The consolidation plays in Biotech have driven the index higher, making a good year even better for the industry. Roche bid to increase its stake in Genentech to 100% and then Bristol Meyers Squibb followed suit with ImClone Systems.
Healthcare providers (up 8.22%), airlines (up 8.11%) and telecom equipment makers (up 7.22%) were the best performing industries last week.
Better than expected earnings from JP Morgan and Wells Fargo lead to strong stock price performance and a bounce back for State Street’s KBW Bank ETF (KBE).
With oil prices coming down, natural gas is now pulling back after climbing over 50% since the beginning of the year.
Cash continued to move to the sidelines as money market mutual fund assets grew throughout May. For more, see our post in Keeping Up.
While oil prices have been grabbing the headlines, coal stocks have been steadily climbing.
Oil prices spiked last week creating new concerns about the economic outlook and bringing stock prices down.
Telecom was the strongest performing sector last week as the stocks continue to make a come back from their March lows. The iShares Dow Jones U.S. Telecommunications Sector Index Fund IYZ is one of the leading telecom sector ETFs.
According to the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI), total world crude steel production was up 5.6% from the same period in 2007.