Biotech Sector Off All Time Highs This Week-IBB Down 2.5%
The biotech melt-up that coincided with the surprising Vertex (VRTX) 60% move on April 19 has run its course and the IBB is now 7 pts off the all time high of $177. Vertex was off 4.75% today. Daily trading volume was double the average. It could be that the Amgen (AMGN $107.76) down 6.5% miss earnings triggered profit taking.Piper Jaffrey downgraded the stock but biotech cheerleaders were supporting the “bubblet”. Many of our large cap biopharma focus stocks sold off. Significant ~3% losers were : Gilead (GILD), Infinity (INFI), Medivation (MDVN), and Seattle Genetics (SGEN). Glancing at our index of 50 mid cap biopharma stocks we see a red screen with an average 2% decline. Array BioPharma (ARRY) one of our new picks was up 0.5%.
It could be that this is just a rest in the furious YTD biotech rally and momentum will resume next month. But speculation will surely ebb. Technicals need to be monitored. In the broader market it is a quiet day with NASDAQ off 0.1% but healthcare was off 0.8%.
Posting from BIO in Chicago