Gold, financials, energy and materials soar-Gold up $34 to $1767
You have been hearing about the FED and QE for weeks now and today announced a $40B/month purchase of mortgage securities and after a slight delay the bull market roared ahead. Interest rates will be maintained at an ultra-low rate through 2015. There was some backlash from Republicans but given the focus on mortgage debt the policy was hard to attack and housing stocks responded with big gains. The S&P is now up 15.7% YTD and the NASDAQ is up over 20%, numbers that few people really know. The biotech sector is up over 35% YTD ! With all the grim news on the economy, jobs and turmoil in the Middle East , investors and fund managers have held back and are now are behind the curve. In the September 3 Barron’s bullish market strategists have called the S&P top for the 1425-1450 range and today it hit 1461.
The FED reiterated that monetary policy can only do so much and Congress must solve the “fiscal cliff” problem.
Healthcare was a laggard up only 1% but the Rayno Life Science Portfolio was up over 1.6% with big winners Abaxis (ABAX$35.82) up 1.9%, CardioVascular Systems (CSII $10.28) up 3.5%, Response Genetics (RGDX $1.25) up 39%, Illumina (ILMN $46.90) up 4% , and ThermoFisher (TMO $60) up 1.5%. Major BIO ETFs were up over 1% despite a topping pattern of MO stocks in the sector. The QQQ was up 1.38% slightly outperforming the IBB by 0.68% today although over one month the IBB outperformed the QQQ by 2%.