Volatile Coronavirus Stock Plays As of Week Ending April 4

Here are many of the well-followed life science stocks that are in the news with diagnostics, drugs and vaccines that may have an impact on the COVD-19 pandemic. This is not a buy list and does not include major biotech and healthcare companies that have major products or R&D efforts such as ABT, GSK, JNJ, PFE and RHHBY. In previous posts we commented that investors should overweight biotech in the their stock portfolio because they can be perceived as part of the healthcare solution. The most significant metric to track is “curve flattening” or new cases of Covid-19 reported in the US.

Here is a brief summary:

• As we have noted these stocks are volatile but the following are trading near the top of their 52 week range: MRNA, REGN, TDOC.
• Many other companies are working on treatments and vaccines.
• Some biopharma companies have “re-purposed” existing drugs in interim studies to see if they have efficacy as antivirals.
• IBB at $106.25 down 8.6% YTD, XBI at $74.86 down 16.89 %YTD.
• QQQ is up down only 12.5% YTD. at $183.37..