Gold nears $2100, biotech stocks on the move: Trending tickers

Gold (GC=F) prices are inching closer to $2,100 per ounce. It's an area that has been a bit of a resistance level for the precious metal.

In the world of biotech, Cytokinetics (CYTK) shares soared more than 80% after a trial for its hear drug showed promising results. Meanwhile, Iovance Biotherapeutics (IOVA) shares fell 18% after the Food and Drug Administration paused clinical trials of a lung cancer treatment following the death of a patient.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Video Transcript

JOSH LIPTON: Gold prices touch a three-week high as it pushes closer to the $2,100 mark. So advancing here, up about 14% this year. And that would be its first annual increase in three years, Julie. Touched a record. Remember, $2,135 an ounce earlier this month. Traders obviously looking ahead and they're then saying, hey, you know what? We're going to bet on those Fed rate cuts next year and a weaker dollar.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, and we have seen-- if you look at the CFTC positioning, Commodities Futures Trading which they track net positions in commodities including gold and what we saw last week was an increase in bullish gold bets by about 20,000 to just over 131,000.

So it's not-- the net longs aren't as high as they were, say, two years ago. But we are seeing them start to climb up as we see prices climb up here. And of course, the irony here, to some extent, is that gold tends to be the place to go when people are worried, right? And yet, what we hear is a decent amount of bullishness out there when it comes to the economy, when it comes to stocks. And so it's interesting you're seeing this move into gold prices.

JOSH LIPTON: You also might have some seasonals working for you too, because January-- January is when you can see dealers in China kind of stock up ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. So maybe you look out for that too whether that kind of offers a tailwind.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, maybe so. Let's talk some biotech, shall we? We're looking at shares of Cytokinetics surging after the biopharmaceutical company said its experimental heart drug improved exercise capacity in a trial, the results placing the company on track to compete with treatment from Bristol Myers Squibb.

And, you know, what's interesting is you see these big moves in some of these companies, in these biotech companies in particular. It is not that uncommon to see this kind of movement. But this one is a big one even by these standards.

This company is relatively highly shorted also. About 14% of its float is shorted. So that could be-- we could see a little bit of a short squeeze exacerbating this upward move here. But nonetheless, when you have these companies that have experimental drugs, if there's something positive, then there tends to be speculation raised about somebody coming in and scooping them up.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah, it looks like the company does intend to submit the drug for clearance, second half of the next year. And there have been reports too that this one is an acquisition--

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.

JOSH LIPTON: --target. So apparently, interest from Novartis from AstraZeneca. This is from reporting in deal reporters. So we'll see whether that happens. That's another--

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.

JOSH LIPTON: --potential headline.

JULIE HYMAN: Exactly. And we've seen already some end-of-year activity.

JOSH LIPTON: Oh, yeah.

JULIE HYMAN: So--

JOSH LIPTON: People pulling out the checkbooks.

JULIE HYMAN: It feels that way.

JOSH LIPTON: Got the cash put to work. All right, finally here. Shares of Iovance Biotherapeutics dropping after the Food and Drug Administration places a clinical hold on its cancer therapy trial. So this one, Julie, fall in today's trade. FDA, it sounds like pausing a study of its lung cancer drug. And it does, according to reports that I was reading today, it just filed a patient death. And the FDA told the company, listen, stop the trial.

And from what-- from what I read here, companies developing an approach to use the body's own immune defenses to attack solid tumors and considering an experimental approach. And the death was apparently reported in a mid-stage trial in patients with non-small cell lung cancer who haven't, I guess, been responding to other drugs. Companies saying it is working with the FDA to safely resume trial enrollment as soon as possible.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, if I'm understanding it correctly, it's the process that patients have to go through before they receive the treatment. And that's the step at which the death occurred. Again, if I'm understanding it correctly here. Analysts did say that this is perhaps only a slight setback that will be resolved over time.

Like Cytokinetics, this is another heavily shorted stock. About 15% of its float is shorted here. The stock is up more than 80% year to date. And as we were just talking about, there has been a lot of M&A activity. A lot of it has been within the cancer space specifically as a lot of these small biotech companies do vie for new promising treatments.

JOSH LIPTON: Lots of bullishness on this name by the way. Most-- 93% of those covering this name are bullish--

JULIE HYMAN: Wow.

JOSH LIPTON: --13 buys, 1 hold, no sells.