“Giants” Undergoing Renaissance?
The XLV is not as sexy as the biotech group, as it resembles more of a supertanker status, where names in the fund are not as nimble as their more volatile and maneuverable cousins. But give the XLV credit as it is performing well, up more than 4% in 2021 thus far, making it the fifth best major S&P actor. It is being aided by some of the big stocks in the fund, which of course offer nice dividend yields as well. Top component JNJ is higher 6 of the last 7 weeks, with ALL CLOSING very close to highs for the intraweek range. ABBV is now just 1% off most recent all time highs. The ninth largest holding in the fund in LLY is grappling with the very round 200 number, and has advanced 5% this week already, after the prior week jumped 14.6% in the second best WEEKLY volume in almost 2 years. BMY rose 6.5% last week too. The bullish action in the XLV looks even better as the third and fourth biggest holdings in MRK and PFE trade 10 and 15% off their respective annual peaks.