December 30 Biotech Update

A drifting day in the market but with a negative bias to start. It is hard to read too much into the movement as the volume is low and there is little news out there. I am going to spend the next couple of notes previewing 2015 to a certain extent. I will start with […]

December 23 Biotech Update

The sector is certainly having problems. As I noted yesterday, you should be biased towards raising cash (and going short if you are interested in running more of a market neutral book). Even ABBV who is the hep-C “winner” cannot catch a bid as the market is reasonably discounting not the fact that ABBV will […]

December 22 Biotech Update

It was a weak start to the sector and I suspect that may be a popular start to these notes as the sector seems to have lost some control of pricing power. I am going to spend today talking about the ABBV/ESRX deal as it has significant implications not over for the hep-C market but […]

December 19 Biotech Update

After a set of very strong rallies, it would probably be constructive for the market to trade sideways for a bit but the pressure for managers to chase may be too great as their benchmarks are that much higher after the recent rip. In any case, it was a relatively benign open to the market […]

December 17 Biotech Update

I think we remain in a macro environment and it is increasingly difficult to interpret the recent moves. For instance, why are ABBV, ENTA, and GILD all going down? What has caused that relationship to breakdown? Is it macro related, end of the year portfolio adjustments, or something else? Along the same lines, why are […]

December 15 Biotech Update

A slow news start to the week and perhaps we are getting into the holiday doldrums a little early. In addition, the Santa Claus rally has been missing and that seems driven by the collapse in oil prices. This is obviously a boon to consumers around the globe and should be a tailwind for global […]

December 12 Biotech Update

The market is weak to open as a follow through on the selling yesterday. This feels like a reversal day but it is way too early to tell but either way I think we are going to get a sense of how stocks are going to trade into the end of the year. A day […]

December 8 Biotech Update

It has been a busy couple of days as expected and more news than can be adequately covered in one day, so today I will touch on what seems most interesting and/or near term actionable. Even then I will necessarily be leaving some important topics for later in the week so feel free to contact […]

December 1 Bitoech Update

Markets are weak and the biotech sector is moving with it and it appears that small cap and momentum plays are being most affected (large caps seem to be holding up fairly well). The market probably needs to consolidate its recent move as do a lot of biotechs but the wild cards this month are […]

November 26 Biotech Update

The trading is winding down as we approach Thanksgiving and I suspect today is going to be slow and get slower. The market will be open again on Friday but will likely be even slower as many will likely take the half trading day off. I suspect this also means that news flow will also […]

November 24 Biotech Update

A decent start to the week but volume is going to be low all week and I suspect that will increase the chop. So I would not read anything into the broader sector outside of this week having a slight positive bias. That being said, we do have to respect any move that is done […]

November 21 Biotech Update

A great open for the market but then it immediately proceeded to lay an egg. It is still early and the key is going to be how it responds to the selling. The only worrying sign is that the downdraft really seemed to hit biotechs and these have been a leading indicator of larger market […]

November 20 Biotech Update

Market starts a little weak this morning and generally is taking the sector with it. That being said it is not a rout by any means, so it seems like there sector is looking to find its footing before the next move. Luckily we have some news to talk about. 1. EPZM reported very positive […]

November 14 Biotech Update

The markets are fine this morning but biotech is weak and seems to be led lower by GILD and other large caps. As long as GILD is weak it is going to be difficult for the sector to lead and this could eventually spill over into the broader markets. We have quickly moved from extremes […]

November 10 Biotech Update

News continues to roll in and the market is providing a relatively neutral backdrop, which gives us a good sense of what the price action means. In other words, the price action of biotech stocks after news seems to be a clear signal of market reaction and is not being cloudy by macro effects. This […]

ABBV Survey Results [Free Content]

Earlier today on twitter there was a robust debate about the weakness seen in GILD and how this is related to fears on the upcoming competition from ABBV/ENTA. It seemed clear that there was a debate over the ultimate discount that ABBV was going to offer when compared to the GILD regime. While everyone had […]

November 5 Biotech Update

The markets seem to be in consolidation mode or to put it another way it is trying to make up its mind about the next move. At this point I am 50/50 on the next move as it really seems to be in no man’s land. The longer we stay at these levels the better […]

October 31 Biotech Update

A strong start to the morning but this seems a lot like a short term blow off rally but we need to see how the week closes. If we can end the day near the highs then I think the rally has some more legs in the near term but a close near the lows […]

October 23 Bioech Update

The rebound is continuing with large caps continuing to lead but with good participation with the small caps, which is nice to see. It really is a little amazing to see how many V-shaped moves this market makes and how little memory it has day to day. In any case, I still think the path […]