November 26 Biotech Update

The trend is your friend and while I expected a news to slow we got an unanticipated surprise. Positive news continues to hit the sector and the trend continues higher. I will never call the end of the trend until it confirmed but we have had a great move and macro has been pretty supportive […]

August 23 Biotech Update

So the sector feels a lot worse than the chart indicates. We are right around support at $80 and that seems to have been holding. We are approaching, however, a decision point. We can break below what is support for a leg down or break out of the downward trending making that look like a […]

August 8 Biotech Update

What macro brings down macro can bring up. The sector seems to be trading right in line with the broader markets but hopefully we see some acceleration of the sector given the positive news that needs to be digested. 1. SRPT is lower on the earnings release. The revenues were fine and in line. SRPT […]

June 27 Biotech Update

A good start to the morning for the sector, although it seems mostly in line with the broader markets. Given the performance the past couple days, however, I am happy to see it up with the broader markets, especially given that lack of any real news (although we are still potentially in the glow of […]

June 24 Market Update

The sector is in an interesting spot. Tensions with Iran remain elevated but did not escalate, which should lead to a risk on move and while the market was tepidly higher the sector is clearly underperforming. Usually risk-on benefits the sector and while one could argue that the elevated macro tensions remain a drag, there […]

June 17 Biotech Update

It is a good start to the week with merger Monday coming back the sector albeit with names we were not expecting. The XBI has been in a nice tight range and while we are still in that range this morning, I would look for a breakout about $84. I am not exactly calling for […]

June 14 Biotech Update

It is Friday again, so be on the lookout for those rumors or late day runners. A slow start to the morning in terms of price action but we are basically trading with the market (although the IBB showing some small relative strength compared to SPY and XBI). 1. There is an interesting contrast with […]

May 17th Biotech Update

We remain in a macro driven market even as the ASCO abstracts dropped this week. There were some interesting data that came out of the abstracts but certainly nothing so compelling to move the sector especially against this macro backdrop. At some point, the China trade wars issue will be priced into the market and […]

May 9 Biotech Update

Macro seems to once again dominate the trading with both Iran and China increasing the risk and both North Korea and Venezuela just below the surface. The odds remain that we muddle through these crises but one cannot ignore the risks that these present especially because the Iran and China situations could potentially be very […]

December 13 Biotech Update

Not a ton of news as the year closes down. It seems like the market wants to whiplash investors as we bounce around with no clear trends. It does not matter how strong or weak a day is as it seems to have no impact on trading the next day. We should be approaching a […]

December 7 Biotech Update

The market can always surprise and I was surprised yesterday with the sector strength. The broader market did better than I expected but the sector clearly outperformed. It is only a day but if we see continued strength today then one has to read these days as a strong signal in the near term. I […]

December 3 Biotech Update

It is certainly a great start to the week with generally good news from ASH, merger Monday, and easing trade tensions. If we do not get a gap and run with this news, then we are in trouble. I suspect this will be a multi-day move (or at least it should be on this news). […]

November 29 Biotech Update

We are at an interesting place for the sector. The XBI is approaching the upper end of the downtrend, which has been acting as resistance. I am not totally convinced that will be the case this time as the recent move lower did not form a lower low. That hints that we could be leaving […]

September 13th Biotech Update

We are finally getting a broad snap back rally but it needs to be more than a simple morning rally that is faded as the day goes along. If this rally is not built upon during the day, then odds are it simply reset the RSI and opened up a path to retest the bottom […]

June 28 Biotech Update

I tried to hold out as much hope for the sector as possible but the selling has been non-stop since the false breakout. The first bit of selling made sense against a weaker market and a natural retest of the breakout but it has not stopped and one could possible argue that it accelerated. It […]

June 27 Biotech Update

We still might be able to salvage a bullish view but it is getting pretty difficult. Clearly the breakout did not occur but we are still in higher highs and higher lows position from the April lows but we cannot have another big sell off and maintain that view. On the positive side, we have […]

June 26 Biotech Update

Yesterday was a brutal day and the odds now favor it being a false breakout of the sector. I would not say all is lost as if we can bounce soon, we might be setting up a higher low but there is not a lot of room for error in the sector. 1. AKAO received […]

March 9 Biotech Update

The market is certainly providing a better backdrop and the sector is doing well in response. At this point the trend is your friend, although as I noted the other day there is some froth in certain portions of the market. 1. The big news coming is the REGN PCSK9 outcomes trial data this weekend. […]

January 11 Biotech Update

While we still have two trading days left this week, it looks like we will end up with a decent performance for the sector. Given the lack of news at JPM, this appears to be a win (assuming it continues) and seems to support the argument that the Monday selling was fast money getting out […]

January 10 Biotech Update

The sector did better yesterday, which seems consistent with the story that long only funds came in to buy the dip Monday. That being said, it is only one day of confirmation and there week has some time to go. There has still not be a lot of news and believe that if we end […]