March 20 ESPR Update

A quick note on ESPR as I somehow missed the FDA news this morning that a couple of you kindly pointed out. This makes the move much more reasonable than I first thought. So what does this mean? First, the odds of the drugs approval are likely higher given the LDL lowering endpoint is easier […]

March 20 Biotech Update

Another week and another attempt at the 300 level on the IBB and another week with no real M&A. We are still dealing with the aftermath of the AMGN data and while there seems to be some recovery, I want to spend today talking about a potential implication that seems to have been flying under […]

March 17 Biotech Update

Well, this is not going to be a good day for the sector and that wall at 300 in the IBB is likely safe for now. The key culprit is going to be the AMGN outcomes data, which is a massive disappointment (for anyone outside of AMGN who apparently think it is great). While one […]

Dave Trading – April 2017

*** David Sobek is a disciplined value investor.  Using models, research, and fundamental data, David devises a value for biotech stocks, buys when significantly undervalued, and sells when significantly overvalued.*** As a reminder, this is my personal guide.  You can alter it in accordance with your risk tolerance. >3 Standard deviations – No position 2-3 […]

March 10 Biotech Update

The sector has been interesting. Given the past 18 months, it feels easy to be bearish on every pullback consolidation but I am incrementally more positive. It is starting to feel more like a pause at an important level of resistance as opposed to the start of a large retracement. Obviously we likely need some […]

February 3 Biotech Update

I was correct in my prediction that I would need to take care of a sick child (and still need to do so today but have some more time). It has been an interesting week but pretty much expected. I will circle around to what I saw as the most interesting and important events. 1. […]

June 29 Biotech Update

Brexit fears are turning into Brexit relief as I talked about Monday but there is still awhile to go before the damage to the market and sector are fixed and we probably need to go over the pre-Brexit levels before getting more comfortable. In any case, there is some interesting biotech news to talk about. […]

April 4 Biotech Update

It is a pretty quiet start to the week (again) but a little less so than previous weeks. At least we have a GILD deal to think about, although not the one everyone was expecting (hoping for). While I certainly would like to see the sector rocket higher, there is something to be said for […]

September 29 Biotech Update

I want to get out a quick note this morning as I am not sure I will have time for my usual Wednesday note and there has been some interesting news. The biggest issue remains the macro and the selloff in the sector. This is beyond weak hands and this is the liquidation of large […]

September 16 Biotech Update

The market has done well recently but it is all meaningless for the most part until we get the Fed decision. To be honest, I do not know whether to root for a hike or no-hike. I can come up with what I think are reasonable cases for why the market would rally on either […]

August 31 Biotech Update

Looks like a slightly lower start to the week. Macro still obviously matters but the size of the moves seems to be decreasing. I find it interesting that the weakness comes after Fisher had a relatively hawkish Fed talk at Jackson Hole, where he noted that the Fed could raise rates before they saw inflation. […]

August 28 Biotech Update

I was busy for a day and the market does great but I come back and we have a gap lower. Sorry. In all seriousness, however, the snap back rally needs to pause but given the sell-off, I think we need to see the market shake off the gap lower and end higher today. We […]

August 19 Biotech Update

Not much has changed sector wide since I last wrote but we did have a trade play out, although not quite the way I expected. I want to talk about it today both because there have been some questions around it but also because it goes to the larger theme I think is at work […]

August 7 Biotech Update

I am not able to write for a couple of days and the market goes to crap, I figured you all would be able to keep down the fort better than that. As much as it seems like a beating (it is) I do not think we are seeing the bubble burst (of course, I […]

July 30 Biotech Update

The sector is pretty weak, which is a continuation of the past couple of days. It is not immediately clear to me the reason for the weakness as earnings have been almost universally good (notable exception being BIIB). Given the lack of news, I will spend today brainstorming some ideas for the weakness as well […]

July 27 Biotech Update

The market looks bad and it is bringing down the sector although I think BIIB has done a pretty good job at reversing some bullish biotech sentiment. That being said the sector might be outperforming the broader market a little as there was a nice big deal announced this morning. When all is said and […]

July 24 Biotech Update

Unlike earlier this week where bad news was shrugged off, it looks like we are going to see selling on the bad news. This pullback should eventually generate nice bargains if it picks up steam but it might not be an immediate buy the dip as earning have been relatively mixed, so money may be […]

June 15 Biotech Update

It is a macro world and we are just living in it. Sunday night we should have known this was going to be a bad start to the week with the two themes being Greece and the biotech bubble. Both themes are pretty trite but they are both negative headline risks. Outside of the headline […]

June 10 Biotech Update

This is sort of a different start to the day with the market off to a good start but biotechs the obvious laggard. The sector had been one of the relative bright spots but now that the market is recovering, they are lagging. This seems more news related (discussed below) and we need to see […]

June 3 Biotech Update

Yesterday was not a great day for the sector with reports of a large sell program in large caps and from what I saw that makes sense. None of the large caps really seemed to rally and every move higher was met with selling. SMID did a little better but we still likely need the […]