Cash Plays Defense
Money flows into defensive stocks
Thursday lifted tradable funds focused on consumer staples, drug makers and
utilities as tech failed to press the prior session’s gains.
The
Pharmaceutical HOLDR
(
PPH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) rose 2.6%, registering the day’s biggest
gain among the exchange-traded
funds.Â
Among
the basket of pharmaceuticals components, Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gained 2 to 44 3/4,
Allergan
(
AGN |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 2 1/8 to 70 1/2, Forest Labs
(
FRX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 4 15/16 to 112 13/16
and Watson Pharmaceutical
(
WPI |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 2 15/16 to 65 13/16.
Reinforcing
the defensive picture, the Consumer Staples SPDR
(
XLP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) added 2.4% while the
Cyclical/Transportation
(
XLY |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) gave up 1.4%.
The
tradable tech funds backpedaled following Wednesday’s gains. The B2B Internet
HOLDR
(
BHH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), which notched Wednesday’s sharpest improvement among the ETFs
with a 9.4% rise, fell 10.4% on Thursday, the session’s sharpest loss among the
tradable funds.
The
Internet Architecture HOLDR
(
IAH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) declined 3.1%, the Internet Infrastructure
HOLDR
(
IIH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 2.6%, the Semiconductor HOLDR
(
SMH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 2.5%, the Internet HOLDR
(
HHH |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 2.2%, the Technology SPDR
(
XLK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) 1.4%.
For
more on slumping semiconductors, read my chart analysis of Micron Technology
(
MU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
in Trading The News.
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