Vaccine Maker Stocks Slump After RFK Jr. Nominated to Lead Health Department

54 minutes ago

Shares of several vaccine makers were down Friday following the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services.

Kennedy said following his nomination that he looks forward to "working with the more than 80,000 employees at HHS to free the agencies from the smothering cloud of corporate capture."

The former presidential candidate spent his career as an environmental lawyer before entering the "anti-vaccination" movement around 2005, according to The New York Times. Kennedy has promoted the long-debunked theory that vaccines cause autism, and the Times reported that organizations Kennedy has started have promoted misleading or disproven theories about harmful effects of vaccines.

The stocks of several pharmaceutical companies were down Friday including Pfizer (PFE), Eli Lilly (LLY), and Novavax (NVAX), among others.

The declines extended to international companies that operate in the U.S. market, including AstraZeneca (AZN), BioNTech (BNTX), and weight-loss drug giant Novo Nordisk (NVO).

-Aaron McDade

Palantir Stock Surges as It Shifts Listing to Nasdaq

2 hr 5 min ago

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) shares jumped Friday after the analytics software provider said it is shifting its listing to the Nasdaq from the New York Stock Exchange.

The company, a retail investor favorite, said it will transfer the listing of its Class A common shares to the Nasdaq Global Select Market, with trading set to start on Nov. 26. Its common shares will continue to trade under the "PLTR" symbol, it said.

"Upon transferring, Palantir anticipates meeting the eligibility requirements of the Nasdaq-100 Index," the company said.

The Nasdaq 100 is a collection of the 100 largest, most actively traded companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange and its components include the world’s three largest companies by market capitalization: Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Nvidia (NVDA), the lynchpin of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. 

The index is tracked by the Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ), one of the largest and most actively traded exchange-traded funds in the U.S.

Palantir shares surged 9% Friday morning. They started 2024 at $16.58 each and are now trading around $64.80 each.

-Nisha Gopalan

Market Less Certain That Fed Will Cut Rates Again in December

3 hr 13 min ago

Expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again in December have fallen as data shows continued strength in the economy and after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank would move cautiously as it eases monetary policy.

Market participants are now pricing in a 55% likelihood that the Fed will cut its benchmark rate at its policy meeting next month, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, which forecasts interest rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data, That's down from the 72% chance that was being priced in yesterday, ahead of Powell's comments.

The Fed cut the influential fed funds rate by a quarter percentage point last week. That followed a half-point cut in September, when the Fed reduced rates for the first time in four years as inflation continued moving closer to the central bank's target and the labor market showed signs of weakness.

Disney Extends Post-Earnings Surge—Watch These Levels

3 hr 40 min ago

Disney (DIS) shares were moving higher in early trading Friday, adding to the big gains recorded yesterday after the entertainment giant topped Wall Street’s quarterly estimates and provided an upbeat long-term outlook.

The stock was up 3.5% at $113 about half an hour after the opening bell.

The stock broke out above a pennant pattern last week, with upside momentum accelerating this week after the company's better-than-expected quarterly results.

Investors should watch key overhead levels on Disney's chart around $123, $137, and $153, while monitoring a major support area near $85.

Read the full technical analysis piece here.

–Timothy Smith

Major Indexes on Track to Post Weekly Losses

4 hr 23 min ago

The S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average are on pace record weekly losses, as the post-election rally that pushed major indexes to record highs loses steam.

On Monday, the S&P 500 closed above 6,000 and the Dow finished above 44,000 for the first time ever. Stocks have slumped since then, as the chart below shows.

For the Dow and S&P 500, this would mark the third week of the last four that the indexes have posted weekly losses.

Major Index Stock Futures Point to Lower Open

4 hr 37 min ago

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.4%.

S&P 500 futures were down 0.5%.

Nasdaq 100 futures were off 0.9%.

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1. X. "@RobertKennedyJr, 6:07 p.m. ET, Nov. 14, 2024."

2. The New York Times. "Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Soon to Announce White House Run, Sows Doubts About Vaccines."

3. The New York Times. "Fluoride, Vaccines, Obamacare: What to Know About Trump’s Health Statements."

4. Palantir. “Palantir Announces Transfer of Stock Exchange Listing to Nasdaq.”

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