Healthcare ETFs Are Pulsing Amid Dire Conditions

Health care and related exchange traded funds (ETFs) have remained on a steady beat while the rest of the market has faced challenges.

With the coming election in November, everyone’s wondering what will become of healthcare when either John McCain or Barack Obama takes office.

Conventional wisdom tells us that if Obama takes office, Big Pharma will take a hit in profit margins. But overall, the healthcare sector can be risky to dabble in during these uncertain political times, ponders Gary Gordon for ETF Expert. He rightly points out that investing is never one-dimensional, and you can’t solely blame politics for what happens in pharmaceuticals.

As of now, pharmaceuticals have been coming out ahead, and meds are on an upward trend. Investors may have renewed faith in Democratic leadership, as Obama has been pushing for more affordable health care, rather than universal health coverage. Are investors convinced that Obama and McCain are unlikely to interfere with bottom line drug makers and distributors?

While we don’t know where the markets are going or who’s going to win the election in a few months, what we do know is that the trend in healthcare is up right now, and these three funds are above their trend lines.

• SPDR Pharmaceuticals (XPH), up 0.9% year-to-date; up 6.6% in the last three months
• iShares Dow Jones Pharma Fund (IHE), down 2% year-to-date; up 5.3% in the last three months
• HealthShares Medical Devices (IHI), up 3.1% year-to-date; up 7.9% in the last three months

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