Healthcare Stocks End Mostly Down (XLV, PFE, JNJ, AMGN, LLY, MYL, EW, GILD)

Published on Friday, 16 December 2011 17:20 Written by Paul Oldrini

New York, December 16th (TradersHuddle.com) – The healthcare sector lagged the broader markets on Friday after showing outperformance in the previous trading session. The sector opened higher, but most of its gains faded, with and the overall sector turning negative as the broader markets lost momentum. The Health Care SPDR (ETF)(NYSE:XLV) ended with a loss of 0.30% at $33.42 after surging over one percent on Thursday.

The top two ETF’s holdings were down including Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) marginally to $64.02 and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) lost 0.52% to $21.03. The ETF holds 13.45% and 12.65% respectively.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) provided some support to the ETF as the stock bucked the downtrend and ended higher by 2.44% at $60.05 after the company announced quarterly dividend of 36 cents a share, payable on March 7 to stockholders of record as of Feb. 15, the biotech company.  The stock was also upgraded to a Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Eli Lilly & Co NYSE:LLY) was a notable loser, sliding 1.67% to close at $40.53, correcting from 5% gains in the past one week. The stock made a multi-year high of $41.43 earlier in the session.

Elsewhere, Mylan (NASDAQ:MYL) was one of the biggest gainers within the sector on S&P 500, ending higher by 3.16% at $20.88 after the company received final approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA).

Edwards Lifesciences  (NYSE:EW) continued to move higher and rose 1.60% to $67.36 on high volume. The stock has outperformed recently and rose over 4% in the past week.

Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) was on of the biggest losers on S&P500, sliding 3.46% to $37.16 after the government agency repeatedly denied its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for correspondence between the FDA and Gilead over Truvada.