January 31 Biotech Update

We had a nice little correction yesterday but while it was certainly a meaningful move compared to recent price action, it did not really remove any of the real fluff in the sector. That being said it could be enough to reset the “over bought” conditions and lead to a continuation of the rally. While […]

November 3 Biotech Update

The sector is just odd. If you look at the broader averages they have been pretty flat this week but under the surface there has been and continues to be massive moves. Everyday it seems like there is a new set off stocks up double digits and more double digits lower. After last week of […]

July 12 Biotech Update

Another day with little news (at least early as the NVS ad com is today). This is really the calm before the storm as we are inching closer to the end of the summer and the start of the fall brokerage conferences and we are actually only a couple weeks away from the start of […]

January 6 Biotech Update

News continues to come in (both expected and unexpected) and the sector remains strong into JPM. Usually there is a tailwind JPM week that can last a little but eventually all the secondaries that come after JPM stall the momentum. Last year was obviously an exception to that pattern but it seems (at least so […]

November 4 Biotech Update

There has been nothing reasonable, rational, or predictable about the price action in the sector recently. The sell off yesterday on the ASH abstracts (supposedly the catalyst) is the height of irrational. This is not to say that there was no relevant data but 90%+ of the abstract data were either not new or not […]

February 12 Biotech Update

The market remains crazy and the sector is filled with odd moves. Yesterday seemed to be a good day of outperformance for the large caps and today they are red while the market is green. There were some good movers in SMID yesterday and today but not a real rhyme or reason for who outperforms […]

January 7 Biotech Update

The year is off to an even worst start as all the secondaries are getting bad prices (to varying degrees of bad) and all are breaking those prices. China continues to collapse taking commodities with it as well as strengthening the dollar taking the markets with it. On the encouraging side, the technical analyst at […]

February 11 Biotech Update

Another slow day in the market in terms of news, so I want to round out a couple of ideas today. Nothing has really changed in relation to my views in that the next move will be higher (remember that is a very low conviction view) with continued chop regardless of the ultimate direction of […]

January 2 Biotech Update

It is a good start to the New Year and it is only a matter of time until we start seeing facts talking about years in which the market opened higher end positive X% of the time. In any case, it is nice to see a positive start to the year and it will be […]

December 23 Biotech Update

The sector is certainly having problems. As I noted yesterday, you should be biased towards raising cash (and going short if you are interested in running more of a market neutral book). Even ABBV who is the hep-C “winner” cannot catch a bid as the market is reasonably discounting not the fact that ABBV will […]

December 22 Biotech Update

It was a weak start to the sector and I suspect that may be a popular start to these notes as the sector seems to have lost some control of pricing power. I am going to spend today talking about the ABBV/ESRX deal as it has significant implications not over for the hep-C market but […]

December 9 Biotech Update

The market is pretty crappy to start this morning but let us see if the trend reverses. We have had a lot gap higher opens and then weakness the rest of the day, so perhaps this is a gap down and then strengthen sort of day. I do not think that is going to be […]

December 8 Biotech Update

It has been a busy couple of days as expected and more news than can be adequately covered in one day, so today I will touch on what seems most interesting and/or near term actionable. Even then I will necessarily be leaving some important topics for later in the week so feel free to contact […]

November 14 Biotech Update

The markets are fine this morning but biotech is weak and seems to be led lower by GILD and other large caps. As long as GILD is weak it is going to be difficult for the sector to lead and this could eventually spill over into the broader markets. We have quickly moved from extremes […]

November 3 Biotech Update

A pretty mixed morning with no real direction in the market. I doubt that we see it trade like this for long, although the longer we do this the better as we could be correcting through time instead of price. The biotech sector is just as mixed as the broader market with no real conviction […]

October 1 Biotech Update

The market is weak again and that is starting to sound like a broken record. At this point, it seems like we should be closer to the end of this correction than the beginning as the internal indicators that I have seen are indicating oversold conditions and we are at good levels of support. That […]

September 29 Biotech Update

A crappy start to the weak but perhaps we will get a wash out followed by a rally. Despite the selling, the sector is doing OK but clearly everything is being hit. There was a good amount of news this morning and I want to focus on two of them and follow up with additional […]

September 15 Biotech Update

We have a very weak start to the week as biotech buyers appear to have stepped aside. At this point, I think it is safe to say that we are in the midst of a correction and now the question is a matter of degree. We should be approaching an area of support, so it […]

August 18 Biotech Update

The markets are rallying and taking everything with it (for the most part). The proximate reason seems to be that the Ukraine crisis did not escalate, which should not be a total surprise as I have been talking down that situation for awhile. That is not to say it could not escalate again but at […]