With everyone's attention focused on major macroeconomic shocks, important trends from the last six months have largely gone unnoticed. So instead of rehashing how Italy's increasing borrowing costs continue to jeopardize the euro's long-term viability, let's talk health care, because it's stomping the markets in 2012.
Over the last six months, the health-care sector has returned a whopping 29.6%, nearly 10 times better than the Dow Jones'
Let's take a closer look at how the three major indexes are faring.
Index | Gain/Loss | Gain/Loss % | Intraday Value |
---|---|---|---|
Dow Jones Industrial Average | 1.36 | 0.01% | 12,575.16 |
Nasdaq | 3.90 | 0.14% | 2,846.97 |
S&P 500 | 0.81 | 0.06% | 1,324.99 |
Source: Yahoo! Finance.
Don't let the flatness fool you; all three indexes were down significantly at the beginning of the day. Unsurprisingly, the markets' "fear index" has seen a spike; the VIX
The largest Dow component, Johnson & Johnson
J&J also received excellent results from diabetes treatment canagliflozin, as it beat the current standard of care, Merck's Januvia. Diabetes, a growing problem in this country, is gaining additional attention from big pharma. Amylin
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