Biotech stocks got hit with a double whammy from concerns about high prices and disruption in healthcare from reform. But biotech investors made money last year and are still in the green for 2018 even after many stocks reported earnings. Here is the damage summary for the week and YTD:

• Biotech ETFs: FBT down 4.28%, up 11.67% YTD; IBB down 5%, up 5% YTD; XBI down 4.47%, up 8.27% YTD.
• Healthcare XLV down 5%, up 5.09% YTD.
• Powershares QQQ Trust down 3.7%, up 5.68% YTD.
• Technology SPDR XLK down 3.92%, up 3.96% YTD.
• The S&P 500 SPY was down 3.88% this week.

So after a severe correction we are still up YTD with all major indices tracking up in the same range but with life science and tech stocks doing better than the market overall.

It is important to track sectors going forward especially after energy took a severe hit on Friday with XLE down 4% and now flat YTD. Industrials also took a hit but are still up 2.39% YTD. Financials we’re down 3% for the week and are up 3.37% YTD. So at this point early in the year I’d be most concerned about energy and would favor technology and financials but we’ll soon see how the rotation goes. Healthcare and biotech look good if M&A keeps going and NASDAQ holds up.

Reviewing individual large cap stocks below we can see many are beating the IBB including our Rayno Top Portfolio picks ABBV, AMGN, BIIB, GILD.

AMGN and BMY look like safe dividend picks for the year whereas CELG cannot get traction fluttering at the $100 level after the uncertainty of the JUNO acquisition. CELG was a new pick at $102. Our best long term pick bluebird bio (BLUE) is still up 11.68% YTD.