An interesting start to the week. Stocks are starting off stronger than most expected (including me) with the sector slightly outperforming. We have some news to talk about but not a ton and I do not think either are sector moving. 1. We do have a merger Monday with HZNP buying RPTP. I think it […]
September 9 Biotech Update
Not a good day today (seems like rising rates freak out). I may not have been paying very close attention to the market but this seems like a drop on no meaningful market data or information (market tends to throw periodic fits when they increase the odds of a rate hike). The broader market seems […]
September 7 Biotech Update
It sort of feels like people are still on vacation. No volume. No price action. The sector is holding up in this environment and perhaps grinding higher but I am not reading much into the price action at all given the lack of any conviction. 1. The only real conviction move today is AGIO going […]
August 23 Biotech Update
Well, as much as I thought my routine would return to normal next week, we learned the schools are not going to open until September 6th at the earliest meaning that my kids will be spending a lot of time at work with their parents. At least we are still in the summer doldrums in […]
August 22 Biotech Update
The sector is doing well on the consummation of the long courtship of MDVN. I will be back with my commentary this week but am still not quite back to the usual routine. The kids still do not have school, so these will be shorter than usual this week but next week when everything is […]
August 10 Biotech Update
The market continues to consolidate and I expect this trend to continue over the near term. If I am correct that this is simply a consolidation in a new bull market for the sector (and it is difficult to make that claim given how bad the sector has been but at this point I am […]
August 2 Biotech Update
Not surprisingly we are having a consolidation/pullback. The sector has been on a tear and nothing goes straight higher. While the past 12 months or so has trained us to look worriedly at each pullback, this has the potential to be different. We appeared to be breaking out of a range and if the sector […]
August 1 Biotech Update
Biotech is hot again. I know I may have just jinxed us but the sector continues to power higher even as the broader market spins its wheels. Obviously there will be pauses and consolidations but I suspect that the money flow that hurt us for so long is reversing and is now going to start […]
July 29 Biotech Update
The news is slowing down a little this week but the earnings continue for the large caps. So far as a group the earnings look good indicating solid fundamentals with the companies. The stocks have been reacting well and the sector has been moving higher and outperforming. This move higher raises the bar for the […]
July 28 Biotech Update
It is a mixed bag today in terms of stock reactions but the actual numbers continue to be good. I am not exactly sure why some stocks are reacting better than others but I will take a stab at it. In any case, it is hard to argue that the fundamentals of the sector do […]
July 27 Biotech Update
We are in the midst of a busy week but we have a slight pause in the news but will pick up soon enough. The sector held up amazingly well considering the GILD and CELG news, which is certainly positive. It looks like positive news can still be rewarded and negative news is not automatically […]
July 26 Biotech Update
We got a double barrel of bad news after the close last night but I must say the overall sector reaction is good. I have said this before but it bears repeating. If this had happened a couple months ago the sector would be down 5%+ and stay down. Today we are green. It seems […]
July 22 Biotech Update
Not a lot of additional news today. The sector continues to modestly outperform the broad market, which is good. The XBI crossed over the 200 day moving average (and actually closed above it) and the longer it can remain there the better. It would be great to see that moving average tested and hold as […]
July 19 Biotech Update
More of the same yesterday and still not a ton of news for this morning. The market is overbought even if the sector is still not anywhere near over bought or all-time highs. That makes one worry a little about what happens to the sector when the market inevitably works off the overbought condition but […]
July 14 Biotech Update
The market continues to ramp higher but about halfway through yesterday the bottom fell out of the biotech sector and it has been struggling ever since despite the strength in the broader markets. It is not immediately clear what was the cause (seems temporally to correlate with Andrew Left noting that he is short VRX […]
June 30 Biotech Update
More of the relief rally in the markets and to a certain extent the sector. As has been the case with most of the rallies in the sector, the trading desks are calling it a short covering rally more than long only money being put to work. As I have been saying in response is […]
June 15 Biotech Update
It ended up not being a horrible day for the sector but certainly not great. We started a modest late day rally that seems to have continued into this morning but it has a way to go before it becomes more convincing. On the positive, it seemed to start around support but one the negative […]
We saw some more low volume drift and no real news to break through the summer doldrums, which seems to be in effect. I think this will probably be the rule for the rest of the summer with choppy, low volume trading as the rule punctuated but news filled days that drive the sector (or […]
June 7 Biotech Update
Today is going to be a real test of the sector with all the negative news that came out. I am sure some will try to call this the ASCO hangover but any selling today has little to do with ASCO. The sector has had a good run and I would not be surprised to […]
May 27 Biotech Update
Yesterday was not a great day but after the run having a treading water sort of trading is not the worst outcome. At the worst, we were trading in line with the market and the key will be what we do after the recent move has been digested. The trend has been higher, so the […]
