VHT: Vanguard Health Care ETF Instablogs

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Friday, May 17, 8:13 AM Thomas Lee lifts his year-end S&P 500 (SPY) forecast to 1,715 from 1,580 as the bull has already outrun his expectations. His team sees clues economic performance is picking up, including the outperformance of semiconductors (XSD) vs. transports (IYT), and the steepening of the 10 year/30 year Treasury curve. Risk/reward is particularly appealing in tech (XLK), healthcare (XLV), and financials (XLF). Comment!
Thursday, May 16, 11:42 AM The Dow and S&P 500 are flat, but the Nasdaq gains 0.4% late morning behind a 12.5% jump in Cisco post-earnings and Apple bouncing from the last 2 days' drubbing, up 1.5%. Dragging the Dow is a 2.1% decline in Wal-Mart post-earnings. The notably weak sector today is the year's hottest, healthcare (XLV -0.8%). 1 Comment
Monday, May 6, 1:36 PM Merck (MRK -1.3%) gets no love today from the FDA's approval of Liptruxet late Friday, as the stock is likely dragged down with the rest of the big pharma names on the back of a CNBC report that criticizes their earnings so far. The article points to the fact that pharmaceutical companies have seen a 4.7% contraction in earnings, and a 3.2% drop in revenue this quarter. Why? Morningstar's Damien Cover says there are two primary reasons: FX impact, especially from the yen, and intensified generic competition from patent losses. Comment! [Healthcare, On the Move]
Monday, May 6, 7:27 AM The S&P 500 (SPY) is fairly valued, says Goldman, but opportunity lies in cyclicals (XLY, XLE, XLI, XLB) which are more undervalued vs. defensives (XLU, XLP, XLV, XTL) than at any time in the last 15 years. "Given the 4 P/E multiple point head start, even a slight valuation normalization should translate into outperformance of cyclicals over defensives during the next 12 months." 1 Comment
Friday, April 26, 8:34 AM The beginning of a bigger move? Two of the year's three strongest performing sectors - healthcare (XLV) and consumer staples (XLP) - are down on the week as the three weakest sectors - energy (XLE), materials (XLB), and tech (XLK) - post gains of 3%-4.5%. 2 Comments
Thursday, April 11, 2:08 PM Healthcare and biotech ETFs continue to churn higher again today, hitting new 52-week highs across the board: Health Care SPDR (XLV +1%), Vanguard Health Care ETF (VHT +0.9%), iShares Dow Jones US Healthcare (IYH +0.9%),. Biotech ETF iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index (IBB +1.3%). 1 Comment [Healthcare, On the Move]
Tuesday, April 2, 1:22 PM Already the best sector YTD, Healthcare widens its lead even further thanks to hikes in Medicaid Advantage rates. The XLV's 17.1% gain is more than 200 bps greater than 2nd place Consumer Staples (XLP), and about 700 bps better than SPY. Getting a relative drubbing are Materials (XLB) and Tech (XLK) - each up less than 4%. Comment!
Friday, March 22, 10:39 AM The health care sector (IYH, XLV) is outperforming the S&P 500 (SPY) through the year's first 11 weeks for the first time in 15 years as companies cut costs and investors bet whatever emanates from D.C. will be good for all involved. "Most of the big drug companies have experienced patent cliffs and are now repositioning themselves for growth," says one fund manager. 2 Comments [Healthcare]
Tuesday, January 8, 3:29 PM Vanguard's recent expense reduction means 9 of its 10 sector ETFs are now the cheapest available to U.S. investors. With an annual expense ratio of just 0.14%, VOX, VPU, VCR, VDC, VDE, VHT, VIS, VGT, and VAW stack up favorably vs. the 0.18% charged by State Street's Sector SPDRs (XLU, XLY, XLP, XLE, XLF, XLV, XLK, XLI, XLB and XTL which charges 0.35%) and the 0.47%-0.48% iShares sector ETFs (RXI, KXI, IYE, IYF, IYZ, IYH, IDU, IYW, IYM, IYJ) charge. At 0.19%, Vanguard Financials (VFH) is still slightly more expensive than the Financial SPDR (XLF). 2 Comments
Tuesday, January 8, 9:59 AM Just before New Year's, Vanguard cut fees on more than a third of its U.S.-listed ETF lineup while raising fees on just 2 ETFs. Its sector ETFs saw the biggest price cuts (from 0.19% to 0.14%) while its 2 small cap funds (VIOO, VIOV) actually saw slight fee hikes. Comment!
Tuesday, January 8, 6:04 AM Healthcare spending rose at a record low pace of 3.9% to $2.7T in 2011 as patients continued to cut back on medical services amid the economic slump. The growth was the same as in 2010 and 2009, and well below the 8% prior to the financial crisis. However, there are signs the rise in spending could be speeding up again, with expenditure on drugs increasing by 2.9% in 2011 vs 0.4% in 2010, and on doctors' visits by 4.3%. Comment! [Healthcare]
Wednesday, January 2, 9:44 AM The Street's Adam Feuerstein makes 13 biotech stock predictions for 2013, with his number one being that the U.S. launch of Arena Pharmaceuticals' (ARNA) and Eisai's weight-loss pill Belviq "will be a major disappointment." Feuerstein also reckons that Belviq will fail to receive European approval. 17 Comments [Healthcare]
Tuesday, January 1, 6:49 AM The number of drugs that the FDA authorized in 2012 rose to 39 from 30 last year and 21 in 2010, with the figure the highest since 53 in 1996. It also includes 10 medicines with fast-track status. The increase in approvals should help offset the patent cliff, which cost major U.S. and European drug companies $31B in revenues last year. (graph of approvals) Comment! [Healthcare]
Sunday, December 9, 2012, 2:27 AM The Supreme Court will review a "pay for delay" case in which Solvay, now owned by Abbott Labs (ABT), paid three generic drug companies to up to $40M a year, including Watson (WPI), to postpone making copycat versions of Solvay's Androgel testosterone treatment. The case has industry wide ramifications, with the FTC saying the practice costs customers $3.5B a year. (previous) 1 Comment [Healthcare, Top Stories]
Monday, November 19, 2012, 10:01 AM President Obama's re-election did not, as some believe, bring an end to the battle over Obamacare, write James Capretta and Yuval Levin in the WSJ. That's because the Administration is reliant on states for two key elements of the the reform: health-insurance exchanges and expanding Medicaid. Some GOP governors have already said "they won't do the federal government's bidding." Capretta and Levin explain why they agree. Comment! [Healthcare]
Saturday, October 6, 2012, 9:00 AM The financial (XLF) and healthcare (XLV) sectors were the big winners this week, both adding to their gains relative to the S&P YTD. Another YTD outperformer, tech (XLK) combined with energy (XLE) to be the weakest sectors this week as both Apple (post-iPhone 5) and oil (post-QE∞) can't shake their hangovers. The defensive utility area (XLU) - which had a big (and worrying to some) run from mid-Spring to mid-Summer - continues to lose ground to the broader market. 3 Comments

VHT Vanguard Health Care ETF

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Vanguard Health Care ETF