October spook

The spooks have come out early this month thanks to a confluence of high-profile clinical and earnings blowups as well as political headwinds. With biotech indices dipping below what many bankers and investors had hoped was a recently established floor, nobody is willing to predict the length and depth of the slide.

The BioCentury 100 index has shed 8% this month, in lockstep with the iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology ETF (IBB). In contrast, the broader markets are down less than 2% in October...