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Biotech Stocks Show Gains during JPM23 Week

• Small-cap speculative biotech stocks regain interest with volatility.
• Market rally broadens as healthcare weakens with (XLV) flat over 5 days.
• MACRO issues fading but wait on earnings for financials Friday.

Despite the usual pushback on rates from the Fed, the markets are expecting the downward trend of 6.5% CPI to continue after six straight months. The bellwether 10-year yield was flat at 3.44% and stocks were up as of late-day trading. Bond markets are betting on lower rates. Gold continues its upward trend at the $1900 mark. Biotech stocks were mainly green with the XBI up over 2% at the $86 level. Here are some brief notes from my two days at JPM23:

1. You can expect strategy reports from market research firms on the impact of AI in drug discovery. BioNTech (BNTX) bought a UK start-up InstaDeep for up to 562M pounds to harness machine learning.to improve its R&D productivity especially to better understand variants of Sars CoV-2.BNTX is up 2.56% over the past 5 days to the $149 level.
    
2. Moderna (MRNA) is up 8% over 5 days to $187 on the longer-term pipeline for its mRNA platform The PE is a low 6.97 with a strong cash position. The Modena COVID vaccine will go more commercial in 2023 with price increases to $110-130 per dose. The Company has there late-stage vaccine candidates for other infectious diseases: CMV, RSV and. influenza. Also, Moderna is partnered with Merck for a personalized cancer vaccine. and Phase 3 for Melanoma. I have traded the stops and made money but missed the big move off 2023 lows at $120 now at $190 level.
    
3. Both JNJ and ABT were on an informal “fireside chat ” mode at #JPM 23. JNJ will split into two companies this summer with a focus on MedTech and biopharma following the trend of ABT/ABBV and GSK/HLN. The healthcare conglomerate is fading enabling faster business development and higher growth.
    
4. My SMID cap picks are having a good week after a rough 2022. The XBI is the tracking ETF. The Russell 2000 (IWM) is lagging down 14% over one year but p 6.7% this past 5 days. Track bullish PACB ROIV SUPN. Evolent Health (EVOL) is up 8.94% to $31 today and has good potential with a good chart today. stock is stabilizing today at the $495 level after a 10% hit in January.
    
5. We are looking for more plays in tools and diagnostics as the big boys -DHR and TMO-are doing well but valuations are stretched,

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