Power Alley: Pharma Stocks JUMP UP, ~3% To ~5% -- On The Day That Tangerine 2.0 Uses His Sharpie (Purportedly) To... "Drop Prices By 59%"?! Hah!

Sure -- there is a very slim chance he gets something meaningful done, on pharma pricing. But it is a vanishingly-slim chance.

He just this morning signed an unlawful solo executive order / Sharpie scribble -- telling big pharma to bring US retail drug prices "into line" with EU pricing. It is crystal clear this is not something he can achieve alone -- both as a matter of law, and of political will-power. He needs the might of Congressional acts, at a minimum. And he will never get it (see at right; lobby efforts -- in Congress, last year).

The savvy traders at Wall and Broad then gleefully. . . laughed at his impotence. That is my take. All major pharma names were trading up, all day. The smart money knows. . . he is already an utterly lame duck. So the traders rejoice -- threats to pharma from this nincompoop. . . are at an end, as a practical matter. Here's the latest:

. . .Pharmaceutical stocks like Pfizer Inc., Amgen Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly & Co., and Merck & Co. Inc. jumped on Monday, after US markets opened after Trump's announcement.

Pharma giant, Pfizer's shares jumped 3.3 per cent to hit the intraday high of $23.02 as of the early Wall Street session. The stock is now trading 2.92 per cent higher at $22.94 in Monday's market, compared to $22.28 in the previous US market close. . . .

And so -- his incompetence (just as in 2017-19) is once again very good news for drug-makers and bioscience companies. Onward, grinning --[and, I'll get Q1 2025 lobby spending summaries out this week, to be certain.]

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