Summary for the Week of Oct 19:Markets Up on Central Banks Easing;Techs Lead the Way
IBB up 0.62%- 316.3 bottomed on Wednesday.
QQQ up 4.3%- 112.78 up big Thursday and Friday.
XBI down o.58%- 65.67 in choppy trading.
XLI up 4%- 54.66 steady climb from Monday.
XLV down 0.62% 69.33 bottomed on Thursday
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Healthcare Stocks Lag -Money Moves to Industrials and Technology
The Dow Jones soared 1.87% today and other key indices followed up 1.6% in an impressive rally that accelerated after hours with earnings from Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet Cl A (GOOGL), Facebook (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT) that carried these names another 7-10% after hours. Biotechnology and healthcare ETFs were tepid in comparison to the tech heavy QQQ which was up 2%:
IBB up 0.54%, XLV down 0.6% and XBI 0.22%
Rayno Large Cap Biotechs Were Favored with some nice movers:
Alexion (ALXN) up 4%, Amgen (AMGN) up 1.48%, Gilead Sci (GILD) up 5.77% Regeneron (REGN) up 1.28% and Roche ADR (RHHBY) up 1.45%.
Gilead Sciences rallied on an FDA warning for potential liver damage for Abbvie’s Hepatitis C drug, a major competitor for Harvoni the Gilead drug. Abbvie (ABBV) stock was down over 10%.
Among the Rayno small and mid-cap biopharma stocks Array (ARRY) was up 3.52%, Ignyta (RXDX) up 3.19% and Seattle Genetics (SGEN) was up 2.74%.
The market has seen a subtle shift to value and certainly out of momentum plays but portfolio managers will still need large cap biopharmaceuticals because of new product revenue growth. Biogen (BIIB) has shown they can make their numbers albeit with job cutbacks.So despite less enthusiasm for drug stocks better days lie ahead. However it may require more homework for investors because stock picking will be key.