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 11 Biotech Update
We now seem to be stuck in a small rut with the near term trend being slightly negative and nothing really to break it. Perhaps value investors step in at support levels or we get unexpected news (M&A or data) that can change the trend but until then it looks like a low volume drift […]
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 […]
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 […]
June 23 Biotech Update
Nothing new (again) and the market is waiting on baited breath about the Brexit voting results. This should be the last major near term fear inducing event. The polls are too close to call but the betting markets seem pretty confident that the vote will be to remain. I expect today will be volatile but […]
June 2 Biotech Update
I missed a day but not much happened. The sector continues to do well and it seems to be slowly turning sentiment around. The one negative (or perhaps positive) is that the ISI traders noted that there is still not buying demand and the move seems to be driven by a lack of sellers and […]
May 26 Biotech Update
Yesterday was more of the same and that is actually good for one of the first times this year. The sector continues higher and modestly outperformer the broader markets. The one negative was that ISI noted that there has been a lack of real money interest. In other words, long term institutional money has not […]
May 25 Biotech Update
The market continues higher and the sector with it. We seem to be moving away from the previous lows with broader participation with SMID and large caps. This market continues to be hated and I suspect people are still underinvested in healthcare. This all makes me marginally more bullish in the near term even though […]
May 19 Biotech Update
The sector did well the other day especially given the weakness in the broader markets. We have, however, seen this before and last time the sector grossly underperformed once the broader markets recovered. So while it is good to see the relative strength and hopefully it continues, it also needs to last more than a […]
May 16 Biotech Update
We got some decent news flow to start the week both positive and negative. Who knows how that will balance out in terms of the sector general performance but this should be a week driven by news related moves with ASCO abstracts and the ABBV IPR decision still on deck. 1. The biggest data news […]
May 2 Biotech Update
It was not a great end of the week for the sector. Trading has not been good and earnings were fine but not exciting. As much as the sector has bounced from its recent lows, it still does not feel like sentiment has changed dramatically. It as an odd dynamic that I will talk about […]
Dave-Trading – April Edition
*** 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 positionPreview 2-3 […]
April 13 Biotech Update
It has been a strange sort of trading. The sector did well last week but has been underperforming for a couple days now. Ideally this is simply back testing the move from the AGN/PFE breakup but we clearly need to turn it around soon. We seem to be stuck in the sell every rally environment […]
April 11 Biotech Update
I do not think the week is starting with the news everybody wants, i.e. buyouts, but I do think we are getting closer to that point. The sector has been searching for direction at the end of last week but it had a nice run after the AGN/PFE break, so a pause is not unexpected. […]
April 7 Biotech Update
I think we can have more confidence that the bottom is in for the sector, although I am still of the belief that it will be volatile and the sector will still not be the leader of the market going forward. There certainly may be quarters of outperformance but not to the same frequency and […]
April 6 Biotech Update
The news is obviously the failed AGN and PFE deal, so I will focus on why the deal fell through and what it means for the companies and sector. I obviously underestimated both the desire and ability of treasury to kill this deal but it is now about dealing with the news and how to […]
