Gold Crash Spooks Traders-Life Science Stocks Lose Resilience IBB ($166.82) Down 1.6%
Rayno Life Science Stocks- Quick Look With NAZ at 2343
We have not made any Rayno Portfolio changes but have added two stocks recently:
Genomic Health (GHDX) and Hologic (HOLX) both down about 1.3% today.
The big news today is ThermoFisher (TMO $80.23) buying Life Technologies (LIFE) and TMO is up 0.83%. TMO has been on our Rayno DX and Tools focus list since July at a price of $53.50. The DX and Tools sector is weak, but not unusually so, mainly a lack of bids and EXAS, QDEL and SQNM are weakest.
High flying biopharmaceutical stocks are weak especially large cap biotechs which have led the 2013 market up many over 30% YTD. Notable losers in the Rayno Biopharm Portfolio today are: Alexion (ALXN) down 2.3%, Biogen-Idec (BIIB) down 1.64%, ImmunoGen (IMGN) down 5%, Pharmacyclics (PCYC) down 2%, Regeneron (RGEN) down 2.5% Seattle Genetics (SGEN) down 3.6%.
Even Strong Healthcare Sector Is Down 0.4% (XLV) down 0.8%
Given the huge run-up in biopharmaceutical stocks in 2013 that has even surprised me after 25 years in the business it is time once again to be cautious. We do not have the 1999 “biobubble” because the industry is more mature and revenue growth is impressive but we may have a “bubblet”. The gold drop has brought attention to the speculative element in the market and we know hedge funds are major drivers of the biotech sector. True biotech stocks are the large cap drug stocks of the future with a rich portfolio of products and future earnings may be undervalued compared to growth rates but traders need to be cautious on mid-cap MO stocks.