New York, February 17, 2026, 05:13 EST — Premarket
- ImmunityBio shares were up about 7% before the open, rebounding from Friday’s steep drop.
- U.S. markets resume trading after the Presidents Day closure, a setup that can distort early moves.
- Investors are watching for fresh signals on Anktiva ahead of late-February oncology meetings and a coming quarterly update.
ImmunityBio Inc (IBRX.O) shares rose about 7% to $6.37 in premarket trading on Tuesday, lifting off a Friday close of $5.95. Early volume was light at roughly 79,000 shares. (Public)
The move comes as U.S. equity and options markets reopen after a long weekend; Nasdaq’s calendar shows markets were shut on Monday for Presidents Day. Thin premarket liquidity can exaggerate both bounces and breaks. (NASDAQ Trader)
That matters for ImmunityBio because the stock has been swinging hard even by biotech standards. It closed Friday down 10.2% after trading between $7.30 and $5.94 in the session, data show. (StockAnalysis)
On Monday, the company drew attention to a radio interview featuring executive chairman Patrick Soon-Shiong, posting a link in its news coverage section. The segment centered on the company’s cancer therapy Anktiva. (ImmunityBio)
The show’s description said Anktiva is built around interleukin-15, an immune-signaling protein, and framed regulatory friction as the key barrier to wider use. It also tied the drug to reversing lymphopenia — low levels of infection-fighting white blood cells — which can follow cancer treatment. (77 WABC)
ImmunityBio’s near-term story still runs through bladder cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Anktiva in 2024 in combination with BCG, a vaccine also used as an infusion treatment for certain bladder cancers; Soon-Shiong told Reuters the aim was to “generate cancer-free long-term overall survival,” even as patients can relapse after existing options including Merck’s Keytruda. (Reuters)
Beyond the open, the next set of dates on the calendar is the ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco later this month. The meeting runs Feb. 26-28 at Moscone West, and traders will be alert for any ImmunityBio abstracts, chatter or updated timelines that leak into the tape. (Cvent)
Investors are also bracing for the company’s next quarterly report. MarketBeat’s earnings calendar points to an early-March window, though that timing can shift and is not always company-confirmed. (MarketBeat)
But premarket strength can fade fast once the broader market opens and spreads tighten. ImmunityBio still has to show it can turn a narrow U.S. bladder-cancer label into steady sales, and any extra FDA demands, slower uptake or funding worries would cut against the rebound.
For Tuesday’s regular session, the first test is simple: does the stock hold above Friday’s close once volume shows up. After that, the market’s next hard marker is Feb. 26, when GU symposium activity starts in San Francisco.
