Drug stocks took a hit on Thursday after reports that President Trump plans to issue some sort of executive order that would lower or control drug prices. According to Bloomberg, top administration health and budget officials will meet Friday to discuss the issue, which also caught the attention of the Democratic presidential candidates during the campaign. The SPDR S&P Biotech fund fell 1.36 percent and the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF fell 0.77 percent, while high-flying biotech companies like Sarepta Therapeutics fell 2.3 percent.
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Both classes of Alphabet’s stock fell nearly 1 percent after its rating was downgraded by investment bank Canaccord Genuity, according to published reports. It cited three reasons for the downgrade. It believes that the company will have a tough time matching the kind of growth it enjoyed in the past two years from mobile search and YouTube. It also thinks gross margin estimates are too high and its price-to-earnings multiple of 24 is “expensive by historical standards.”
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Corvex Management increased its stake in Energen nearly five-fold, to nearly 6.4 million shares, or 6.6 percent of the total outstanding shares of the oil and gas exploration and production company.
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Coatue Management participated in the most recent, $150 million financing of the Series E fund-raising round of Careem, a ride-sharing company that competes with Uber Technologies. The company operates in 80 cities in the Middle East.
