In the pharmaceutical industry, GSK ranks as one of the largest firms by total sales. The company wields its might across several therapeutic classes, including respiratory, cancer, and antiviral, as well as vaccines. GSK uses joint ventures to gain additional scale in certain markets like HIV.

We see what we believe are some great opportunities right now in Healthcare -- and we like the sector overall. Argus Director of Research Jim Kelleher, CFA, recently completed his quarterly sector review and raised Healthcare sector to Over-Weight from Market-Weight. The healthcare environment is undergoing rapid transitions, and we now see an unfolding period of significant promise and opportunity. Our newly-favored stance is based on resumption of deferred medical procedures and significant new quality-of-life drugs and treatments. The category is broad and has underperformed the S&P 500 over the past year. The Healthcare sector ETF (XLV) is up 15% over the past year compared to a gain of 31% for the S&P 500. We see opportunity here to pick up some steady companies, with big brands and solid financials. These companies are science-focused and enhance lives. They are innovators. In our list this week, we look across several subsectors within the Healthcare sector and pull out some leaders we like. These stocks also are included in our Focus List and Model Portfolios, as noted below.

The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury bond yield is near 4.1%. The yield tipped over the key 5% threshold in mid-October, its highest rate in nearly 16 years, before retreating to current levels. The current yield is down almost 20% from the October peak. The retreat is now the interesting part. The Federal Reserve has all but said that it is done raising interest rates for this tightening cycle. Economists and Wall Street are eagerly waiting hints that the Fed's "pivot" might translate into the fed funds rate actually starting to inch down. But Chairman Powell is maintaining a cautious tone. Argus' Fed watcher, Kevin Heal, has remained equally steady with his projection that the first rate cut is not likely until the second half of this year. The U.K. is seeing a similar trend, with its 10-year benchmark bond yield at 3.9%. Sentiment there is also growing that higher rates might be elevated for longer than expected, as the U.K. has experienced rampant inflation over the past few years. Elsewhere, political uncertainty in South Africa and Brazil are keeping those sovereign debt interest rates near 10%. Russian debt is above 12%, up 300 basis points from a year ago, as the conflict with Ukraine drags on. At the other extreme among the biggest nations, yields for Japanese debt remain low at 0.7%. From a portfolio perspective, we would avoid over-weighting foreign-government fixed-income securities at this time, given their volatile yields, sovereign risks, and repatriation issues.

GSK plc, based in Brentford, UK, is a global healthcare company engaged in the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceutical products. The company's leading products include treatments for asthma and COPD; products for HIV infection; and a range of vaccines. The company has active research and development programs in immuno-inflammation, neuroscience, metabolic pathways, ophthalmology, respiratory and infectious diseases, and biopharmaceuticals.