Healthcare stocks may struggle to gain momentum as Democrats prepare to take over Congress.
Jared Holz, who covers healthcare for Mizuho, says the outlook for the sector is uncertain because of likely gridlock between lawmakers.
“The next couple of years I really can’t see too much happening,” the firm’s sector specialist told CNBC’s “Fast Money” on Wednesday. “I’m not sure you want to own everything, but you can pick and choose the names… Pharma is trading more expensive than tech for the first time in 20 years. So, I backed away from pharma. I would look at medtech.”
The State Street Health Care Select ETF (XLV) jumped 3% a day after Election Day.
“You had this very weird situation where typically you wouldn’t have all of these categories work in tandem, and they did. So, I think some things just a little bit off,” said Holz, a day before healthcare got swept up in Thursday’s Wall Street sell-off.
According to Holz, healthcare’s real booster shot may come if a Democrat wins the White House in 2028.
“Then I think you see some of the Trump strategies rolled back. That’s where I think healthcare could actually perform well,” said Holz, who added it hinges on Democrats retaining the Senate and House.
For investors who are long on healthcare, Holz said each subsector should be treated differently.
“Can we get some of the regulation that has taken place over the past couple of years and overturn that over the near term? I don’t necessarily believe so,” Holz said. “But if you do, then you probably want to be long some of these medical device stocks that are at or near multi-year lows.”
The State Street Health Care Select ETF ended virtually flat this week. It’s up around 32% since President Trump took office in January 2025 — beating the S&P 500 by almost 9 percentage points.