China is back in the news and for good or ill, the sector fundamentals do not matter. Right now it is all about China and the broader market will pull the sector higher or lower. At this point with no trade deal and with the arrest of the Huawei CFO (the daughter of the CEO […]
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 […]
October23 Biotech Update
It is unfortunate that the earnings weeks comes as the market seems to want to collapse. Industrial earnings are finally seeing the impact of the trade policies and now apparently it is a biotech issue. It is hard to see how the sector would avoid being pulled into a larger market sell-off regardless of the […]
October 22 Biotech Update
This should not be week of no news as we have the ESMO data to digest as well as a number of large cap earnings to work through. Unless there is some massive move in the market, it is hard to imagine that the sector does not trade on the news as opposed to following […]
October 12 Biotech Update
Not a lot in terms of news but certainly in terms of action. The selloff has been brutal but I think we are much closer to a bottom than many think. My question is not whether we get a nice short covering rally soon (I expect we do) but what happens after the shorts cover? […]
October 10 Biotech Update
I do not think there is much to say today outside of the obvious. The market is not looking good and we seem to be entering (or in the midst) of a broad market correction that is going to take everything down with it. Fundamentals are not going to matter in the near term. It […]
October 9 Biotech Update
It was certainly not a great start to the week and the sector really needs a turnaround Tuesday to pan out. Interestingly, the pharma and large cap bios did OK yesterday as perhaps a flight to safety trade. The IBB seems right at the bottom of its range and has the potential to find support […]
October 5 Biotech Update
Yesterday was brutal to say the least. There really was nothing to like about it. The XBI seems to have broken below its range and the IBB is rushing to the bottom end of its range. I have been talking about the XBI as the early warning index for the IBB and unless it can […]
October 2 Biotech Update
There is not a lot of news today, so I will keep it relatively quick. I am really not starting to like the way the sector is trading. The XBI continues to act like crap even as the IBB trades near the upper end of its range. If the XBI cannot rally and rally fast, […]
September 27th Biotech Update
We continue to see the disconnect between the IBB and XBI, where the large caps are outperforming the SMID. Given that the previous range break on the IBB did not hold, I suspect we will need greater SMID participation but it is not crazy to see investors first put money to work in large caps […]
September 25 Biotech Update
The sector appears to be gaining some momentum but we need to see the strength continue and ideally broaden. Positive data being rewarded is good as there have been times where positive data got nothing than a quick spike only to be sold later in the day. The IBB is back at the high end […]
September 5 Biotech Update
The hurricane thankfully missed us, so back in the office. The sector had a rough day yesterday but it only took us to the area that should act as new support. A quick dip under 120 or so would not be bad but it has to be quick. Honestly, we have already tested the support […]
September 4 Biotech Update
Another slow start to the week. Sometimes there are expectations for deals after long weekends but the sector continues to disappoint in terms of M&A. Given how important M&A was to many sector theses at the start of the year (and that includes me), it is impressive to see the performance. Explaining the performance is […]
August 20 Biotech Update
I understand that it is still the summer but this is an absolutely no news start to the week. We remain in a choppy market until proven otherwise and this lack of news makes it difficult to discern anything under the surface. Ideally, you would want to see how stocks react to news but we […]
August 16th Biotech Update
The sector was pretty weak yesterday but remained in its range. While there is nothing to dissuade me from the summer chop, there are some warning signs. First, we are close to breaking through the support on both the XBI and IBB. Second, the early morning bounce was quickly sold. Obviously it remains early but […]
August 15th Biotech Update
A pretty weak open for the sector but again this is nothing more than low volume chop as I see it. Unless it breaks below 113 on the IBB and then retests that as resistance or above 120 and then retests that as support, I will continue to argue that the sector is directionless. Of […]
August 4 Biotech Update
I am back from my last trip of the summer and to be honest it is going to take me the weekend to catch up on all the news. That being said there are a couple of points I can make that are essentially the frame I will use to look at the recent news. […]
Tax Inversions: Regulation Chasing Corporate Tax Loopholes Part 6
Proposed solution and conclusion Finally, I’d like to draw some conclusions and offer a different solution. First of all, it is clear that the corporate tax structure is way too complicated. Its provisions seem to be more focused on assuring tax revenue instead of focusing on economic efficiency and keeping America competitive in the international […]
Tax Inversions: Regulation Chasing Corporate Tax Loopholes Part 5
Proposed Policy Actions to curtail inversions All policy actions taken so far have been attempts at adjusting the tax code to greatly discourage inversion, but falls short of eliminating the incentive to invert. The Congressional Budget Office points to three policy options that are being considered for passage: Move significantly toward a purely worldwide system […]
Tax Inversions: Regulation Chasing Corporate Tax Loopholes Part 4
The incentives to invert Now that we have determined that inversions are not in America’s best interest and that multinational corporations are now actively seeking to invert, we must critically consider how to stop inversions. However, it is prudent to first understand the full scope of the incentives to invert. Results have shown that inversion […]
