Hoppy Healthcare:
The sweeping healthcare sector is as diverse a group as you will find. Of course, it has biotech, represented by “youthful names in the XBI, or mature inside the IBB. Those who enjoyed the strong biotech run in the last 2 months of 2023 will have to contemplate the negative seasonality in Q1 during the last 5 years. There are “safer” plays within the healthcare providers in the IHF which include UNH, the top holding which is also the highest PRICED name in the DOW, which has a huge influence in the PRICE weighted benchmark. There are the medical equipment plays represented by the IHI, which frankly have lagged over the last 200 sessions. My focus is on the biotechs and pharma plays at the moment. Names moving the needle, pun intended, are AMGN which is currently doing battle with the very round 300 number and is just above the WEEKLY double bottom with handle pivot of 286.31 taken out last week. Top component in the IBB is VRTX which flirted with a bull flag breakout Wednesday. Rounding out the top 3 holdings is REGN, and talking about the round numbers this has a measured move to the very round 1000 figure from a recent WEEKLY bull flag breakout. Look out above if the MONTHLY chart of the XLV is taken out.