I hope everyone had a great holiday and is ready for 2014. It has not been a stellar start for the market or biotechs, which is a little worrisome but it is still early. I have been arguing that the best tell for biotechs will be the price action from the JPM healthcare conference. I […]
December 20 Biotech Update- Wrapping up the Year
It was a good day for the market and biotechs were strong once again. It seems like tax loss selling is winding down and selling volume is starting to dry up. So we are likely to have a positive bias for the rest of the year. It also helps that the news flow in biotechs […]
December 18 Daily Biotech Update- A Couple of Surprises
Well, the taper was exactly what the market and biotech sector need. Who saw that one coming? Is this simply a relief rally, start of a Santa rally, or setting us up for a bigger fall? For the biotech sector I see it more as a relief rally at this point but one that may […]
December 18 Biotech Update- Rigorsertib Fail Pancreatic Trial (no surprise) and MRK Collaborates
We are getting into the doldrums so to speak and not much is going on. The market really seemed listless in the morning as I guess traders were waiting for the taper decision. I still see a negative bias in biotech, especially in this year’s big winners. It could very well be that funds are […]
Onconova- Pancreatic Cancer Trial Fails- not meaningful
Just a real quick note. ONTX announced the failure of rigorsertib in pancreatic cancer. This should not be a surprise at all. Clearly this is a negative headline and I expect some selling but if it is anything more than transient then people still do not understand this company or its prospects. No one should […]
December 17 Daily Biotech Update- What did CEMP say and what is wrong with PCYC?
It was a macro day to a certain extent with the broader market down but biotechs certainly underperformed. There were a few islands of strength but for the most part the entire sector was weak and some significantly so. As I have been saying these moves are noise to a certain extent as the price […]
December 16 Biotech Update- More Antiobiotic News and Post-ASH Selloff
Stocks were strong out of the gate and biotechs with them but the market weakened throughout the morning. Biotechs did not necessarily lead the market lower but seemed to be a relative underperformer. Again, this is not a total surprise as the sector had a great run at the end of November, so they need […]
December 13 Biotech Update- Some Anti-infective Discussions
It was more of the same in the market (so to speak) and while there was some green out there, I am not convinced that we have completely consolidated that late November move. This seems more like a pause in that correction as opposed to a base that is going to reverse it. It is […]
December 12 Daily Biotech Update- More Thoughts from ASH
Today was a better day for biotechs but I still think that many of them want to test their moving averages which are still lower than these levels. As such, I am cautious about adding at this point but I am certainly not selling either. I am going to continue with my impressions from ASH […]
December 11 Biotech Update- Thought from ASH
I am back from ASH and ready to get back to writing the daily updates. There is a lot to cover, so it may take a couple of days. We are in a post-ASH pullback, which is not surprising and the macro selling was not helping either. Many of the biotechs I follow are above […]
December 5 Biotech Update- Who is Bayes and what does he have to do with Biotech?
Another slow day in the market but this will clearly change as we enter into ASH this weekend and early next week. At least we should have some interesting data to talk about. We were starting to see some ASH names move today, which is to be expected given we are days away from critical […]
December 4 Biotech Update- Why Did I Buy Innate Pharma?
To be honest it has been a fairly boring week (for the most part) and the market seemed weak in the morning but not in a meaningful manner. There was more significant selling in the afternoon but I am not reading too much into it or the later day rally. Biotechs generally have been following […]
December 3 Biotech Update- CELG partnering and some interesting price action
The market sold off and took a number of biotechs with it, although there were some that bucked the trend. I would not read anything into the selling today as it seemed more like a breather and macro related than something specific to biotech. In fact, it seemed much more akin to a buyer strike […]
December 2 Biotech Update- Getting Ready for ASH
Last week ended well for biotechs and today was a little more of the same with perhaps some consolidation. News has been relatively limited as most traders/investors/general biotech followers are gearing up for ASH. I will be heading down on Friday and staying through Tuesday, which means there will not be any updates this Friday, […]
November 26 Biotech Update- MACK fails … again and Strategic Buyers Opening Wallets … again?
We are drifting towards the holiday and there is really not much action and we are fairly quiet on the news front. As such, this will be the last update until next Monday (unless, of course, there is some spectacular news that happens between now and then). Next week will also be a day short […]
November 25 Biotech Update- What to Make of CLDX and CBST data and the new MRK trial
The market was a low volume chop fest (although with a fairly narrow range) for the most part and I do not think we should read too much into price movements unless they really take off on above average volume. We might be able to learn something about sentiment this week but I believe that […]
November 22 Biotech Update- A Busy CHMP out with some Bullish News
You will notice that I am change the title to something more descriptive, hopefully you will still read the updates with this change. Sentiment is certainly shifting in the biotech sector and it seems to be doing so as quickly as it turned negative. What was my fear that the sector would be hit with […]
November 20-EOD (or midday)
In terms of the sector it is more of the same with an inline to slight outperformance of the market writ large (when the market is treading water or going moderately higher). Despite this positive action I always get worried when I see reports that newsletter writer bearish sentiment is at multi-decade lows (often viewed […]
November 19- EOD
The sector was doing fine yesterday until Icahn dumped on the market and everything got caught in the crossfire. This morning they are doing fine again, so it seems that as long as there is not a larger market selloff biotechs might just get time to catch their footing. Of course, it is still an […]
November 18-EOD
Thankfully there was not a lot of news but biotechs did not just drift lower. I still worry about tax loss selling hitting the sector (or at least the small to mid caps) heading into the end of the year but it is nice to see that the sector can tread water on no news […]
