The Long View of Merck

Drug giant Merck is up nicely this removing on news of FDA accepting the firm's application for a speedy review of its lung cancer therapy drug. 

MRK, like other healthcare titans ABBV LLY PFE, has been dead money, on the whole for roughly fifteen years, giving new meaning to the phrase "paid to wait" with the firm's dividend payments to shareholders. 

At issue now is whether MRK may finally be breaking out, beyond any single drug in its pipeline. 

On the monthly chart, below, you can see that Merck is currently toying with the idea of breaking well-defined resistance (light blue line) which, again, trumps any single drug. A breakout here opens the door for a run back to those old highs from the turn of the century. 

Indeed, specific healthcare plays have been at the forefront of our analysis headed into 2017 for Members, in terms of ferreting out specific themes which may be ripe to outperform. And drug giants like MRK, which have largely been asleep for a long while, may represent good value here to wake up throughout the year.