As anyone with a respiratory system will tell you, flu season isn’t fun. However, as any investor holding pharmacy and flu-related, coughing-sniffling remedy stocks will tell you it’s one of the best times of the year.
For the 2024–2025 flu season, the CDC’s March 2026 summary estimated 51 million illnesses, 710,000 hospitalizations, and 45,000 deaths in the United States. For 2025–2026, numbers covering October 1 through May 23 ranged from 32 million to 57 million illnesses, 390,000 to 800,000 hospitalizations, and 19,000 to 60,000 deaths.
With the 2026–2027 flu season, it’s now getting underway. At the moment, the CDC reported that flu activity remained low but was increasing in many parts of the country, particularly along the West Coast.
As noted by Prevention, “I’m surprised that it’s happening earlier this year,” says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York. “We had a couple of bad back-to-back flu seasons, and people developed immunity that should still offer some protection—but this is happening at least four weeks earlier than usual.”
So, how can investors trade flu season?
One way is to invest in the Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3x Shares ETF
The Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3x Shares ETF (NYSEARCA: LABU), which seeks 300% of the performance of the S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index, does hold flu stocks, such as Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA). And when market commentary highlights that rising flu or respiratory illness cases, it can draw short-term attention to the ETF.
It also has a history of running. In 2022, it ran from about $147 in October to a high of $181 by February. In 2023, it ran from $64 to about $132. In 2024, it ran from about $119 to $150. In 2025, it ran from about $93 to a high of $182.
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