Shares of some big drugmakers advanced above broader indexes Friday as Wall Street started sorting out President Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcement.
The president said late Thursday that he would place 100% import taxes on branded or patented pharmaceuticals starting Oct. 1, but those tariffs would not apply to companies building U.S. manufacturing plants. He defined that as either “breaking ground” or being “under construction.”
Several big drugmakers like Merck & Co. Inc., Eli Lilly and Co. and Johnson & Johnson have announced U.S. expansion plans.
Trump has talked about pharmaceutical tariffs for months, but he has said he would delay them for a year or a year and a half to give companies time to stockpile medicines here and shift manufacturing.
Analysts have said companies started stockpiling medicines in the U.S. earlier this year.
Jefferies analyst Akash Tewari said in a research note that Thursday’s announcement shouldn’t have a material impact on the big drugmakers, given their construction plans.
Brand-name drug companies also have fat profit margins that can provide some flexibility to make investments and absorb tariff costs. Manufacturers of cheaper generic drugs, which were not mentioned in Thursday’s announcement, do not. Generics account for most U.S. prescriptions.
David Risinger of Leerink Partners said smaller drugmakers may be vulnerable to the new taxes, although he noted that it was hard to predict which ones.
He said several questions remain unanswered after Thursday’s announcement. Those include whether the action will survive legal challenges and how the phrases “breaking ground” and “under construction” are defined for tariff enforcement.
Risinger also questioned whether the new taxes might be a negotiating tactic tied to an investigation the administration launched in the spring over how importing drugs and their ingredients affects national security.
Shares of Merck, Lilly and J&J all rose less than 1% in midday trading Friday, slightly higher than the S&P 500 index.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
Europeans upset with Elon Musk still aren’t buying his electric cars, adding to a long losing streak for his company.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
