The stock market has been in bear market mode throughout 2022, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC 0.10%) has been one of the hardest-hit stock market indexes during the rout. After seeing a new closing low for the year on Monday, investors were hoping for a respite, but the Nasdaq opened down about half a percent at the beginning of the regular trading session Tuesday morning.
Two Nasdaq stocks were particularly noteworthy with their gains in premarket trading on Tuesday. Coinbase Global (COIN -5.10%) has become a giant in the cryptocurrency realm, with its digital asset brokerage services becoming a leading choice among crypto investors. Meanwhile, tiny Dice Therapeutics (DICE) isn't on every investor's radar, but the biopharmaceutical company got positive trial results that could pave the way to a key breakthrough. Read on to learn more about what's happening with these two companies.
Coinbase heads for the cloud
Coinbase shares were up about 3% early Tuesday morning. The move came despite ongoing weakness in the price of Bitcoin and other digital assets, but investors were enthusiastic about a new partnership that could increase the use of cryptocurrency in mainstream financial transactions.
Alphabet (GOOGL 0.55%) (GOOG 0.74%) unit Google Cloud announced that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Coinbase to serve the cloud computing community. Under the deal, Google Cloud will help build advanced exchange and data services for Coinbase, which in turn will use the Google Cloud compute platform for blockchain data processing. Moreover, by using the Google fiber-optic network, Coinbase will get access to premium speed and secure infrastructure assets.
In exchange, Google Cloud will allow some of its Web3.0 ecosystem customers to pay for cloud services using select cryptocurrencies. The Coinbase Commerce platform will enable acceptance of cryptocurrency payments from merchants across the globe, and while Google Cloud intends to make the service available to select customers only at this point, there's plenty of room for expansion later if the rollout goes well. Google will also use the Coinbase Prime platform for institutional crypto custody and reporting.
Investors have shied away from Coinbase lately because of weakness in crypto prices. However, as the crypto company shows that its infrastructure has value regardless of the environment for digital asset prices, Coinbase has the opportunity to see its stock trade less in lockstep with crypto.
Dice comes up a winner
Meanwhile, shares of Dice Therapeutics soared 87% in premarket trading. The biopharmaceutical company got a good reception from investors following promising news about an early-stage trial.
Dice released positive top-line data from its phase 1 clinical trial of DC-806 candidate treatment for psoriasis. Various parts of the trial showed that DC-806 achieved its proof-of-concept goal, supporting further development of the oral treatment.
More importantly, Dice sees the trial as the first clinical demonstration of the broader concept of using a small molecule as a cytokine inhibitor. CEO Kevin Judice said this could open up the opportunity to use similar techniques for fighting other disease indications, and he hopes that the company's Delscape platform can be a launching pad for other advances in immunology and elsewhere.
Dice expects to start a phase 2b trial for patients with moderate to severe psoriasis, with the goal of submitting an Investigational New Drug Application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the first half of 2023. That's what has investors excited, and even as the stock reaches new highs since Dice's late-2021 IPO, some see room for further gains ahead for the small-cap biopharma company.
