Wall Street has been on the upswing lately, gaining confidence about the ability of the economy to withstand inflationary pressures and tighter monetary policy. Small-cap stocks soared on Tuesday at midday, which helped drive the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -2.05%) to gains of nearly half a percent.
Within the Nasdaq, though, there were several stocks that lost ground. NovoCure (NVCR 0.33%) suffered a steep drop in its share price following its latest news on a key treatment option for cancer patients. Meanwhile, Coinbase Global (COIN -3.24%) notched its second day of losses, as the cryptocurrency exchange specialist found the regulatory spotlight shifted directly onto itself.
NovoCure falls on clinical data
Shares of NovoCure dropped 30% early Tuesday afternoon. The move lower came after the healthcare company released its latest clinical data on its Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) therapy, which prompted some nervous responses from shareholders.
Looking at NovoCure's press release, the news seemed more upbeat. The company presented what it called positive results from its phase 3 Lunar clinical trial, which evaluated the use of Tumor Treating Fields together with standard therapies in treating non-small cell lung cancer patients. The trial met its primary endpoint, showing statistically significant and clinically meaningful three-month improvement in median overall survival over simply using standard cancer therapies alone.
However, the challenge could be that the structure of the trial itself wasn't ideal in demonstrating NovoCure's advantage over conventional therapy. Unfortunately, the Lunar trial only included a small subgroup of patients whose treatment included immune checkpoint inhibitors. Despite showing an even greater survival advantage of eight months, the trial's relatively shallow look at that subgroup made some question the weight of the evidence -- particularly because most patients receiving conventional cancer therapy now get immune checkpoint inhibitors as part of their treatment.
Despite the positive data, NovoCure still has a long way to go to convince the medical community to use its treatment, as well as government agencies to approve it and the health insurance industry to pay for it. Shareholders aren't happy that the road to making Tumor Treating Fields available to non-small cell lung cancer patients could be longer than hoped.
Coinbase falls again
Meanwhile, shares of Coinbase Global dropped another 13%. The decline followed a 9% decline on Monday, as regulatory activity in the cryptocurrency exchange space ramped up even further.
Monday's drop came as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against rival exchange Binance, alleging numerous violations of securities laws. The SEC took the position that nearly all cryptocurrencies are securities requiring registration, saying that Binance failed to do so and also failed to seek authorization to act as a securities exchange.
Investors in Coinbase likely saw the Binance suit as a threat across the industry, but they might not have anticipated that the SEC would file a suit directly against Coinbase so soon. Yet that's what happened on Tuesday, with the Coinbase suit sharing a lot in common with the allegations against Binance.
Coinbase and others have argued for a long time that digital assets more closely resemble commodities than securities. Coinbase in particular hasn't been averse to regulation, but it has sought what it sees as more appropriate types of regulation. The fact that the SEC disagrees is unfortunate, and many shareholders in the cryptocurrency exchange provider aren't comfortable with the uncertainty that the litigation creates for what could be an extended period of time.
