Category: INO.com Contributors

Freeport-McMoRan's Consolidation Reached Trend Support

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Aibek Burabayev - INO.com Contributor - Metals


Last month in my post I warned you that the market for copper and Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE:FCX) entered the consolidation period, which meant that it was good to let the market drift lower and wait for better price opportunities. As you could see in the chart below patience indeed is a key to everything.

Chart 1. Freeport-McMoRan Weekly: Trendline Support

FCX
Chart courtesy of tradingview.com

The price lost almost a quarter for the past six weeks and touched the black trendline support, which stopped the drop and keeps the price above it for the third week already. The stock price already retraced to common the Fibonacci 61.8% level, which adds power to the black trendline support. Continue reading "Freeport-McMoRan's Consolidation Reached Trend Support" →

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" →

Now May Be the Time to Buy Retail ETFs

Posted on by Matt Thalman

Matt Thalman - INO.com Contributor - ETFs


A Wells Fargo analyst recently said retail has bottomed and now may be time to start buying into the sector. With a weak holiday shopping season, followed by poor retail numbers in January and February retail stocks have hit hard times.

Compound that with the need for clarity on a possible border tax and other political issues hanging in the background, uncertainty in the industry is high. But while high uncertainty leads to lower stock prices, it also brings opportunity for smart investors.

Currently we are seeing specialty retailers outperforming the big box retailers like Macy's, Kohl's, Sear's, and JCPenny's. The downsizing of the big box retailers is also a good thing for the smaller players since it gives shoppers fewer options to choose from. But as a whole, this downsizing is hurting the group's overall performance as share prices of the big names companies have been beaten up. Continue reading "Now May Be the Time to Buy Retail ETFs" →