It was a nasty day from the beginning but losses abated as the day wore on. The NASDAQ was off 1.68%, the Dow down 1.05% and the S&P down 1.15% to 1317. The S&P held trend lines in the 1312-1315 range. Biotech ETF’s were also losers IBB off 1.5%, FBT off 1.6% and XBI off 1.09%. Our mid cap index of 33 biotechs was off only about 0.5% with some significant winners: Acorda (ACOR), Amarin (AMRN), Ariad (ARIA)Immunogen (IMGN), Sangamo (SGMO),and Vanda (VNDA) .
Large Cap biotechs within the NASDAQ-100 were also down with the QQQ down 1.46% with only one biotech-Vertex(VRTX) in the green.
The Rayno Life Science Portfolio was off 1.5% but significant winners were Cubist (CBST $36.64) up 2.3%, Optimer (OPTR $14) up 0.5%and Quidel (QDEL $14.79) up 0.54%. All three of these stocks have recent uptrends. Cubist has good earnings with estimates upped and is hot on the “takeover talk” circuit. Optimer is expected to get FDA approval by the end of the month for their C.difficile drug Dificid.
We are actively tracking investment ideas for ASCO outside our Model Portfolio .