Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell $2.33, or 9.3%, to settle at $22.76 a barrel Thursday. Brent crude oil, the international standard, fell $1.36, or 4.1%, to $31.48 a barrel.
Wholesale gasoline was little changed at 68 cents a gallon. Heating oil fell 4 cents to 97 cents a gallon. Natural gas fell 5 cents to $1.73 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Gold rose $68.50 to $1,752.80 an ounce, silver rose 85 cents to $16.05 an ounce and copper was little changed at $2.26 a pound.
The dollar fell to 108.48 Japanese yen from 108.84 yen. The euro rose to $1.0923 from $1.0862.
8 Biotech Stocks to Buy and Hold in 2020
Biotech stocks are far from a sure thing. However, towards the end of 2019 several stocks in the sector got a nice lift based on promising new drugs in their pipelines. One of the key ways to measure any biotech stocks is the depth of its pipeline. When a biotech company issues a drug, its stock typically gets a lift because, for a brief period of time, the company has exclusive rights to that stock.
But those rights only last for a period of time. And at that point, generic equivalents can enter the market. Since generic labels typically bring prices down, it can be harmful to the stock unless they have a continuous stream of drugs coming to the market.
And in 2020, the story of biotech companies has been the coronavirus. Several of the leading biotech firms are working either individually or in tandem with other firms to develop vaccines or antiviral therapies to help treat and eventually blunt the spread of the virus which remains foreign to our bodies.
So while a volatile market is typically a clue to stay away from biotech stocks, now may be an ideal time to jump into this sector. And we’ve identified 8 stocks that you can buy today and hold until the end of the year.
View the "8 Biotech Stocks to Buy and Hold in 2020".
