iPod... Finally!

Yeah, I just blew some more money on an iPod, I just couldn't resist. I have an Amazon credit card and it offered a $25 credit for any purchases over $100. That's a good excuse for getting a new toy. I can't believe all the accessories I bought after getting a PSP and an iPod.

I went to the Apple store today and it was jam packed. The iPods were flying off the shelves. There was also a group of European tourist and they purchased a bunch of iPods. It must be a great deal for them since the Euro is so strong again the dollar. It's like a 20% off sale for them.

Well, my next toy will be a laptop. I'm still deciding if I should go for an Apple or a Windows. I'm leaning towards an Apple laptop. Those things are nice!

I was hoping to save my bonus from work, but I guess it's time to enjoy some of it. Everyone needs a little instant gratification once in awhile.

More Earnings Reports

The life science companies continue to generate good earnings. Invitrogen reported today and they easily beat estimates and are raising guidance. This follows on the footsteps of Millipore and Techne, which also beat estimates. These companies supply consumable products for pharma and biotech research. If this trend continues, Fisher Scientific and Qiagen should produce good numbers as well.

I still want to add to my Genentech position. I'm hoping for a slight pull back...

Another One For Genentech

The good news continues for Genentech. This time, their breast cancer drug, Herceptin, was found to be effective against the recurrence of HER2 - positive breast cancer. This has the potential to be a $1 billion drug. Now I really wish I bought some more shares in the 50s, which I was planning on doing - but never pulled the trigger.

Today, Genzyme also announced some good news on their Myozyme drug, an enzyme replacement therapy for the treatment of Pompe disease. Everything is on target for a mid year filing with the FDA and hopefully marketing approval in 2006. Also last week, Genzyme announced good earnings and raised guidance. Amgen also reported good earnings and raised guidance as well. The biotech sector is setting up for a nice rally.

Almost done with the earnings reports. Up next for me is Invitrogen, Qiagen, Fisher Scientific and Las Vegas Sands.

CPI Data Ruins The Party

I thought everything was set for a rally today after Intel and Yahoo numbers, but the CPI data was not market friendly at all. People just sold into the early morning strength and the market was never able to recover. Genzyme and Amgen will be reporting earnings tomorrow. I'll be keeping a close eye on those earning reports. Fortunately, my portfolio is holding up well in this market correction. Maybe concentrated portfolio is not that bad after all??? Seriously, I will start to diversify my portfolio a bit.

Earnings Season

After last weeks market action, everyone was expecting earnings to be horrible. So far they're pretty good with the exception of IBM. No earnings miss for the companies in my portfolio. JNJ, PFE and BSX reported today. The market took down BSX a bit because of cautious comments by the company. JNJ and PFE both beat by a couple of cents. Next up for me is GENZ, which is scheduled to report on Thursday.

Intel and Yahoo reported good results after the bell today. With these earnings results, the market is setting itself up for a nice rally. How quick emotions change in this market...

Gap Down?

I hope the market gaps down big Monday morning and makes a come back by the end of the day. This will shake out the remaining weak investors. If the market gaps down big, I'll probably pick up some SPY for a quick trade. But I'm not initiating any new long term positions until things settle down a bit.

It's nice to see how well the pharmas and biotechs are holding up in this correction. The following companies in my portfolio are reporting next week: JNJ, PFE and GENZ. I'm expecting in line numbers for PFE and upside surprises for both JNJ and GENZ. We'll see...

Genentech - Another Home Run

I just saw the news this morning that the Avastin appeared effective against breast cancer. Genentech is up +8 to around 66 in pre market open. Analyst are now projecting ~ 4$ billion in annual Avastin sales. This is huge not only for the Genentech, but for the biotech sector as well.

Tech Crash / Pharma Rally

The techs are just getting slammed. Yesterday, Apple disappointed with the iPod sales and after the market close today, IBM missed their numbers. Nothing appears to be working in tech, look at the former leaders like eBay (the chart looks ugly). I think the selling is just getting started in the techs and I would stay out of the way.

The new leaders are the pharmas / biotechs. When the FDA pulled Pfizer's Bextra (Cox 2 drug) off the market, that was basically the bottom for Pfizer. Everyone who wanted to get out of Pfizer pretty much gave up on that day. After the close today, the court upheld Lilly's Zyprexa patent. All the pharmas are up big in after markets. Many pharmas and biotechs will be reporting next week. This should give additional momentum to the group.

My Portfolio Update

Here's another monthly update of my non retirement portfolio. As you can see, there's not much action. I'm still slowly building up cash for a potential real estate purchase.

On a side note: Genentech beat the Street by 0.04, but is selling off a bit in after hours. This is a solid number, looks like people were looking for a bit more sales from Avastin. This is one where you want to get in on any dips.

Ticker	% of Portfolio	% Return
BSX	4.38%	+6.60%
FSH	1.04%	+6.85%
GENZ	58.04%	+215.97%
IVGN	3.84%	+331.45%
JNJ	2.56%	+22.23%
LVS	1.56%	+50.03%
BIIB	2.57%	-48.9%
CYTC	0.82%	-18.84%
MSFT	1.0%	-36.84%
QQQQ	1.31%	+31.50%
QGEN	11.58%	+248.57%
PFE	5.06%	-7.27%
CASH	6.23%

Freebies...

Yesterday I ordered a 1 Gig flash memory card for my new toy (Sony PSP) from Dell. No problems with the order, but the item was back ordered and won't ship until April 25th. No big deal. Anyways, I thought it may be worth a try to get them to toss in free shipping since it won't ship for two weeks. I called their customer support line and spoke to a very pleasant customer rep. She was not able to give me free shipping, but did give me a coupon for $35 off of Dell products for my trouble. I'll take it since I am looking to purchase a Dell lap top.

Pharma / Biotech Bottom??

I don't know, but it feels like we've reached a bottom for the pharma / biotech group. Yesterday, Pfizer pulled Bextra (Cox 2 drug) off the market and gaped down at the open. The stock eventually moved it's way up and actually closed up for the day. This tells me that all the bad news has been factored into this stock and the path of least resistance is up. If you look at the IBD (Investor's Business Daily) rankings, the Medical-Biomed/Biotech is ranked 166 out of 197 and the Medical-Ethical Drugs is ranked 173 out of 197. This sector is ranked at the bottom quartile of all the groups. This looks like the beginning of a pharma / biotech recovery.

My portfolio is still heavily weighted in the pharma / biotech sector. My holdings in this group are: Pfizer, J&J, Biogen, Boston Scientific, Genzyme, and Genentech. Yeah, still holding onto Biogen - some interesting news on Rituxan for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

Watered Down

So on Wednesday Waters Corp (symbol: WAT) issued an earnings warning and the stock fell 20%. They sell the big ticket equipments to the R&D life sciences market. Unfortunately, the warning also took down other companies in the sector like Invitrogen and Fisher Scientific. Invitrogen and Fisher both presented at investor conferences this week and re-affirmed their guidance. They mainly supply consumable products to the R&D life sciences industry. These are stuff you need on a daily basis to conduct your research. This may be a good opportunity to pick up some of these shares. It amazes me on how investors over react to news.