1. Moving the Markets
U.S. stocks ended February on a sour note as oil prices rose and “the” meeting of G20 finance officials ended without pledges for joint action to stimulate sagging global economic growth. As I mentioned on Friday, chances are great that useless jawboning without concrete results or resolutions is as good as it gets.
The weak end to February resulted in a mixed bag in terms of the performance of the three big U.S. stock indexes. The Dow did the best for the month, rising 0.3%. The S&P was next, down 0.4%. The Nasdaq brought up the rear, falling 1.2% for February.
Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 of the world’s biggest economies said they would use “all tools” at their disposal to bolster weak global growth at a meeting in Shanghai on Saturday. They also vowed not devalue their currencies to boost exports. Sure, I won’t hold my breath for that one.
Again, most of February’s rally was short covering, which turned out to be longest uninterrupted cover streak in some 2 years. We’ll now have to wait and see if this rebound off the February lows actually has legs or if we’re close to heading back south. The latter would be my best guess for the day.
Breakthrough drugs generally attract investors’ attention in the pharmaceutical industry although generics make up bulk of the sales in most geographics. Average life expectancy is rising, thanks to the wonders of modern pharmacology, and pushing consumers toward generic versions of expensive brands for cost reasons.
