Healthcare ETFs are trading at lifetime highs in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision on Obama’s Affordable Care Act that upheld the individual mandate.
Health Care Select Sector SPDR (NYSEArca: XLV) is up about 11% year to date. It’s the largest ETF for the sector with assets of $4.8 billion. Top holdings include Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Merck (NYSE: MRK). [Biotech ETFs and the Supreme Court Decision]
XLV is breaking out to record highs. The ETF was launched in 1998.
Healthcare and biotech ETFs have been volatile the past couple weeks as traders speculated on the Supreme Court decision. Now, investors are trying to determine how the news will impact various industries.
“Now that the law is staying in place, there’s a wide range of opinions about what this is going to mean for all these companies,” said Matthew Coffina, senior healthcare analyst at Morningstar, in a Los Angeles Times story. “Investors are scrambling to figure things out.”
From a technical perspective, last week’s breakout in healthcare ETFs is a bullish sign for the sector.
“This past Friday the iShares Dow Jones US Healthcare Sector ETF (NYSEArca: IYH) pushed above its sideways channel in the chart above and IYH has been reflecting relative strength compared to the S&P 500 over the past couple of months,” according to Kimble Charting Solutions.
Health Care Select Sector SPDR
