November Rally In Biotech with Small Caps Taking Off

November Rally in Biotech and with Broadening to Other Sectors

• Small caps taking off including XBI up 12%, IWM up 16.5% (11.2% YTD).
• Healthcare lagging a bit with the XLV up only 3.35% vs SPY up 7.5% (12.6% YTD).
• Re-openng trade movers: XLI up 14.75% at $88.11;  XLE up 34.54% at $38.91.

The market pivoted upwards in November as investors looked ahead to 2021 with expectations that COVID vaccines would temper the pandemic.Vaccine stock leaders took off again with BioNTech (BNTX) and Moderna (MRNA) up 30% in one week at new highs.The small cap speculation shows up in the XBI which kept pace with the Russell 2000 (IWM).

This November rally in the face of soaring COVID cases raises concerns about what’s left for 2021.A sector shift toward “value and re-opening” stocks left technology stocks behind this week.  But both the NASDAQ -100 (QQQ) up 40.4% YTD and XLK are near 2020 tops so bear watching. The momentum market with ample liquidity has bet on an economic recovery this week as energy, financials and materials led the way.

We developed this ETF based Healthcare Model Portfolio about a month ago.It shows the impact of small caps in biotech and recent lagging of healthcare stocks.