ALERT

3/21/19…BIOGEN (BIIB) down 28% to $233 after dropping Alzheimer’s Disease late stage trial; another failed clinical stage drug in AD. (more later). IBB down 2.5%.

======

3/20/19…a whipsaw day...Powell comes to market rescue with “economy is growing at a solid pace” and leaving rates unchanged (patience); but Trump says earlier that he will keep tariffs on as insurance that China is complying with any trade agreement, causing a sell-off. Large cap bank stocks hit hard down 4-5%. Energy sector up 1%. Low rates, slow growth ahead?

10 yr yield drops to 2.53%!

  • XBI stuck at $90 level down 0.82% today.
  • gene therapy stocks are mixed with winners NTLA MGNX RGNX SLDB.
  • mid caps mixed with winners INCY IONS  GWPH ICVPT XNCR

==================

3/18/19…Another decent day with the NAZ up 0.34%, better still the Russell 2000 up 0.67%, XBI up 0.32%

  • Gene therapy stocks mixed, winners to day are BOLD, RGNX, QURE, SLAB.
  • Mid-cap winners: XNCR, INCY,IONS,LGND (insider buy CEO),IMMU, ANAB.
  • Oppenheimer Healthcare Conf March 30 may provide some MO; ROTH Conf. this week.
  • Large caps in the red.
  • Small cap movers: KPTI up 12.95%, hope for selinexor Phase 3 even with delayed review.

=====

Biotech Stocks Second Wind Carried By a Momentum Market

Broad Rally Led by Biotech and Tech Stocks

Biotech stocks caught a second wind over the past week riding the coat-tails of a 4.15% Nasdaq- 100 (QQQ) rally as well as many other S&P sectors like info-tech, healthcare and financials. Even the downtrodden energy sector caught a bid up 3.21% for the week.The S&P was up only 2.9%.If you believe the financial pundits this is a FED driven liquidity rally with a 3-5 year treasury yield at the 2.4% level.Risk is on! As we have said many times it is all in the technicals and the charts look very good, but 2800 on the S&P has been major resistance.

Healthcare stocks were up despite all the political haranguing on drug prices. and biotech ETFs followed: FBT up 3.3%, IBB up 2.7%, XBI up 2.3% . As you can see by the IBB, large cap biopharma had a good week with the following stocks approaching their 52 week high range: ALXN, CELG, MRK, REGN, VRTX. If you like dividends check out ABBV and GILD bouncing off their lows.

Mid-caps were volatile last week but many regained some momentum:   BLUE, IONS ICPT, NBIX XNCR. But NKTR and SRPT are weakening a bit on technicals.

The Gene Therapy stocks were mixed but rallied Friday, but unless you are an expert It is hard to pick a winner. bluebird bio (BLUE) was on our former Biopharma Portfolio List and this past week we traded back into the stock. Here are the winners this weeK: BOLD up 11.8% at $38.19, MGTX up 11% at $21.21, BLUE up 6.4% at $158, VYGR up 4.3% at $19.66,

Even though we have had excellent trades in speculative micro-cap stocks we should have seen stronger performance in small caps with such a good week overall  but the IJR S&P Small Cap ETF was down slightly and the IWM Russell 2000 was also flat.So in order to confirm this new rally, we need to break through late February highs (also November highs).

Disclosure: Long- ABBV, BLUE,CELG, GILD, MRK.

Pin It on Pinterest