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Worse week for Healthcare Stocks. What you can do?

Nothing wait just for volatility to settle down and look to other portfolio sectors to invest.

Nibble on your favorite dividend paying large cap biopharma. Take tax losses on your losers.

Look for other great health science stocks within MEDtech. 

As we mentioned earlier this month large cap healthcare stocks were supposed to be relatively safe from market turmoil and macro news because of the large demographics and the priority individuals place on their health.  But last week healthcare and biotech stocks got whipped badly by a constellation of bad news. First it began when a few of our best performers took a bashing like Abbvie and Eli Lilly. Then you layer on the Fed speak where you layer on a some doubts about future rate cuts. Then came an assault from some potential TRUMP Cabinet picks offering ideas to revolutionize the health care system . We all know that uncertainty is not good for the market but that ‘s what we have despite all the positive factors coming through this election cycle.The market  was quiet today but we should still expect some gains through year -end albeit a bit choppy. Here are some numbers from DAY One NOV 18: S&P 500 up 0.39% to 5823 , QQQ up 3.45% to 500, IBB down 0.25% to 133, XLV up 0.1% to $141.94, XBI up 0.13% to 91.96. So compare the numbers below for key biotech and healthcare ETFs and stocks. We should be able to hold these levels through year-end before new Administration healthcare policies and year end 2024 earnings reports and guidance come in January 2025.NOTABLE MOVERS today were: ABBV up 0.78%. BMY up 1.03%, LLY down 2.5%. JNJ up 0.5% but flat for the past 5 days at  $154.77. Otherwise not much and need a few more days to break downtrend.MedTech looks better with less pricing politics. The U.S. Medical Device ETF (IHI) was up 0.89% to $60 level , flat over 5 days  up 2.42% for the month, up 11.3% YTD. Medtronic reports tomorrow and pays a dividend of 3.2%. We also own ABT, ISRG and SYK.SMID Life Science trades may be too volatile until biotech gets its Momentum back, Here are some positions that are holding up better: CRMD up 5.6% today at $10.91,  NTRA up 6.04% at $153.42, TWST up 12.1% today at $41.4, and we still like VCEL and VCYT. And EXEL is holding near ts top up over 43% YTD.Here are two interesting long term charts  for the XLV and XBI. Note the post COVID biotech crash and recovery for XBI.

    1/15/18 3/31/23 11/1/19 10/8/2023 2024 YTD   FWD Analyst % 5 d % %   Company Ticker Price Price Price Price PRICE             1 mo. trend ST             11/16/24 % Perf P/S PE Recom Div                                     Abbvie ABBV 100.000 159.37 81.75 148.23 165 6.47 5.11 13.58 1.79 3.74 -17.3 -14 gap u/d Alexion*(ALXN) ALXN 123.000 182.5 109.38 – 40.33 n/a 4.56 9.38 n/a   AZN     Amgen AMGN 185.000 241.75 221 263 283.61 -1.53 4.52 13.69 2.29 3.21 -12.81 -12.76 d AstraZeneca* AZN 35.000 69.41 40.34 67.42 63.23 -4.25 3.83 13.41 1.93 2.46 1.51 -16.11 gap d Biogen BIIB 336.000 278.31 299.2 263.25 160 -38.17 1.82 9.51 1.82 – -7.54 -16.48 low Bristol Myers* BMY 63.000 69.31 57.16 56.66 56.22 9.57 2.31 7.98 2.8 4.25 3.84 6.56   Celgene* (BMY) CELG 106.000 n/a 108.53 – 77 n/a 4.69 8.7 n/a                                       Gilead Sci GILD 79.000 82.97 61.69 74.74 88.4 9.12 3.74 11.82 2.03 3.47 -8.46 3.01 high GlaxoSmithK* GSK 38.000 35.58 45 36.65 33.35 -10 1.71 7.71 2.5 4.66 -8.1 -14.4 low Johnson&J* JNJ new       154.01 -1.75 4.29 14.55 2.13 3.04 -0.95 -6.15   Eli Lilly LLY 85.000 343.42 113 565.22 746.2 -28.01 16.45 33.13 1.58 -0.73 -10.26 -18.3 rsi low Merck MRK 59.000 106.39 78 103.88 96.46 -11.86 3.79 10.24 1.59 3.16 -6.42 -13.65 low Pfizer PFE   40.8   33.13 24.8 -13.86 2.23 8.57 2.3 6.79 -7.19 -15.76 rsi low Regeneron REGN 367.000 821.67 310.48 836.57 756.81 -13.83 5.81 16.75 1.77 – -8.64 -25.55 low Vertex VRTX 158.000 315.07 196 360.62 465.7 14.45 10.87 27.46 1.97 – -9.88 -3.84 high                                     3/31 11/19 10/7/23 11/16/24  

%YTD

      5 days % 1 mo. Trend XBI     76.21 93 72.23 91.83   2.84       -11.85 -7.53 d IBB     129.16 119.65 122.48 133.38   -1.82       -10.39 -8.53 d FBIOX     15.63 20.26 15.47 19.61   9.98       – -9.55 d PRHSX     87.75 79 86.37 92.58   5.32       – -7.37 d XLV     129.46 121.11 128 141.84   5.46       -5.55 -7.2 d XPH     41.01 39.47 39.05 45.05   8.24       -6.24 -2.57 d UNH     472.59 252 524.81 592.23   12.49       -3.83 6.46 – QQQ     320.93 201.23 364.7 496.57   25.55       -3.42 1.17 – iIHI     ? 43 56.5 59.54   10.32

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