Diamonds and Dogs

6/7/16

Tech is back! Facebook and Amazon have been strong all year, but now other sectors like the chips and the storage makers are coming back to life. Western Digital (WDC) is the diamond today up 3% following an upgrade.  The storage maker was upgraded at Mizuho with a $53 price target saying they believe the near term estimates reset, a seasonally better second half in NAND and modest second half HDD rebound could be a second half of the year tailwind. After dropping over 50% in the last year, it's nice to see the stock on a rebound.

Biotechs are in the dumps today. Biogen (BIIB) is tumbling 12% today, down nearly 50% in the last year, following disappointing study data for its multiple sclerosis treatment. The biotech titan said that opicinumab drug which seeks to repair multiple sclerosis patients' nervous systems has missed its primary and secondary goals of improving walking and cognition and slowing disability progression in a mid-stage study. In a different trial, opicinumab did meet its primary goal in patients after their first attack of acute optic neuritis, but not its secondary goal, the company said. Barrons' came to the defense of Biogen saying the selloff in the stock is a buying opportunity as the opicinumab drug prospects were considered a long shot and wouldn't have helped earnings much.