Winners & Losers From Trump's State Of The Union Address
Zacks Investment Research | Feb 06, 2019 06:08AM ET
The theme of President Donald Trump’s second annual State of the Union address was “choosing greatness,” per an official briefing delivered last Friday. During the longest such speech on record, Trump issued a clarion call for unity, decrying the “ridiculous partisan investigations” and the “politics of revenge.”
This divisive climate, he felt, has the potential to harm the “economic miracle” the United States is currently experiencing. Trump’s speech touched on several issues, but its implication for American businesses was significant.
Defense, energy and infrastructure are the key winners from this speech, with Trump making several references to these sectors. But his references to drug pricing meant there was trouble ahead for big pharma.
Trump also remained steadfast about his protectionist agenda, hinting that there may be trouble in store for tech and manufacturing companies.
Possible Losers
Big Pharma
There were two clear references to prohibitive drug pricing in Trump’s prepared speech. The President said most elected representatives have a number of issues in common, which include cutting “the price of healthcare and prescription drugs.”
Later in his speech, Trump said that it was “unacceptable that Americans pay vastly more than people in other countries for the exact same drugs.” Clearly, the likes of Merck (NYSE:MRK) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) will be far from pleased to hear this.
Last week, powerful Congress committees held hearings on the issue. And on Monday, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee invited seven major pharma firms for hearings on the same issue.
This includes the likes of Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) , Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) as well as Merck and Pfizer. Bristol-Myers has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see Zacks Investment Research
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