Novartis's third setback in a week, and the read-across that followed it
Novartis fell 14% after its del-desiran trial missed its primary endpoint — the third pipeline setback inside a week — and dragged Amgen down 10% on read-across in the same drug class, pulling the Dow well below the S&P and Nasdaq. Intel rallied 9% on an analyst upgrade and a reported price hike. Yields kept firming, and Casey's became the eighth name this earnings season to beat and fall anyway.
- S&P 500
- −0.58%
- Dow
- −1.18%
- Nasdaq 100
- −0.12%
- VIX
- 15.72+2.8%
- 2-year
- 4.39%+2bp
Novartis's third setback in a week
NVS −13.9%Del-desiran's Phase III HARBOR trial missed its primary endpoint — hand-opening time versus placebo — in myotonic dystrophy type 1, though Novartis says the secondary and exploratory data showed some clinical activity and it will engage regulators on next steps. The company itself calls this a data update, not a failure, but the market read it as the third pipeline disappointment inside a week, after a paused cell-therapy programme and a separate cardiovascular trial miss. NVS fell 13.93%, its steepest daily drop in years. A position in the name was opened in the book today.
The read-across dragged the whole Dow down
AMGN −10.1%Amgen fell 10.08% on nothing of its own — the failed drug in the second setback, pelacarsen, targets the same lipoprotein(a) pathway as an Amgen programme, and the market priced the class risk rather than waiting for Amgen's own data. With Johnson & Johnson also down 2.22%, healthcare weight is most of why the Dow fell 1.18% against a 0.58% S&P and a Nasdaq 100 that was flat.
Intel rallied on an upgrade and a price signal
INTC +9.1%Northland Securities moved Intel to Outperform with a $120 target, citing turnaround progress and tight server CPU supply. A separate report has the company raising PC processor prices roughly 10%, which would be the third such increase this year. Neither is a company confirmation — the analyst call is one desk's view and the pricing report is unconfirmed by Intel — but the stock closed up 9.05% on the combination. The book's INTC position closed today, for +$421.
Yields kept firming
2-yr 4.39% · 10s2s 41bpThe two-year rose 2bp to 4.39%, the five 3bp, the ten 2bp, the thirty 1bp — a small, parallel continuation of the drift since Warsh rather than a fresh move. 10s2s sits at 41bp. (Treasury)
Casey's became the eighth beat-and-fall
CASY −10.5%EPS of $7.37 against a $6.60 estimate, revenue up 24.4%, inside same-store sales up 3.2% — and full-year guidance reaffirmed unchanged, not even cut. The stock fell more than 10% in after-hours trading regardless. Marvell, MongoDB, Credo, Palo Alto, NetApp, Broadcom and Guidewire all did the same thing over the past two weeks; Casey's just joined the list.