Healthcare
Options Light Up as Cannabis Craze Sweeps Market

Options Light Up as Cannabis Craze Sweeps Market

Marijuana's supposed to calm people down, but that didn't happen in the stock market yesterday. Frenzied with Canada's legalization on October 17, traders streamed in and out of a trio of high-profile weed stocks. The moves were epic for companies many clients had...

Marijuana Momentum, Airlines Ascending: Groups in Focus

Marijuana Momentum, Airlines Ascending: Groups in Focus

Two different groups have been "flying under the radar" and "hitting new highs" in recent weeks. Let's check them out. First: Flying under the radar. Yep, some of the airlines have been climbing. This group is a bit muddled because performance between carriers has...

Is Biotech Quietly Breaking Out?

Is Biotech Quietly Breaking Out?

Biotechnology stocks are trying to break out as investors await potential catalysts after Labor Day. The iShares Nasdaq Biotech ETF (IBB) has closed at new 52-week highs in the last two sessions. It's now pushing back to price areas last seen in the summer of 2015....

Big Caps on the Move: Scanning for Breakouts in the Dow

Big Caps on the Move: Scanning for Breakouts in the Dow

It's pretty quiet today as stocks drift aimlessly before Labor Day. Dog days of summer? More like the sloth days ... Still, some members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average are melting to new highs even as the broader market snoozes in the shade. Here's a quick tool...

Tech and FANG Languish as Sentiment Shifts

Tech and FANG Languish as Sentiment Shifts

FANG seems to be losing its mojo along with the rest of tech as sentiment shifts in the market. FANG, if you don't know, stands for Facebook (FB), Amazon.com (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX) and Alphabet (GOOGL). This grouping accounted for a big chunk of the market's gains...

Massive Leverage in Drug Maker: Options Recap

Massive Leverage in Drug Maker: Options Recap

How much leverage can options produce? Keep reading to find out. On Friday, an investor crafted a three-part strategy in Mylan (MYL) that involved selling two contracts to buy another. The result was a position with the potential for massive percentage gains but also...

Buyers Rotate into These Sectors as Tech Stalls

Buyers Rotate into These Sectors as Tech Stalls

Last week was rough for technology. But now investors are looking for gains in some new areas. The SPDR Industrial ETF (XLI) and SPDR Health Care ETF (XLV) are the two best performing sector funds over the last month with gains of about 7 percent each. XLI is also on...

Guess who’s raiding the medicine chest

Guess who’s raiding the medicine chest

News reports have seen it coming for months, but now it's official: Amazon.com (AMZN) is attacking drug distributors. AMZN announced the purchase of closely held PillPack. The smaller company caters to patients who routinely take large numbers of medicines, like for...

Medical device giant targeted for breakout: Options recap

Medical device giant targeted for breakout: Options recap

Medical-device giant Medtronic (MDT) has gone nowhere for the last two years, but options traders are looking for a breakout. About 25,000 August 90 calls were bought on Tuesday for $0.74 -- pretty noteworthy for a company that averaged only 10,000 contracts per...

Two sectors on breakout watch

Two sectors on breakout watch

This post is intended for educational purposes and should not be considered a trading recommendation. Two sector funds may be on breaking out as bullish sentiment returns to the stock market. The SPDR Materials ETF (XLB) and SPDR Healthcare ETF (XLV) spent the last...