The economic tale of the pandemic, as we’ve often written in the past year and half, has been one where the acceleration of pre-existing trends has been remarkable — especially when it comes to technology. The after-effects of pandemic-era policies will be with us for some time — with many Read more
Since it peaked in February, the U.S. biotech industry has endured a slide that has taken it into bear market territory for the year. Retail investors typically approach this industry through two exchange-traded funds: the SPDR Biotech ETF [XBI], which is equal-weighted, and the iShares Biotech ETF [IBB], which is Read more
The COVID crisis is first and foremost a healthcare crisis, although it is having deep economic effects. Predictably, in the market volatility caused by the pandemic, the healthcare sector has broadly outperformed; and within healthcare, biotechnology has performed even more strongly. Of course healthcare is a broad sector, comprising many Read more
Last week, in our Market Summary, we commented: “A correction could come in one of two forms — either a boring, sideways grind lasting several months, or a sharp decline of 4–8%, coincident with some appropriate externality, followed by a renewed uptrend. The recent outbreak of a SARS-like coronavirus in Read more
Here’s a new entry in the “robot apocalypse” file (though with lots of alternate happy endings). We recently read in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences about a team of researchers from Tufts, Harvard, and the University of Vermont who successfully created microscopic biological machines, entirely out of Read more
2018 has not been kind to many expensive stocks — that is, to those that trade at elevated price-to-earnings ratios. The technology giants were the last to fall as the rolling correction finally reached them in October, and fall they did, with the Nasdaq 100 index down 16.3% between October Read more
EpiPen Pricing: Much Ado About Nothing Drug prices are back in the news, this time focused on the epinephrine auto-injector marketed by Mylan [NASDAQ: MYL] as “EpiPen.” EpiPen is a life-saving product for those at risk of anaphylaxis — a severe allergic reaction which in different individuals can be Read more
Biotech: Still An Innovation Engine Biotech had a tough second half of 2015, and a tough beginning to 2016; between July’s high last year, and the February 2016 low, the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (NBI) registered a nearly 40 percent decline, with an uneven recovery thereafter. Read more
When Too Much News Can Confuse 1. GDP grew by 2.4 percent in 2015 — ignore flawed data, including GDPNow. Fourth-quarter 2015 GDP growth for the U.S. was just revised up to 1.4 percent annualized from an initial reading of 0.7 percent. That brings growth for the year as a Read more
Executive Summary 1. Investment themes for 2015. Low inflation, an improving employment picture, rising real disposable income, accelerating GDP growth, and a dovish Fed all continue to make a strong case for U.S. stocks in 2015. We favor companies with strong fundamentals in industries supported by macro trends — transportation, Read more
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