Will These Sectors Explode?
Stocks are trading mixed as the market awaits Intel’s
first-ever mid-session performance update but select sectors are showing they
are set up to lead the market or have traced patterns from which they could
launch.
The Nasdaq is up 26.56 at 2244.29, the S&P 500 is up
1.14 at 1271.13, and the Dow is down 15 at 11,055.
The biotech index
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just three weeks, demonstrating budding momentum for the sector. It’s ideal to
be in the leading stocks from the leading, or emerging, sectors. And IDEC Pharmaceutical
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Ranking from TradingMarket’s Stock
Scanner of 97, IDEC Pharmaceutical
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stock marketplace. Not too shabby for a biotech. This is one of the reasons
the stock has nearly doubled in one month and leads the biotechs. The stock’s
recent action of gaps, laps and thrusts identify it as a potential runaway. It
also has a three-month RS is 93. This is one of the leaders of the pack and is
within range to take its all time high of 77.65. IDPH is up 2.19 at 73.15.
Also strong in the biotechs, Human Genome Sciences
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hit a high for the year today and Protein Design Labs
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back from its high of the year hit two days ago on higher volume. Taken
together, biotech could accelerate if the Nasdaq breaks out of its two-month
sideways pattern.
The market is treading water ahead of Intel’s
unprecedented mid-quarter update on the chip giant’s performance. Intel is
making the special meeting to better manage performance expectations. The chip
giant has missed estimates for the past three consecutive quarters and traders
have clipped share prices 70% from their highs.
But the semiconductor index
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strongest sector today and also has a multi-month base from which to launch.
Here, both KLA Tencor
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nine-month highs.
Blue chips are being weighed down by a $3 billion judgment
against Philip Morris, by weak retail sales and by the highest initial
unemployment claims since 1992. Futures traders are fully pricing in a 25-basis-point cut from the Fed later this month at its FOMC meeting to 3.75%.