Stock market today: Wall Street tumbles as the “Trump bump” fades and vaccine makers sink
U.S. stocks fell to their worst loss since Election Day as the boost that Wall Street got from last week’s victory for Donald Trump and a cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve kept fading
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks tumbled Friday as the “Trump bump” that Wall Street got from last week’s presidential election, along with a cut to interest rates by the Federal Reserve, kept fading.
The S&P 500 dropped 1.3% for its worst day since before Election Day to close out a losing week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 305 points, or 0.7%, and the Nasdaq composite sank 2.2%.
Makers of vaccines helped drag the market down after President-elect Donald Trump said he wants Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent anti-vaccine activist, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Moderna tumbled 7.3%, and Pfizer fell 4.7% amid concerns about a possible hit to profits.
Kennedy still needs confirmation from the Senate to get the job, and some analysts are skeptical about his chances. “However, if Kennedy is confirmed, it is hard to bookend risks for investors as his views are so outside the traditional Republican health policy orthodoxy,” Raymond James analyst Chris Meekins wrote in a research note. Meekins is a former deputy assistant secretary at the department known as HHS.
