Tuesday, April 17, 2012

This Speculative Sector Is Still Booming

One by one, the "speculative" uptrends are falling over like dominoes.
For some investors, the stock market is doing great. Early last week, the S&P 500 closed at its highest level since May 2008. Dividend-paying stocks and Apple (which is basically its own asset class now) have led the way.
But many of the speculative "boom and bust" sectors we write about so much in Growth Stock Wire are struggling.
Over the past three weeks, a number of "boom and bust" areas took a dive. Oil services stocks (OIH) plunged 9%. Gold stocks have plummeted to new 52-week lows. Emerging markets like Brazil (EWZ) and China (FXI) are down 6% and 5%, respectively. The big homebuilder uptrend has stalled. After rocketing 60% since October, the homebuilder fund (ITB) is unchanged over the past two months.
Amid all this "shaky" action, one of my favorite speculative sectors is doing fine – biotech stocks. While most risky sectors sold off the past few weeks, the Nasdaq Biotech Index gained more than 2%... and reached a new 52-week high.
You might be thinking, "2% doesn't sound like much... so what?"
Well, when a group of stocks moves higher (or even moves sideways) in a weak market, that's called "relative strength." It's a signal that there are "big money" investors behind certain stocks.
(more)

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