Issue #12: Trump’s Love-Hate Relationship With Pharma, Amgen Promises Jobs and Sector Earnings Underway

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

INO Health & Biotech Stock Guide

Preview Issue #12 - March 20, 2017

BIOTECH, HEALTH & PHARMA NEWS

President Trump met with a group of pharmaceutical executives at the White House where he voiced his concerns over their pricing, stating that pricing “has been astronomical.” In the same meeting, President Trump said “You folks have done a very great job over the years,” and “but we have to get the prices down.” In a separate press conference, Trump said that big pharma was “getting away with murder”. Big pharma companies are joining forces as of late to address the price increases that the public and governmental officials have been demanding. Allergan (AGN), J&J (JNJ), Novo Nordisk (NVO) and AbbVie (ABBV) have committed to limiting any annual drug pricing increases to less than 10%. J&J went further stating that they will be publishing an annual report regarding its portfolio and the price increases they’ve implemented. AbbVie released data on its increases as well stating that Humira was increased by 8.4% with an only once annual increase moving forward. Merck (MRK) becomes the latest pharma to join this drug pricing transparency coalition. Merck raised list prices by an average of 9.6% with an average net price increase of 5.5%. This transparency is a step in the right direction to appease the general public and governmental officials.

President Donald Trump

Figure 1 - President Trump met with pharmaceutical industry leaders at the White House on Tuesday. From left are PhRMA President Stephen Ubl, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, Trump, Celgene CEO Robert Hugin and Amgen CEO Robert Bradway. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

WHAT'S NEXT

Continue reading "Issue #12: Trump’s Love-Hate Relationship With Pharma, Amgen Promises Jobs and Sector Earnings Underway" →

OPEC February Compliance 42%

Posted on by Robert Boslego

Robert Boslego - INO.com Contributor - Energies


According to the Kuwait News Agency, Kuwait Oil Minister Essam Abdul Mohsen Al-Marzouq, chairman of the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), has stated that February compliance by OPEC was 140%. But according to the figures that OPEC members submitted to the organization, compliance was just 42 percent, relative to the total OPEC ceiling (32.5) in the November 30th Agreement. If those figures are correct, this Agreement is in serious trouble.

Indonesia had been an OPEC member, and its volume (about 750,000 b/d) was included in the ceiling. But it dropped out, and so the new effective ceiling became 31.750 million barrels per day.

In the Agreement, the members chose to use “secondary sources” of their crude production to assess compliance. The idea was to have a more objective measure so individual members could not cheat by submitting low figures to make it seem as if they are complying. Continue reading "OPEC February Compliance 42%" →

IBB - The Political Tug-Of-War Rages On

Posted on by Noah Kiedrowski

Noah Kiedrowski - INO.com Contributor - Biotech


Donald Trump is back at it again via Twitter and once again he has ignited the political tug-of-war between potential policy changes and Wall Street. The overall healthcare sector has become volatile on the heels of any statement or tweet from Donald Trump. Shortly after the inauguration, Trump held a press conference and stated that drug companies are “getting away with murder” when speaking to the drug pricing debate. Now he’s come out and stated that he’s working on a “new system where there will be competition in the drug industry.” Every time any of these remarks are tweeted, they immediately result in a downtrend across the entire biotech cohort, this time was no exception. The iShares Biotechnology Index ETF (NASDAQ:IBB) traded down 1.7% or $5 per share once tweeted. The healthcare sector has been faced with an uncertain and volatile political backdrop. The overall healthcare umbrella has become sensitive to any tweet from President Trump as he vows to bring down drug prices. Although he’s pursuing his agenda against drug pricing, IBB has become resilient as many of these threats may have already been priced-in as seen in many healthcare-related stocks that have seen sharp and sustained sell-offs. Ostensibly, many of these stocks are trading at multiyear low P/E ratios and as a cohort (gauged via the IBB proxy) looks to be less sensitive to tweets/threats and continues to test the $300 barrier.

IBB Chart
Figure 1 – IBB price activity and resilience over the previous 6 months with pronounced volatility that coincides with political rhetoric against drug pricing

The Drug Pricing Transparency Coalition

Many large-cap pharma companies have created an unofficial drug pricing coalition to provide transparency in an effort to separate themselves from a handful of egregious price increases to contend with Trump’s aim at the drug companies. Continue reading "IBB - The Political Tug-Of-War Rages On" →

Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery

Posted on by The INO.com Team

We've asked Michael Seery of SEERYFUTURES.COM to give our INO readers a weekly recap of the Futures market. He has been Senior Analyst for close to 15 years and has extensive knowledge of all of the commodity and option markets.

Michael frequently appears on multiple business networks including Bloomberg news, Fox Business, CNBC Worldwide, CNN Business, and Bloomberg TV. He is also a guest on First Business, which is a national and internationally syndicated business show.

Gold Futures

Gold futures in the April contract settled last Friday in New York at 1,201 an ounce while currently trading at 1,229 up about $28 for the trading week all based off of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. However, stating that they will take precaution down the road sending many commodities higher while sending the U.S dollar sharply lower. At present I'm now recommending a short position from the 1,229 level and if you take that trade place your stop loss above the 10-day high which stands at 1,237 risking around $250 per mini contract or $800 on the large contract plus slippage and commission as the risk/reward are highly in your favor as the chart structure is outstanding. Gold prices hit a 6 week low earlier this week telling you that the short-term trend is lower as prices are trading right at their 20 & 100-day moving average with major support around the 1,200 level & if that is broken the bearish trend should continue in my opinion so take a shot at the short side as the monetary risk is low.
TREND: LOWER
CHART STRUCTURE: EXCELLENT Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery" →

How's Your Confidence?

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Hello MarketClub members everywhere. The University of Michigan released its preliminary index of sentiment for March and it increased to 97.6 from 96.3 in February. Americans are more satisfied than any time in the previous 16 years with the current state of their finances and the economy.

MarketClub's Mid-day Market Report

Bloomberg Consumer Confidence
Chart courtesy of Bloomberg

Key levels to watch next week: Continue reading "How's Your Confidence?" →