Biotech Stays on Sidelines
While the broader market has made respectable gains in 2009, Biotech stocks have stayed on the sidelines. The SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) is up 21% on the year while the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) is actually down over 5% in 2009.
XBI
Safe Harbor ETFs
In a market that is down for the year and continues to present an uncertain outlook, which ETFs have managed to hold onto their value at this point in the year? Setting aside the volatile energy and commodities sectors and the idea of shorting financials, we were still able to find five ETF categories that are unchanged or even higher from January levels.
Biotech Consolidation
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.