We are drifting towards the holiday and there is really not much action and we are fairly quiet on the news front. As such, this will be the last update until next Monday (unless, of course, there is some spectacular news that happens between now and then). Next week will also be a day short […]
November 25 Biotech Update- What to Make of CLDX and CBST data and the new MRK trial
The market was a low volume chop fest (although with a fairly narrow range) for the most part and I do not think we should read too much into price movements unless they really take off on above average volume. We might be able to learn something about sentiment this week but I believe that […]
November 22 Biotech Update- A Busy CHMP out with some Bullish News
You will notice that I am change the title to something more descriptive, hopefully you will still read the updates with this change. Sentiment is certainly shifting in the biotech sector and it seems to be doing so as quickly as it turned negative. What was my fear that the sector would be hit with […]
November 20-EOD (or midday)
In terms of the sector it is more of the same with an inline to slight outperformance of the market writ large (when the market is treading water or going moderately higher). Despite this positive action I always get worried when I see reports that newsletter writer bearish sentiment is at multi-decade lows (often viewed […]
November 19- EOD
The sector was doing fine yesterday until Icahn dumped on the market and everything got caught in the crossfire. This morning they are doing fine again, so it seems that as long as there is not a larger market selloff biotechs might just get time to catch their footing. Of course, it is still an […]
November 18-EOD
Thankfully there was not a lot of news but biotechs did not just drift lower. I still worry about tax loss selling hitting the sector (or at least the small to mid caps) heading into the end of the year but it is nice to see that the sector can tread water on no news […]
November 15-EOD
It has been a relatively quiet day in biotech land, which is fine as it has been a busy week. I saw more of the same with a mixed performance and stocks reacting to news specific to the company and those with little news were drifting. 1. I have been spending a lot of time […]
November 14- EOD
It is a similar market day as earlier this week with some definite movers to the upside and downside but with nothing that is general to the sector. If anything it is slightly weaker than the market at large but not in any dramatic sense. Sector seems more driven by stock specific stories rather than […]
November 13-EOD
It is difficult to get a real sense of where the sector is going outside of down. Obviously one could draw the conclusion that sentiment is negative (and it is) but I am seeing more pockets of strength than the other days. What is difficult is that there does not really seem to be a […]
November 12- EOD
Well, I think it was more of the same in the sector writ large with the biggest news obviously being SRPT, which I will touch on below. I was surprised to see the small caps hold up as well as they did on the news and that is a slight positive for the sector going […]
November 11- EOD
I am gone for a little while and the market goes crazy, bounces, and then we have today which has both sell offs and rallies. To be honest, it is difficult to get a good read on the sector sentiment writ large at this point and at those times it seems the best bet is […]
November 5- EOD
The morning looked bad but the sector came back a little. There was some sporadic buying of oncology names but nothing major. It will be very interesting to see how the sector responds to the ASH abstracts. Obviously there will be winners and losers but the question in my mind is how will the PPS […]
November 4- EOD
(This was from yesterday. Due to the server issues, I am not sure many of you saw it, so I am reposting.) I take one day to not write an EOD and biotechs sell off. Well, they have been weak for awhile so no real surprise but at least the selling does not seemed related […]
October 31- EOD
ARIA is doing its best to single handedly crush biotech sentiment and grind it into a bloody pulp. As I have said before, if this is the bursting of a real speculative bubble then we have another five to ten years of selling (I think it took tulip prices over a century to recover and […]
October 30- EOD
The sector seems almost perilously balanced between putting in a solid base for the next leg higher and setting up for another leg lower. The freefall that we have seen in recent weeks has slowed but volumes remain pathetic (especially in the small cap space), which means buyers are not quite interested. Of course, when […]
October 29- EOD
Well, it seemed like an odd day for the sector in that it was almost directionless. This is not to say that there were not moves among individual stocks but we are finally starting to see them move on merit and less on sector sentiment. I think this is a good sign and hopefully we […]
October 28- Mid day
I have not followed the biotech market very close the end of last week but it seems like more of the same. There is a number of issues that I could touch on today but I have been getting the most questions about ONTX, so I will focus on it today. I am also publishing […]
October 24-EOD
I want to be cautiously optimistic on the recent performance of biotechs. Yesterday ending up being a decent day and today started off okay. The sector is not burning it up with outperformance but seems to taking a pause in the selling. I have been warning that this is a busy week and it continues […]
October 23-EOD
Not a lot of news in terms of data, although we saw BMY, AMGN, and LLY report earnings. The biotech sector was not as much of a relative underperformer today. Of course, it was still red and weak but today it was red and weak in the context of a broader market selloff. Volumes seemed […]
October 22-EOD
This is going to be another early and quick note as I have another afternoon of meetings. Biotechs, in general, continue to underperform and I suspect there is still more downside but some individual stocks are getting interesting. It looks like small and mid caps are most challenged. Once the large cap space finds a […]
