Healthcare stocks in the S&P 500 were headed for their worst week since 2020 on Friday.
President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate vaccine skeptic RFK Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has sent a shudder through the sector.
According to Dow Jones Market Data, it was down 5.3% so far this week, on track for the worst showing since October 2020.
Put option volumes tied to the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF soared on Thursday after news of Trump’s plans to nominate the controversial vaccine skeptic first broke. The number of bearish contracts changing hands hit 56,455, up from just 2,229 the day before, according to FactSet data.
Shares of vaccine makers BioNTech, Novavax Inc. and Moderna Inc. also slumped on the news.
They continued to slide on Friday, as did shares of other health-care names Shares of Eli Lilly & Co. were down more than 3% in recent trade, on track for back-to-back 3% declines.
Other drugmakers were sharply lower as well in recent trade.
source: marketwatch.com/stock-market-today-dow-futures-point-to-second-day-of-losses-after-powell
