1/28/21 Update-2 VIR Hits $140 yesterday then rolls over to $58+ today!
JPMorgan downgraded VIR letting some of the air out of the ballon. The recent speculation may have been about a VIR antibody mirroring the therapeutic potential of the Lilly (LLY) developments.
- The gameification of momentum stocks.
I will spare you the time of retelling tales of short squeezes and momentum investing but the WSJ has a good take today. One of the stocks we have written about and still trade is Accelerate Diagnostics (AXDX) had its own wild ride from 8+ to 14+ back to 10 level today . A commercial stage Company focused on infectious disease diagnostics announced preliminary results earlier this month.
We will publish a portfolio update later this month but here are some stocks we covered lately to watch or add:
Orasure Technologies (OSUR) is perking up again over 4% but it faded before so we’ll see.
Abbott labs (ABT) soared 5+% on great earnings and revenue. This is a core Dx holding.
We have been trading BNTX MRNA and added BNTX stock long. Stay away from INO and NVAX for now.
Hologic (HOLX) is a recent buy and is up over 4% on earnings.
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1/26/21 Update…Vir Biotechnology Surges Again… But Group Mixed from Yesterday
I took a look at a Coronavirus Portfolio I posted in May 2020 and herein were clues and longer term plays. But it is aways hard to balance trading with investing in a momentum driven market. But the big winners from May were GNMK, MRNA, TDOC and VIR. But at times they were losers because of volatility . And always add XBI for overweighted biotech longs but today it was off 1.76%.
Today we had some big winners again with VIR surging and strength only in a few INO, MRNA and VIR. Other COVID stocks were in a sell-off.
I have owned and traded VIR since JPM 2020 but is the news driving the stock really Phase I data from an HBV trial utilizing a monoclonal antibody ? In this market it is hard to say what is going on.
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Frothy Daze Are Here Again!
- You won’t see the Froth in the major market indices:NAZ up 0.69%, S&P up 0.36%, DOW up down 0.12%.
- GameStop (GME) reversal shows craziness with intraday $160 to 76 but still up on short squeeze?
- Look at your individual speculative movers. The XBI drove momentum up 3% to $167 a new high.
I won’t go into the GameStop story as you can read about everywhere tomorrow. After running up from the $3 level in March to the $60 handle last week now the top had a blow-off today. The gamers are in charge!
You have been reading a lot about the market’s speculative excess in the business press and it may be true.But small caps are hot and big weekly moves are common. Here are some of our movers over the past week on stocks we have covered: AXDX, ILMN, TDOC, VIR. Despite all the MOmentum trading can still be challenging because its hard to know when to sell? Moreover some of our great picks over the past 3 months have recently lost momentum off tops:EDIT GKOS.PACB,
Meanwhile the popular trade in COVID vaccine stocks perked up lately as many traders see the need for billions of doses with only two products approved for emergency use Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna. All vaccine plays were up today BNTX, INO, NVAX but Moderna (MRNA) soared 12.2% to $147 on comments by its CEO, Stephane Bancel, that its COVID-19 vaccine can protect against the UK strain and virus variants.
Large cap biopharmas did well today and the IBB hit new highs at $167.75 up 1.86%.
Oh and BTW diagnostics stocks we follow are doing well: ABT, HOLX, OSUR, QDEL. More later.
Its a hard call from here although new highs are likely, I try to be disciplined with 10% cash for new buys. Despite positive action on most of my portfolios I sold early on many spec stocks. But today was just too crazy and wanting in more analysis.