Biotechnology Sector Steps Back after Meteoric Rise Since Early March
With many life science indices reaching new highs both YTD and in some cases over 10 years traders decided it was time to put away some cash. Don’t fret yet as we are still way above March lows and still up over 10% YTD. But trading volume has picked up and weakness in NASDAQ has exacerbated the biotech sector move over the past 5 days. The healthcare sector overall has remained stable in comparison to other sectors but the high beta small and mid cap biotech stocks are in a sell-off mode. Our mid-cap index was hard hit down over 1.75% with a lot of the biggest MO stocks down on high volume: Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc.($8.08) down 3.8%,Exelixis, Inc.(EXEL $11.30) down 2.33%, Immunogen, Inc. (IMGN $12.65) down 5.3%, Illumina, Inc. (ILMN $70) down 2.7%, and Incyte Pharmaceuticals(INCY $19.54) down 4.4% .Safety is in large cap drugs and biotechs such as Abbot(ABT) and Amgen (AMGN).
ETF’s were also correcting off recent new highs FBT $43.60 down 1.22%, IBB $105.84, down 1.28% and XBI $72.23 down 1.6%.
The Rayno Life Science portfolio is down under 1.3% due to less volatile tools and diagnostics stocks that have not yet reported earnings.
The bull market in life science stocks has been resilient fending off any major corrections but we could be in for some choppiness near term. The ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) Meeting beginning on June 3 should provide important clinical news.