Vaccine shortages may require targeting of subpopulations As health officials in the Northern Hemisphere mobilize for the annual Flu season compounded by the pandemic H1N1(Swine) Flu, production of a vaccine looms critical. Last week the WHO said that H1N1 Flu is already spreading in India, Thailand and Vietnam coinciding with the monsoon season. Transmission has […]
A continuation of the broad market sell-off that started Friday picked up speed at the open but has stabilized; traders are anxiously looking at the last 15 minutes of trading to see if a downdraft kicks in. The US Dollar Index is at $79.26 off its daily highs but higher than recent 5 day lows […]
Biotech stocks followed the market down today with the NASDAQ being down 1.8% and the S&P down 1.5% . The biotech ETF’s tracked the market closely with the IBB down almost 2% and the XBI down 1.65%. The summer rally which gathered momentum with the acquisition of Medarex by Bristol on July 24 has given […]
Biotech stocks were unusually weak today with many mid-caps down 3-4%. High flier CBST was down even more due to an Oppenheimer downgrade. The ELN lawsuit against Biogen regarding the Tysabri deal with JNJ didn’t help matters. More analysis to follow as this is a travel day. Energy stocks were also on the weak side […]
Ten Month Low on the Dollar The US Dollar Index Future (DXY) gapped down 1.3% today at 78.27 approaching September 2008 lows. This dollar drop immediately brought money into gold up nearly 2% to the 950+ level. Gold is the pure play on the dollar. Gold and silver stocks also rallied with AUY,GDX, NEM and […]
Bristol Myers announced Thursday that they will buy Medarex (MEDX) for $16/share or $2.1B a 90% premium over yesterdays’ market price of $8.40. Medarex is one of the leading biotech companies focused in human antibody development for use in a broad range of therapeutic areas such as cancer, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases.The companies already […]
As of this writing two hours before the Friday close crude was above $63 up 3%. Since this rally began last week energy stocks have moved up in lockstep. Better than expected housing starts today have boosted the energy complex with volatile nat gas stocks such as KWK and SWN the biggest winners. Another good […]
The reflation trade caught some bids today with energy, precious metal, real estate, agricultural and industrial stocks all following the lead of the financials.Many of the energy stocks are near their intermediate lows so this could be a good entry point for the longer term.As examples COP, KWK and SWN have all bounced off their […]
The Rayno Biopharm Portfolio is flat YTD. This compares to the broad-based ETF IBB which also flat YTD and the XBI which is down 5% YTD. Biotech in 2009 has significantly lagged the NASDAQ which is up 11%, however the S&P 500 is down 2.7% YTD. The Rayno portfolio consists of 24 stocks weighted by […]
The gloomy job report has risk traders seeking cash. * The Dow,S&P and Nasdaq were all down 2.6% +. * Money flowed into the Dollar and US Treasuries as investors were seeking safety. * Precious metal stocks were down 3%; gold was down 1.25%. * The energy sector was hard hit as oil sold off […]
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Rod Raynovich is the founder of Raygent Associates, a management consulting firm providing business development and strategic marketing services in the life science and medical device area. He publishes his thoughts and analysis on the biotech industry at www.raygent.com.