A slow start to the week, although the sector does not seem bothered by the lack of news or M&A to start the week. There is some additional earnings this week but outside of potential data coming for a couple stocks, there does not seem a lot of imminent thesis changing news. 1. Today is […]
February 6 Biotech Update
There is not a ton of sector specific news but the broader markets are taking everything down. The XIV is closing, which might have unknown consequences. It is only a relatively small ETF but who knows if it will cause short covering and forced liquidation of other positions. It is possible that the collateral damage […]
November 10 Biotech Update
We have our answer to what the sector wants to do as the number of large moves higher by the odd stock is over and the large days down continue. It certainly looks like the series of large positive moves were masking a much broader weakness as the trend now is to sell every SMID […]
August 30 Biotech Update
The sector and perhaps even broader market look good. One of my fears about the risk of a government shut down and/or debt ceiling might be resolving to a certain extent. There seems to be a growing consensus to do a three month funding, debt ceiling hike, and hurricane Harvey relief in a single bill. […]
June 1 Biotech Update
The sector sort of had some positive news yesterday with TSRO putting itself on the proverbial block. This obviously moved TSRO and sector as it reminded people that good things might happen as well. Given that this was meaningful for the sector (and the lack of other news) I want to focus on a couple […]
April 17 Biotech Update
Another long weekend and another lack of M&A. I do not know when this will start to weigh on the sector or the reason behind the lack of M&A but it will matter at some point. Perhaps it is valuation, perhaps it is waiting on tax reform but at some point companies need pipeline as […]
February 10 Biotech Update
So I think we need to be prepared for some more backlash and bad press given the decision by Marathon to think it is business as usual. So far the backlash has been isolated but it is difficult to see this not become a political talking point. 1. Marathon licensed an old, generic steroid (DFZ) […]
January 31 Biotech Update
We had some earnings but the real potential mover of the sector is the meeting this morning with Trump. The headlines are still early but it looks like a net positive for the sector but we will see how it is interpreted. If history repeats these meetings tend to see some minor announced concession in […]
January 18 Biotech Update
We have some news to talk about that seems to be a net neutral but in terms of individual stocks are likely meaningful. I also do not want to beat a point into the ground but I read an article that interviewed some republican legislators, who seemed to imply I was correct about Trump to […]
December 8 Biotech Update
So the sector seems to be moving beyond the Trump Tantrum if only slowly. It sort of helps that we have something else to obsess and argue about with Alzheimer’s data. While we have years before the BIIB phase III data and nothing has been settled, it is important data worth a focus for today. […]
November 28 Biotech Update
I vaguely (not really vaguely) recall noting last Tuesday that we were likely done with news unless some company wanted to sneak bad news in right before the holiday. I was correct but wrong. We had two majors pieces of negative news (LLY and JUNO) and surprisingly the sector managed to hold up relatively well […]
November 14 Biotech Update
And we continue with the Trump effect in the sector. As I noted before this is going to be a longer term tailwind despite what people argue about the potential transitory nature. Yes, we will not go straight up and yes it is not 100% positive forever but this is a sector that has grossly […]
November 7 Biotech Update
Welcome to election week and stock performance across the board are going to be highly correlated. I suspect the move today is the pricing in of an increased probability of a Clinton victory. At this point, my expected outcome is a Clinton victory, Republicans hold the house, and the Senate is all but split up […]
October 25 Biotech Update
Earnings have started and so far nothing great but nothing horrible. In fact there were some notable misses but we may be at the point that misses will rally stocks given how low expectations have fallen. So not only do we need to pay attention to what the earnings say about the fundamentals of the […]
October 14 Biotech Update
The sector may be due for a snap back (with the broader market) but I still get the sense that people are worried. My prevailing thought has been that this was related to both earnings jitters and a set of negative data. I still think those are a factor but I also wonder if the […]
September 28 Biotech Update
The sector continues to do well but there seems to be a bifurcation occurring where the SMID are outperforming the large caps. Usually when investors come back into a sector they start higher on the capital scale as those are typically cash flow positive, reasonable valuations, and a safer way to increase exposure. This does […]
September 23 Biotech Update
The sector seems to be quieting down a little and perhaps a little bit of consolidation of the recent move is in the cards. All in all, however, it seems like a productive week for the sector and confirms my base case that the likely path moving forward is higher (with the obvious pullbacks sprinkle […]
May the 4th Be With You Biotech Update
It has certainly not been a good start to the week for the sector or really the market, although it seems like the sector is underperforming. As frustrating as it is after all of the under-performance, we cannot miss the forest for the trees and note that we are still not close to the recent […]
May 2 Biotech Update
It was not a great end of the week for the sector. Trading has not been good and earnings were fine but not exciting. As much as the sector has bounced from its recent lows, it still does not feel like sentiment has changed dramatically. It as an odd dynamic that I will talk about […]
April 27 Biotech Update
This week seems to have started like last week. I think it was actually last Tuesday that the sector suddenly took a dive on no real news and yesterday was certainly not a good day. It remains to be seen if this weakness will continue as we are entering into earnings that could help the […]
