Update-3...3/29 1:15p EDT. Biotech stocks catching bids today after a choppy week of trading. We will recap our top small cap picks from the JPM Conference after the close: AMRN, GNMK and TDOC. BIIB up again to 237. CELG up over 7% as prospects for BMY deal look good.
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Update -2… 3/27. Choppy trendless trading but off lows of the day. Risk off and within a trading range.
NAZ down 0.63%, XBI down 2.18%, IBB down 1.39%. Caution warranted with reversal from yesterday. Gene Therapy stocks are red screened; mid-caps red screened except XNCR up 1.55%. BIIB holds down only 1.27%. AMRN up 3.14%.
Update-1…3/27 11:45 a EDT Bearish Reversal in biotech XBI or just “normal” volatility?
XBI is down 2.7% to $87.29, support at $85. NAZ down 1.38%. Red screen on Mid-Cap Biopharmas AND gene therapy stocks.
Macro headlines not good: Yields slip, China deal?, global growth concerns.
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Biotech Green Screen: But Let’s Not Say that the Momentum Trade Is Back
Big Mid-Cap Rally: AGIO, BLUE, RARE, ALNY and BPMC
Biotech stocks did well today with a green screen in many sub sectors after getting crushed last Friday and early Monday by concerns about global growth and cautionary signals from the bond market. But we will need to see a follow-through rally.
- ThermoFisher Scientific (TMO) one of our top picks a few years back was up 0.98% today and 29.45% in one year to $271.44. The Company announced yesterday that it would buy privately held Brammar Bio for $1.7B in cash. The Company is a leader in viral vector manufacturing for gene and cell therapies, a hot sector in biotech. Brammer is forecasted to deliver $250M in revenue for 2019 with a 25% growth rate.
- Biogen Inc. (BIIB) soared 5.74% to $232.91, well off its 3/21 lows of $216.49.
- Illumina (ILMN) is another strong life science stock to watch as it formed a double top in March at the $320 level but is 60 pts. off September 2018 highs.
- Gene Therapy stocks were mainly green but QURE sold off 3.34% near 52 week highs and SLDB continued weak at $10.14. Among the winners in the sector today were: BLUE up 4.51%, NTLA up 3.07%, SRPT up 2.59% and CRSP up 1.87%. Most have these gene therapy stocks have huge gains YTD but are vulnerable to sell-offs.
- The XBI equal weight small cap ETF was up 1.97% to $89.72 holding 2019 support above $85 but way below summer highs at the $100 level.
- The large cap weighted IBB was up 1.86% to the $110 level barely at 2019 support with a choppy chart. Large cap stocks were surprisingly strong: BIIB, ALXN VRTX
- Most impressive today was our mid-cap biopharma watch list that was SOLID GREEN with the exception of NVCR and NKTR. Here are some impressive gains AGIO up 5% to $65.93, BLUE up 4.51% to $152.81, RARE up 4.17% to $68.47, ALNY up 3.53% to $87.14 and BPMC up 3.51% to $81.04.
The biotech tape was impressive today. Rarely do you see such strong moves in both large and mid-cap biopharma especially after the sell-off last week and a tepid NASDAQ rally today. We will update over the next two days,
Disclosure: Long AMRN, BIIB, BLUE, CELG, GNMK, ILMN, TDOC and several large and small caps.