Nasdaq Trading Strategies: 3 Biotechs Awaiting Pullbacks
Stocks are off to a strong start on Elecction Day, with the Dow industrials and S&P 500 both up by more than 2% in the first few minutes after the bell.
The Nasdaq Composite, by comparison, is lagging.
All three markets are overbought – significantly so – with 2-period RSI values of more than 80 in the Dow industrials, more than 70 in the S&P 500 and than 95 in the Nasdaq Composite. This relatively higher degree of “overboughtness” in the Nasdaq is likely one major technical reason why the stocks of the Nasdaq are having a harder time moving higher relative to the other somewhat less overbought stocks of the other two major markets.
Amgen Inc.
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AMGN |
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PowerRating) Short Term PowerRating 4. RSI(2): 81.85
Three Nasdaq stocks that are having little problem moving higher in recent days, however, have been biotechnology stocks. What is more interesting about this trio of biotechs is that they are among the few stocks in the Nasdaq 100 — a smaller, larger capitalized subset of the Nasdaq Composite — that are trading above their 200-day moving averages.
Celgene Corporation
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CELG |
Quote |
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PowerRating) Short Term PowerRating 3. RSI(2): 95.54
The significance of this for Nasdaq traders should be clear. Traders looking for top stocks in this market should put stocks like these three – Amgen, Celgene, and Genzyme on their watchlists, and look for potential opportunities to trade these stocks when the inevitable round of profit-taking materializes.
Genzyme Corporation
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GENZ |
Quote |
Chart |
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PowerRating) Short Term PowerRating 3. RSI(2): 83.04
Here, we have stocks with relatively low Short Term PowerRatings. This suggests that traders should stay away from these stocks for the time being. However as these stocks continue higher, the likelihood their holders will start taking profits. This, of course, is all the more likely if another wave of selling strikes the broader market. And behind that profit-taking in stocks trading above the 200-day moving average there often waits the sort of quality pullbacks that we as swing traders are looking for.
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David Penn is Editor in Chief at TradingMarkets.com.