Nanotechnology Markets

The nanotechnology sector continues to grow faster, even if it's just an increase on R&D spending, but at least we aren't seeing too much venture capital being spent like we saw back in 99 with the dotcom bubble.

Let's hope we see some serious research from the serious money these companies are receiving.

Nanotechnology market expected to surpass $1,000 billion by end 2010

To facilitate R&D, government has increased nanotechnology spending to over $3 billion per annum. At the same time, the venture capitalists have also increased their investments six times over the previous two years. For instance, companies like Intel [profile], IBM [profile], DuPont [profile], 3M [profile], General Electric [profile], Samsung [profile] and Hitachi [profile] have spent $3.8 billion in 2004. This has been divided into 46% by nanotechnology companies in North America, 36% by Asian companies, 17% by European companies and about 1% by rest of the world. The National Nanotechnology Initiative has declared a fund of $982 million for nanotechnology R&D for 2006.

Foresight Nanotech Institute Launches Nanotechnology Roadmap

The Index is back into an uptrend and the last two days were correction moves that could signal a good reentry point for longterm longs.
Nanovax is looking much less overbought now, it closed above the 5 Dollar mark this week but it's trading below $4 now.


Remember that there's a Fed interest rate decision on November 1 and possibly some gains while we are leaving a typically troubled month like October.

NanoVax (NVAX) - Going Higher

Nanovax just keeps going higher with all the Bird Flu and Health Issues.
Probably not nanotech related but still the "bluechip" of the nanotech index.



(B 17Oct $2.92) +89.38% $5.53

Since I've been tracking this stock, the performance just keeps going up on record volumes, even if this is just short term speculation, just remember that the philosophy of this blog is for long term 'investments' on the major titles of this index.

NNZ is being influenced by the health stocks in its list, while many other nano related companies are still dormant, this short uptrend will probably take us to the 200 point resistance:



It's probably better to stay with the long term trades and probably stay away from any new entries for now. But it really all depends on your trading strategy and time frame.

Sideways movements

The Nanotech index is still trapped in a sideways movement.
Until we have a technical Breakout to one side, there wont be much to report, and the stocks I'm tracking aren't doing much(NVAX, ACCL, FLML)



We will probably see some action next week with the Earnings season.

Three interesting articles on the Responsible Nanotechnology Blog:

Nanofactory Truck Design

Beyond the Nanotech Super Soldier

Singularity Economics

ACCL & FLML

Two nanotech related stocks that are on the top5 "heavy-weights" of the Merrill Lynch Nanotechnology Index. Remember that all of these emerging companies have SmallCaps and are highly volatile.

Pharmacopeia Inc (ACCL)
Flamel Technologies Ads (FLML)

Nanovax is doing great, even with all the recent losses on the S&P, and we should see a continuation of this recent uptrend move on these particular stocks.

The midterm uptrend on these charts should keep these stocks up if everything goes well until the end of this year. While these stocks might look bullish, other stocks in the nanotech group are still in "Bear mode" since last year.

Nanovax and the Nanotech Index

Nanovax keeps going higher on more speculative moves.

The long term investor must know this is normal in smallcaps and should be in it for the long term.
We will track the performance of Nanovax from now on, with the average price of today ($2.92). It's the heavy weight in the $NNZ (nanotech index) and should be the individual benchmark stock for this whole index.

Going up today on heavy volume, the hype and nanotech bubble might just begin here:


Watch out for a Golden Crossover between the 50 and 200 day simple moving averages, they should attract more money into the stock.

The Index is in a short term uptrend and closed on top of the downtrend line:


This week I'll check some charts of other stocks listed on this index, happy trading!

Novavax (NVAX)

Nanovax with a market cap of only 192.7M should be considered a Micro Cap stock (although Nano Cap would sound nicer...) and a very volatile stock.

It's the most weighted stock in the Merrill Lynch Nanotech Index and it deserves a look at the chart since it started a small uptrend.

The 2 year chart shows a reversal. After the top in October 2003 the stock just kept going down until it hit it's lowest low in August of this year.


I'm looking for a breakout above the 2.6/2.8 Dollar price for a possible entry. The 50 day simple moving average is getting closer to a "Golden crossover" with the 200 day S.M.A.


Beware of the volatility and try to be focused on the long term since this is a grow stock in a growing sector. The best gains are not in speculative short term trades.

Here is the top5 weights in the Nanotech Index:

Company Name Symbol % Weighting
Novavax Inc NVAX 6.20%
Flamel Technologies Ads FLML 4.66%
Pharmacopeia Inc ACCL 4.59%
Immunicon Corp IMMC 4.29%
Tegal Corp TGAL 4.04%

You can check the rest here: ASE: NNZ Components

Molecular manufacturing

The Responsible Nanotechnology Blog is showing yet another interesting and informative read regarding Molecular Manufacturing. Here is a little snippet:

No one has to 'prove' that molecular manufacturing can work; just look in the mirror. Nature has already figured out how to bring molecules together to make machines, and how to use those machines to build or support other machines resulting in a magnificently complex and powerful end product -- You.

Keep reading about Molecular Manufacturing.

Small Times reports new research on more efficient plastic solar cell and I'm trying to find a good way to invest on this technology:
Researchers increase plastic solar cell efficiency

And now back to the markets...

The Merrill Lynch Nanotech Index seems to be breaking the 180 point horizontal support, but not with much conviction (it didn't make new lower lows from the last 6th October low).


While we are on this Bearish trend, we should keep away from nanotechnology buys, and wait for a good reversal to start thinking about getting long. Until then let's just leave the market do it's proper undervalue of the nanotech industry ;)

Horizontal Supports on the Nano tech Index

The Markets started a more aggressive correction in these last days.
The Nanotech Index is still behind the selling pressure of a midterm downtrend and now facing an important support level in the 180 points.



This support was tested a couple months ago and it should give some strength to the Bull's side in hopes that will stop this downtrend.
The market was not kind to many nanotech stocks in this index, and we should keep away from many of them, but there are still some of these stocks that managed to maintain some gains in the last months.

I've found only 3 good bullish looking charts but be careful of the Nano Bear in any of these Small Caps: EMKR, MTSC, WEDX

Keep watching the main indexes and when they see new highs, the nanotech sector should keep up with the rest of the market.

Meanwhile, the Responsible Nanotechnology Blog keeps putting out some interesting articles, checkout: New Technical Information and Nanotech happiness?

Recent Gains

The Nanotech Index is showing some recent gains, probably just an up swing in the short term, but should be interesting to see it's reaction while it approaches the 50 and 200 day moving averages.

More updates later...