Stocks were mixed after a negative development on the Covid-19 vaccine front.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 120 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 was little changed, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.6%.
The Food and Drug Administration halted the use of Johnson & Johnson’s (ticker: JNJ) Covid-19 vaccine, which has been shown to produce rare blood clots in patients. This means those doses will not be given for some time and poses some threat—albeit a limited one—to the speed of the reopening process. Johnson & Johnson shares were down more than 2%.
Separately, the consumer-price index rose 0.6% in March from February, above expectations.
Here were some notable stock movers:
Moderna (MRNA) shares rose almost 8%, as the halting of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine potentially means greater market share for Moderna.
Shares of NovoCure (NVCR) rose 86% after the company gave an update on Phase 3 of its trial for a cancer treatment.
FedEx (FDX) shares were up 1% after KeyBanc Capital Markets upgraded the stock to Overweight from Sectorweight.
JetBlue (JBLU) shares fell 1% even after Susquehanna upgraded the stock to Positive from Neutral. Stocks tied to reopenings were suffering Tuesday as a result of the J&J news.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY) shares rose almost 1% after Truist upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold.
Write to Jacob Sonenshine at [email protected]
