Why Major Pharmaceutical Stocks Tumbled on Tuesday

Many investor eyes were on the pharmaceutical industry on Tuesday, and not necessarily for the right reasons. The Trump administration's promised tariffs were set to go into effect the following day, and the sector has been mentioned as a key area of focus for these.

So despite scattered items of good news throughout the industry that day, the market was generally wary of pharma titles and stayed away. Major stocks in the sector took notable hits, including but not at all limited to (NYSE: PFE), Merck (NYSE: MRK), and Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY). The trio closed the day down a respective 3.2%, 2.9%, and 2.7% in price.

The market might have been better able to swallow the looming tariffs if there weren't so much uncertainty about them. As of late afternoon Tuesday, it was still unclear how much the U.S. would levy foreign manufacturers of medicines. While speculation has been rife and the president has said these would be 25%, a giant question mark was hanging over the matter.

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Source Fool.com