The million-dollar opportunity: Valneva, Edgemont Gold, BASF

Valneva: The air is out

Incidences in Germany are on the decline. Nevertheless, values around 800 still feel like a lot. But the topic has lost its way. Almost everyone has had Corona. In most cases, the disease was mild. That takes away the horror of the incidence. The immunity that now exists also ensures that hardly any patients have to be hospitalized. Nevertheless, experts warn about the coming fall. Vaccination rates are still too low to prevent hospitals from being overburdened. There are also more and more mutants, which could become more dangerous. But what good is speculation at a time when people are pandemic-weary and anything but fearful?

Most recently, Health Minister Karl Lauterbach used the word "killer variant". It is not only critics of the Corona policy who are reacting badly to this, and not without good reason. After years of the pandemic and many warnings - some exaggerated - only very few people have an open ear for such warnings. The pandemic theme will level off in the coming months. Titles such as Valneva are still on an upward trend, but the air is out. Even the initial approval of the Corona vaccine in the UK did not cause Valneva to make any significant leaps. The fact that this is an inactivated whole-virus vaccine and, in relation to Corona, an innovation, is now of little interest to anyone.

Edgemont Gold: EUR 1 million market capitalization and a clear goal

Looking at the share price of gold and copper company Edgemont Gold, one could draw parallels to CureVac's vaccine failure. Edgemont Gold's stock has dropped a whopping 62% in the past month. What happened? In late March, Edgemont Gold announced drill results. The team drilled 27 meters of gold grading 0.44 g/t, including a six-meter interval of 1.26 g/t gold. However, the results were less encouraging for copper and did not reveal any higher grade concentrations greater than 0.2%. The market had expected this and has since punished the stock. However, the Company itself stresses that the results to date are a template for further drilling. "With the assay results in hand, we are excited to finalize our drill plan and begin our Phase II drill program next month," said Stuart Rogers, president and CEO.

Since exploration drilling always provides clues to the composition of rocks and the underlying geology of a project, in addition to concrete grades, even the upcoming drilling could provide more encouraging results for copper. In any case, exploration projects are subject to constant ups and downs and are therefore suitable for anti-cyclical investors. With a market capitalization of around EUR 1 million, Edgemont Gold is now an exciting warrant on the two trend themes of gold and copper. Positive drill results are likely to awaken new potential and boost the value. However, the share must be considered extremely speculative.

BASF: Risks despite foresight

BASF shows that risk is sometimes assessed in a distorted way on the stock market. The chemical giant from Ludwigshafen is suffering from the general situation. If the war in Ukraine continues to escalate and sanctions are extended, BASF could soon run out of energy. Since BASF makes a decisive contribution to the global supply of fertilizers, the situation is doubly critical. In addition to share price losses, there is a threat of hunger in many regions of the world in the long term. The share is currently showing little momentum. Below EUR 50, there is a threat of further share price losses; a comeback awaits beyond EUR 55. In between, the stock is a hot potato. But if BASF comes through the current crisis, the Company could benefit in the long term. After all, the Company had already presented a concept to move away from fossil fuels before the war.

The current market situation is challenging for investors. Even well-positioned companies like BASF could go under the radar. Former hopefuls, such as Valneva, are also moving more and more out of focus. In the end, those companies that solve acute problems are likely to profit. These include stocks from the energy and commodities sectors. Edgemont Gold has been penalized for drilling results, although further drilling is still planned for the end of April, building on previous findings. The stock is down. The Company is worth about EUR 1 million. Cash on hand was EUR 1.2 million in February. It may be an opportunity.