The market is weak but the biotech sector is showing good strength. The large caps seem to be holding up their end of the bargain, which bodes well for this move. I do wonder when the new leg down in oil prices hits the broader market. It seems to be handling it well but if […]
March 16 Biotech Update
A good start to the week with a new all-time high in the IBB but I still want to see how the large caps perform in the afternoon. The pattern seems to be early strength followed by weakness in the afternoon but maybe this time is different. Of course, SMIDs seem to have strength early […]
March 13 Biotech Update
I know that the sector is doing well and near highs but I cannot shake the feeling that the stocks feel heavy. I do not have a better way to describe it nor anything more solid than this impression. Perhaps this is simply the wall of worry that we are going to climb. If I […]
March 11 Biotech Update
So the sector clearly ended up outperforming yesterday despite a beat down in the broader markets. That being said I still see the large caps as the real laggards in the sector and that seems to be continuing into today. As I noted before, I do not see that as a positive as it looks […]
March 10 Biotech Update
The pullback continues. It seems like the downdraft may be extended in the near term setting up a bounce but I am not convinced it would be more than simply a bounce as part of a larger correction. I still worry about the underperformance of the large caps in that it is the SMID that […]
March 9 Biotech Update
A slow news start to the week and a weak start to the trading as the sector is again underperforming the broader markets. Despite the recent weakness, I am still not finding the screaming buy values. We are getting to the point where we had the large correction last year that convinced everyone that the […]
March 6 Biotech Update
It seems like every day I write this week is a weak start to the morning. It is not surprising that the sector is pulling back after the run yesterday and the renewed bubble chatter. Every run in the sector the past two years has brought out the bubble chatter and every time it was […]
March 4 Biotech Update
Another weak start to the sector, which seems to be a developing theme but the whole market is down so I would not read too much into it. It still looks a lot like a consolidation of the recent move higher both for biotechs and the broader markets. It might not be a bad time […]
March 3 Biotech Update
The market is weaker today and it is bringing down the sector, although it appears that biotechs are underperforming the broader market. It does not appear that this underperformance is concentrated in any market cap group or therapeutic area and simply looks like broadly hitting the sell button. Not exactly sure why the selling was […]
March 2 Biotech Update
A relatively good start to the week with only one slight worry. While the sector is generally green with the market, large cap biotechs are noticeably weaker. While it might not be a major issue if they were less green than some of the small caps, it is odd to see them red with the […]
February 27 Biotech Update
The sector seems to be a little weaker than the market although the moves are relatively small, so there is probably not a lot one can read into it. That being said the momentum higher has clear paused and perhaps reversed a little but given the volume and small moves the market appears to have […]
February 25 Biotech Update
I am back but have not really followed the market the past couple of days. My sense is that it has been relatively weak and could be setting up for a near term pullback. That is likely healthy in that the sector has had a good run and is getting a little stretched. Outside of […]
February 20 Biotech Update
As much as I have disliked this recent move higher in terms of not trusting it, you have to respect how well the sector is climbing the wall of worry. My hunch is that we are going to start to see another round of bubble trouble pronouncements. Clearly the sector is not a cheap as […]
February 18 Biotech Update
I am back after a small break and I hope that nobody missed me. The market certainly did not miss me as not much has really happened on the news front or from a trading perspective. So at least my general sector thoughts are similar. There are a couple of current trades I want to […]
February 13 Biotech Update
Market seems pretty benign but the sector appears a little heavy. As I have been saying the only thing we can have confidence in about the market is the lack of confidence. Yesterday it looked like the sector really wanted to move higher but this morning appears to be sending the opposite signal (perhaps we […]
February 11 Biotech Update
Another slow day in the market in terms of news, so I want to round out a couple of ideas today. Nothing has really changed in relation to my views in that the next move will be higher (remember that is a very low conviction view) with continued chop regardless of the ultimate direction of […]
February 10
Who order gains and losses with a large side of chop? This is a market clearly looking for direction and positive signs one day turn into negative signs the next. A stock that you expect to be an early tell of market sentiment ends up just being another victim of the chop. Markets like this […]
February 9 Biotech Update
A good start to the week with the markets a little week but the sector outperforming. This is not totally surprising given the underperformance last week in that there should be some sort of bounce back. It is certainly positive to see but I wonder about of the staying power and whether this is simply […]
February 6 Biotech Update
Well, I can honestly say that on Wednesday I did not think the sector would be looking this good on Friday. The economy seems to be improving, the macro (outside of the Greek noise) seems benign, and the sector seems to be shrugging off the hep-C discounts. I am a little surprised but you also […]
February 4 Biotech Update
So it looks like the sector wants to go lower. While there can be any number of explanations the proximate cause is the GILD report, so I want to go over that in detail and trace out what it means and does not mean. 1. Why is GILD down? I think this is the simplest […]
