Pummeling the microcaps

If there's a silver lining to biotech's performance in the third quarter, it's that a 12% decline in the BioCentury 100 made it the second best performer of the key equity indexes tracked by BioCentury in the 13-week period. Biotech "outperformed" the NASDAQ Composite, the Dow Jones Industrials, and the S&P 500, each of which fell at least 18% on the quarter. Only the pharma group outperformed the sector (see "Everyone Sees Red").

But the year-to-date performance underscores that biotech remains in a deep funk. The BioCentury 100 is off an uncool 50% on the year. By comparison, the NASDAQ, which fell 20% on the quarter, is down only 40% on the year. Biotech's performance in Europe remains ugly, too: In the third quarter, the BioCentury London Index shed 42%, putting it down 65% on the year. The BioCentury Europe Index also is down 65% on the year, after falling 45% on the quarter...