So someone (Miljenko) on SI suggested that the sudden and unexplained biotech downdraft on Tuesday might have been a smart short with advanced access to the bad LLY news.
Now I'm usually never one to posit conspiracy theories or hidden forces moving the market, but this is has at least some plausibility to my eyes. I think there has to be at least a reasonable chance that someone has penetrated the Lilly computer systems, or if not Lilly itself, then a Lilly associated entity such as a CRO or PR firm. If you take as a given (as I do) that state-level hackers can penetrate pretty much any commercial computer system, then the bad result could easily have been known ahead of time to a bunch of foreign entities.
People these days are mostly too smart to go short or long an individual stock based on leaked or hacked information, but this was news that likely would hit the whole sector. So a big HF or even foreign government allied entity (like a sovereign wealth fund or the like) could easily profit in this way.
Thoughts?
