January 1, 1970 (Vol. , No. )
Rod Raynovich
Healthcare and biotech stocks were up today as expected following passage of the historic reform bill. Although there is a considerable amount of work to be done in enabling the historic legislation, uncertainty has been removed and the market can play it out. Many analysts and economists previously have forecasted upside potential for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and hospital management companies due to the addition of 32 million Americans to the insurance rolls. John Sullivan of Leerink Swann in today’s Healthcare Strategy Report said that the healthcare sector is undervalued relative to the rest of the market and that the sector will outperform.
The market was initially down and some traders were caught short as the reform bill discussion reversed and went with a positive outlook for fundamentals for the major industry groups. Hospital managers were up whereas insurers were flat to down.As of midday trading large cap pharmaceutical stocks were up 1% or more : ABT,BMY,GSK, LLY MRK and TEVA; large cap Medtech stocks BDX,MDT,STJ and VAR were up almost 2%; biotechs are also are having a nice run with two ETF’s up 1% IBB a 7 year high at 92.30 and FBT to $37.34 an all time high. The Rayno Life Science Model Portfolio hit a new high was up 25% over 14 mos. as both large and small cap stocks performed well.