Day 168: Healthcare leads
The Mother's Little Helper portfolio was up today +$2,552.14 (+0.35%).
Overall GAIN YTD: +$138,279.28 (+23.68%)
According to CNN Money our benchmark index, the S&P 500 is up +8.51% Year To Date (http://money.cnn.com/data/markets/sandp/).
I took the day off from the blog last Friday, my youngest daughter was graduating from 8th grade and making the big transition to high school. Some things are just more important than watching the stock market.
Looks like the technology sector took a beating as investors took profits, but that wasn't the whole story. I think what really triggered the run up in technology stocks is the computer algorithmic trading. The algo's don't care why a stock is going up or what the fundamentals are or what the story behind the company is; they look at price movement and volume of shares traded. The prices of our best tech companies got pushed up to some pretty lofty valuation and the big institutional investors finally had to take some profits. When they started selling,the algo's joined in and did a bunch more selling. Ultimately the prices of tech stocks will find the right levels and investors will jump right back into these growth companies. Money goes where it's treated best.
In my last post we were up (+24.45%), today after the close we are still up (+23.68%). While the biggest gainers in the portfolio year to date remain the same, the biggest gainers today were two small healthcare companies, Dynavax Technologies (DVAX) and Omeros Corporation (OMER). Dynavax has an upcoming FDA announcement on August 10th and many investors think this will be the review that finally gets DVAX approval. However Omeros had unusually high volume today with 1.27 million shares trading hands, it's normal average volume is 476,145 shares. High volume is usually a bullish sign but how about we all just enjoy the ride and see where this great little company goes over the next six months.
Stay Invested,
Clay Baker
Disclosure: I am personally invested long in these stocks that appear in the MLH portfolio and may purchase or sell share withing the next 72 hours. I am also invested in other stocks that do not appear in the MLH portfolio: BA, BRK.B, CELG, CSCO, CTXS, CVX, DOW, DVAX, FB, IBM, NTES, NVDA, OMER, PFE, PG, RDHL, SCHW, THO, TWX, VEEV, VZ, XLNX, XOM
I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
This article is not intended to offer investing advice, guarantee 100% accurate predictions, or to be interpreted as providing a personal recommendation.