Biotechs Fade After Promising Start-Smaller Cap Winners

Biotech stocks got a jump-start this morning but peaked quickly then abruptly sold off at about 2p. The IBB ended down 1.33% to 268.79 off recent five-day highs of $274 and considerably off post-election highs of $293. The XBI tells a similar story ending down 1.5% for the day to $61.01 after hitting a post-election high of $68. We look to the XLV Health Care SPDR for guidance but the sector is flat with no apparent appetite for these stocks. Maybe in an update tomorrow we can find out what is behind these downdraft late day trades but now that the post-election bull market is stalled we surely cannot say it is time to add biotech to your holdings.

Since most of the biotech screen is red today let’s look for the winners:

• Large Caps were weak except for one Rayno Biopharma pick Bristol Myers (BMY) up 1.36% to $59.42. Gilead Sciences (GILD) is trying to find a base in the $74-75 range.Mid caps were also weak.
• News still matters as in the case of Clovis Oncology (CLVS) up 8.8% to $40.48 after getting FDA approval for its New Ovarian Cancer PARP inhibitor drug rucaparib. Tesaro (TSRO) with three late stage ovarian drugs in their pipeline dropped 3.19%.
• There were several big winners among smaller caps like BioCryst (BCRX) up 10.66% and Supernus (SUPN) up 8%.
• We will review selected Diagnostics and Tools stocks tomorrow.

No rush to buy biotech stocks now so wait for the trend to show up.