average, seen by many as a bull vs. bear market divider, for the first time in 10 months; that bounce ended the day after the Dow closed above the 50-day moving average; the next decline ended after the Dow fell below key support at the February low; another rally ended a few sessions after the Dow had broken above the 200-day moving average and traded above the 50-day in intraday trading.

The Dow started the latest rally right after hitting a new low for the year. The break below the June 8 low of 9,757 confirmed a head-and-shoulders pattern, which is a widely recognized longer-term bearish reversal pattern.

Basically, those reacting to technical breakdowns and breakouts have been fooled many times. And keep in mind that the Dow's last six-session winning streak ended on April 26, the day before the market correction began.

The current rally has extended in anticipation of a strong second-quarter earnings reporting season, or one that isn't as bad as the market seemed to be expecting earlier this month, rather than anything concrete. Economic data out of the U.S. and abroad, as well as the downgrade of Portugal's debt by Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday, indicate some of the conditions that started the market's correction--a slowing global economy and sovereign debt risk--still exist.

Even if strong second-quarter results become a reality, investors have already acted on it. The Dow faces tough resistance at the 10,400 to 10,450 level, which encompasses the 200-day moving average and the 50% retracement of the fall from the April 26 high of 11,258 to the July 5 low of 9,614. The June 21 high of 10,594 shouldn't give way without some good, concrete news on the economy. The Dow was up 175 points at 10,391 in afternoon trading.

For investors to feel safe betting on a breakout, the Dow needs to start the next bounce before it hits a new low. There should be some support at the 9,950 to 10,000 level, while drop below 9,757 would indicate another new low was coming. At least investors can then start expecting another false breakdown, and another 5%+ bounce.

Tomi Kilgore writes Taking Stock, a global column that gives insightful analysis about equity-related topics around the world. This column originally appeared on Dow Jones Newswires.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dont-be-fooled-by-another-breakout-2010-07-15?siteid=e2eyahoo

Stocks Surge after Alcoa, CSX Report Strong Profits:

Stephen Bernard, AP Business Writer, On Tuesday July 13, 2010, 4:53 pm

NEW YORK (AP) -- The stock market got a shot of confidence and adrenaline from the start of second-quarter earnings season.

Investors were enthusiastic Tuesday about better-than-expected profits from aluminum maker Alcoa Inc. and railroad operator CSX Corp. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 145 points and the major indexes were up well over 1 percent.

There was more good news from Intel Corp. after the close of trading. The chip maker reported earnings and revenue that beat analysts' expectations, and it also raised its forecast for the year. Its stock shot up more than 5 percent in after-hours trading.

The companies, among the first to report second-quarter earnings, also issued upbeat forecasts for the rest of the year. That was heartening news for investors who have been concerned that the recovery was stalling, or that the economy might even fall back into recession.

"When we go back to earnings and fundamentals, companies are delivering," said Tom Karsten, senior managing partner at Karsten Financial in Fort Worth, Texas.

Alcoa's earnings reports are closely watched because its varied customer base provides a snapshot of a broad range of other industries. It is also a component of the Dow Jones industrial average. CSX also provides insight into economic activity because it ships a wide range of products.

Alcoa said global consumption of aluminum will grow this year by more than it had forecast just three months ago. There have been concerns that the global economic recovery will end as many European nations face mounting government debt problems and high unemployment slows growth in the U.S.

CSX, meanwhile, said it sees its the economy's upward momentum continuing this year.

Intel's results are considered a good gauge of the health of the economy since its sales are driven by consumers and businesses buying computers.

Frank Ingarra, co-portfolio manager of Hennessy Funds in Stamford, Conn., said Alcoa and CSX's results lifted the market because they hit on the two themes that traders are looking for in earnings: revenue growth and optimistic outlooks.

"That's why the earnings were so good," Ingarra said. "You saw that top-line growth and good guidance."

During the recession, companies that made money often did so by cutting costs rather than bringing in sales. So sales growth is a sign that business is indeed picking up.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that the U.S. trade deficit increased to its widest level in 18 months as an increase in exports was outpaced by rising imports. A jump in both imports and exports is a sign that the economy is growing.

Earnings will likely continue to dictate trading over the next few weeks as hundreds of companies release results.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 146.75, or 1.4 percent, to 10,363.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 16.59, or 1.5 percent, to 1,095.34, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 43.67, or 2 percent, to 2,242.03.

http://yhoo.it/bbZZat

Meredith Whitney: Prepare for a Dramatic Decline in Housing:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/213750-meredith-whitney-prepare-for-a-dramatic-decline-in-housing

Meredith Whitney is expecting big trouble in housing in the next 9 months and she thinks it could topple the banks all over again. She also elaborates on her macro outlook for the economy.

Watch the video by clicking on the link above...

Stocks Surge as Financial and Materials Stocks Jump:

Stocks leap after traders snap up banks, materials shares; Dow gains 275. to top 10,000 again.

Tim Paradis, AP Business Writer, On Wednesday July 7, 2010, 5:54 pm

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Dow Jones industrials climbed back above 10,000 Wednesday after investors had second thoughts about the heavy selling in the stock market during the last two weeks.

Stocks soared and the Dow rose 275 points after a modest gain Tuesday. It was the market's first back-to-back advance since mid-June and the first close above psychological benchmark of 10,000 since June 28. But analysts warn that the buying doesn't mean that investors are more optimistic. They said there wasn't a single catalyst behind the move and that it looked like a case of investors scooping up stocks that had become cheaper after heavy losses. The Dow had fallen 7.3 percent over two weeks.

"It's just more of a reaction to a little bit too much negativity," said Marc Harris, co-head of global research for RBC Capital Markets in New York.

The Dow and broader indexes gained more than 2 percent. Trading volume was light, however, signaling that many skeptical investors were staying out of the market. Interest rates rose as some investors dumped Treasurys in favor of riskier assets like stocks.

Financial stocks rose on an upbeat profit forecast from State Street Corp. The stock gained 9.9 percent. Materials stocks rose after having logged steep drops over worries about the economy. Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. climbed 3.3 percent, while U.S. Steel rose 5.7 percent

Wednesday's big gain fit into a pattern of volatility that began in late April, when the Dow began tumbling from its 2010 high of 11,205.03. The Dow had fallen 13 percent since then, and the long slide included many triple-digit moves.

The protracted drop began on concerns that debt problems in Greece and other European countries would stifle the continent's recovery and eventually the recovery in the U.S. But in the past few weeks, stocks have been tumbling on signs that the domestic rebound is slowing. Some traders were selling on fears that the country is headed back into recession. They were also buying Treasurys so they could put their money into a safe place.

Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago, said that what's called a "double-dip" is unlikely, but the idea of one is scary because the government wouldn't have many options to revive the economy a second time.

"When you're driving around on a spare tire you're on the lookout for nails," he said.

There were no economic reports to influence the market on Wednesday. Traders were getting a series of reports Thursday likely to give some insight into consumers' behavior. The government's weekly report on jobless claims is due out, and retailers will report June sales results. Investors will be looking for any signs that layoffs are slowing, and that consumers are feeling better about spending.

The market's other big concern is upcoming earnings reports. Investors want to know if companies are also seeing business slow, and if they're changing their forecasts for the coming quarters.

Ablin said the forecast from State Street bolstered confidence ahead of earnings for the April-June period. However, Ablin said he didn't expect the bounce to continue because investors are anxious about the hundreds of company reports still to come.

"I don't think any investor wants to commit one way or another with the whole string of earnings announcements" ahead, Ablin said.

The Dow rose 274.66, or 2.8 percent, to 10,018.28. The Dow rose 57 points Tuesday. The index hasn't risen two straight days since June 17-18.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 32.21, or 3.1 percent, to 1,060.27, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 65.59, or 3.1 percent, 2,159.47.

Bond prices fell, driving up interest rates. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.99 percent from 2.94 percent late Tuesday. The yield fell below 3 percent last week for the first time since April 2009. The 10-year yield is used as a benchmark for interest rates on consumer loans and mortgages.

The dollar fell against other major currencies, including the euro.

Crude oil rose $2.09 to $74.07 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold rose.

State Street rose $3.29, or 9.9 percent, to $36.63. Alcoa advanced 34 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $10.55, while U.S. Steel rose $2.17, or 5.7 percent, to $40.39.

About six stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 5.1 billion shares, compared with 4.7 billion Tuesday.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 21.63, or 3.7 percent, to 611.66.

Overseas markets closed higher after sliding in early trading. Investors awaited a Thursday meeting of the European Central Bank. Traders are expecting the bank to keep interest rates unchanged, but will want to get details on the European Union's "stress tests" of bank balance sheets. The notion that the examination could be more rigorous than first thought helped U.S. stocks and drove the euro higher. Similar tests of U.S. banks in May last year helped bolster confidence in the financial system by reassuring investors that big banks likely would survive a deeper slide in the economy.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.9 percent, and France's CAC-40 climbed 1.8 percent. Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 0.6 percent.

http://yhoo.it/czkRsc

VIDEO - Fundamental & Technical Analysis of the S&P 500's Daily & Weekly Charts:

http://www.viddler.com/explore/zigzagman/videos/28/

Technical Analysis of the S&P 500's daily and weekly charts, plus a look at the important Economic and Earnings Reports due out next week...

This video is viewed best in Full-Screen Mode...Click the four arrows in the bottom right corner...Press the Escape key on your keyboard to exit back to Normal Mode...

Happy Trading this week...
zigzagman

Payrolls drop by 125K, jobless rate falls - Yahoo! Finance

Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer, On Friday July 2, 2010, 8:38 am

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A wave of census layoffs cut the nation's payrolls in June for the first time in six months, while private employers added a modest number of jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 9.5 percent, its lowest level in almost a year.

Employers cut 125,000 jobs last month, the most since last October, the Labor Department said Friday. The loss was driven by the end of 225,000 temporary census jobs.

Businesses added a net total of 83,000 workers, an improvement from May. But that's also below March and April totals. The nation has 7.9 million fewer private payroll jobs than it did when the recession began.

Analysts expected private payrolls to rise by about 110,000, according to Thomson Reuters. The report indicates that businesses are still reluctant to hire as the economy slowly recovers form the worst recession since the 1930s.

The unemployment rate fell as 652,000 people gave up on their job searches and left the labor force. People who are no longer looking for work aren't counted as unemployed.

All told, 14.6 million people were looking for work in June.

Counting those who have given up their job searches and those who are working part time but would prefer full-time work, the underemployment rate edged down to 16.5 percent from 16.6 percent in May.

Payrolls Drop by 125K, Jobless Rate Falls:

CYCC - Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals - Announces FDA Orphan Drug Designation for Sapacitabine in Both AML and MDS:

Press Release Source: Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. On Thursday July 1, 2010, 7:00 am EDT

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J., July 1, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:CYCC), a biopharmaceutical company developing oral therapies that target the various phases of cell cycle control for the treatment of cancer and other serious disorders, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug designation to the company's sapacitabine (CYC682) product candidate for the treatment of both acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

"Orphan drug designation for both AML and MDS significantly strengthens the value proposition represented by sapacitabine and enhances our opportunity to advance this promising product candidate to late stage clinical development and commercialization," said Spiro Rombotis, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cyclacel.

Sapacitabine, a cell cycle modulating nucleoside analogue, is in Phase 2 studies for the treatment of AML in the elderly, MDS and lung cancer. Cyclacel has reported Phase 2 results from ongoing studies in AML and MDS. The company plans to advance sapacitabine into pivotal Phase 3 development in 2010. During the first quarter of 2010, the company submitted a Special Protocol Assessment (SPA) request to the FDA for a randomized Phase 3 study of sapacitabine in elderly patients with AML.

Orphan drug designation entitles Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals to seven years of marketing exclusivity for sapacitabine upon regulatory approval, as well as the opportunity to apply for grant funding from the U.S. government to defray costs of clinical trial expenses, tax credits for clinical research expenses and a potential waiver of the FDA's application user fee. Orphan status is granted by the FDA to promote the development of new drug therapies for the treatment of diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Cyclacel-Pharmaceuticals-pz-2152455345.html?x=0&.v=1