What’s Ailing The Market?
Stocks are treading lower after another slate of bearish
news, this time from the drug sector. Merck
(
MRK |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is the market’s bitter
pill today, warning that it will miss Q2 earnings and acting as the biggest
downer on the blue chips.Â
The Dow is down 89 at 10,626, the Nasdaq is down 3.82 to
2054.73, and the S&P 500 is down 9.63 to 1227.21.
Merck also said sales of its arthritis and acute
pain medicine, Vioxx, would not meet expectations. The drug market is the
biggest loser on both the Dow and S&P 100
(
OEX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). Merck is down 5.70 at
68.75.
Other drug stocks are ailing the market as well. Pfizer
(
PFE |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating)
is down 4% after agreeing to lower the cost of products prescribed to Medicare
patients in Florida.Â
Schering-Plough
(
SGP |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) is down 8% after saying the FDA
cited it for manufacturing problems.Â
On the upside, networkers are leading the market higher
on an upgrade of JDS Uniphase
(
JDSU |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating). A Wit SoundView Analyst said the
demand for network “capacity” continues go grow, despite pessimism for
the sector. JDSU dipped below $10 for three hours on Wednesday. The biggest
maker of fiber optic gear is up 1.18 at 12.10.
Shares of semiconductors
(
SOX |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) are also providing
buoyancy to technology shares. Applied Materials
(
AMAT |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating), +2.04 to 49.74,
Novellus
(
NVLS |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.95 to 52.32, and Teradyne
(
TER |
Quote |
Chart |
News |
PowerRating) +1.47 to 35.75 are
the leaders from this sector.