9/16 The Week That Was: September Trending Down for Biotech
- NASDAQ-100 Holding (QQQ) at 184 up 1.7% last week.
- Large caps all weak on Friday; key will be Q3 earnings.
- FBT, IBB and XBI flat for the week; off highs reached 8/31/18.
- Mid-caps more mixed with strength in ICPT LGND NBIX NVCR RARE SGEN
- Healthcare Sector (XLV) strong up 13% YTD at $93.53.
=====================
Update: 9/12 Flattish to down day with NASDAQ down a tad, FBT and IBB flat.
Overall biotech stocks looked weak with many mid and small caps in the red. Trade and tariffs dominate swings in overall market. Big news on AAPL new products down 1.24%.
XLV healthcare ETF up 0.63% holding near top of $93.
XBI weak down 0.32% as smaller cap speculation ebbs.
GILD and MRK are large cap leaders today.
Gene editing stocks rally especially CRSP NTLA; EDIT less so.
Mid-caps mixed: up>1% AGIO, BMRN, ICP, NVCR, SRPT; down >1% ALNY, ARRY, BLUE, BPMC, EXEL,IMMU, LOXO, NKTR, SGEN,
========
Rayno Biopharma Portfolio Movers: Mixed Day with Some Profit Taking
IBB and XBI Flattish Up a Tad, FBT up 0.38% to $152
XLV Healthcare ETF is holding up 10.38% YTD
Biopharma portfolios had some volatility today as major ETFs were slacking and there were many big losers among the mid-caps. Nonetheless the biopharma sector looks good in 2018 as we expect a Q4 rally.
Amgen (AMGN) was up 3.16% today hitting new 52 week highs exceeding many analysts’ targets at $202.50 on higher than average volume of over 4M shares. Amgen will present at the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Conference on September 12. We added AMGN on 9/12/16 at a price of $172
Tesaro (TSRO), a new mid-cap pick in the $32-35 range was up 1.95 to $36.47 still near the bottom of its 52 week trading range because of slow sales of its new ant-PD1 cancer drug Zejula. The TSRO short position is 19.9% of float.
Large Cap Laggards for 2018 in our portfolio are: ABBV BMY BIIB CELG. Mid and small caps have outperformed in 2018 despite some recent strength in IBB over past 3 months. MRK and VRTX are also large cap leaders.
Mid-Cap Weakness today: AGIO down 2.8%, ALNY down 4.36%, BLUE down 2.34% (trending down 17.75 YTD) and FOLD down 4% (52 week low). bluebird bio (BLUE) released data on 9/5/18 on Lenti-D for CALD with agreement on their Regulatory Pathway.
Disclosure: long ABBV, CELG, GILD, MRK, TSRO, XLV