Super Tuesday not so super for drug stocks

Healthcare

The Super Tuesday primaries solidified Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as the likely party nominees for the general election, with both winning seven states. Market analysts are now starting to suggest clients invest around a possible Clinton or Trump presidency.

“Super Tuesday front-runners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton delivered strong enough results to begin focusing on a general election match-up,” FBR’s Benjamin Salisbury wrote in a note to clients Wednesday.

The 2016 election is already impacting drug stocks with the iShares Nasdaq Biotech ETF down over 20 percent this year and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund down around 6 percent. By comparison, the S&P 500, is off a little more than 3 percent.

A Trump or Clinton presidency could stem the growth in drug pricing, or at least use rhetoric to increase social pressure on the companies to do so, according to multiple Wall Street analysts.

[“source -livemint”]