4Q Financial Markets Preview: Bellwether's ball

For only the second time since 2000, the BioCentury 100 index has matched or beaten the S&P 500 for four consecutive quarters, with most of the gains driven by the bellwether names. Buysiders are cautiously optimistic the sector will benefit from investors' increased appetite for beta, which might convince buyers not to consolidate their gains during a quarter with relatively few major catalysts.

Even the smaller cap biotechs could benefit, as investors look to reinvest cash from recent takeouts like Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Human Genome Sciences Inc. and Pharmasset Inc., and bigger companies with robust valuations but thin pipelines look to stock up via M&A...