Yesterday Nasdaq was Down 0.8% at 4965

Amidst gloomy data on retail sales in October and tech earnings, biotech are trying to continue the highly touted Q4 rally. The October rally off the bottom has stalled weighed down by Q3 earnings from Celgene (CELG) and others. Healthcare costs are under continuous assault and drug pricing casts a pall over the sector with help from Valeant pharmaceuticals (VRX) always in the headlines for bad behavior.

As of mid-morning trading the biotech and drug sector is one of the few winners. Energy has been the major drag on the market (crude down again yesterday) but materials are trying to bounce back yesterday with the XLB up over 1%.

The IBB up 1.7% and XBI up 1.6% have decent gains and bounced off thursday’s lows and up 8.9% for the past 30 days.

But trading was lively yesterday among many mid-caps in immuno-oncology and rare (orphan) drugs and 90% of these stocks were up. The Rayno Life Science big movers were: Curis (CRIS), Ignyta (RXDX), Fibrocell Science (FCSC), Seattle Genetics (SGEN) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX). Gilead Sciences (GILD) was a loser down 1.4%.

A recent report that Amgen (AMGN) and other large caps were looking for a sizeable acquisition brought forth the usual suspects and wild cards: Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), Clovis Oncology (CLVS), Incyte (INCY), Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS) and Seattle Genetics (SGEN).

Even Tools and Diagnostics stocks picked up bids led by Illumina (ILMN)  up 7% which was added to the S&P 500. Other Dx/tools winners on the Rayno focus list include: Alere (ALR), Nanostring (NSTG), Pacific Bioscience (PACB) and Qiagen (QGEN)

Update for Monday am