What’s happening: Shares of Johnson & Johnson rose on Tuesday, after the company released results for the third quarter.
What happened: The pharmaceutical giant reported stronger-than-expected sales and earnings for the latest quarter.
Although Johnson & Johnson raised its sales forecast for 2024, it slashed the earnings guidance.
How were the results: The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company reported single-digit growth in sales for the third quarter.
Why it matters: Strong sales of oncology drugs helped Johnson & Johnson top market expectations.
J&J’s cancer cell therapy, Carvykti, reported sales of $286 million, up approximately 87.6% year-over-year.
Innovative Medicine sales rose 4.9% to $14.58 billion. while sales of multiple myeloma treatment, Darzalex, grew by 22.9% to $3.02 billion.
Sales of the medical devices unit climbed 5.8% to $7.9 billion. However, sales of psoriasis drug Stelara declined 5.7% to $2.68 billion.
“During the quarter, we advanced our pipeline with regulatory approvals for TREMFYA and RYBREVANT, submitted an IDE for our general surgery robotic system, OTTAVA, and launched VELYS Spine and Shockwave E8 IVL Catheter, further strengthening our confidence in our near-and long-term growth targets,” CEO Joaquin Duato said.
The company updated its adjusted earnings forecast for 2024 to reflect an improvement in its performance, along with the V-Wave acquisition. However, costs related to the acquisition more than offset this benefit, resulting in management lowering their adjusted earnings forecast to $9.88-$9.98 per share, from their previous projection of $9.97-$10.07 per share.
Management raised their operational sales guidance slightly, to a range of $89.4 billion to $89.8 billion, from their previous forecast of $89.2 billion to $89.6 billion.
How shares responded: Johnson & Johnson’s shares gained 1.6% to close at $164.10 on Tuesday, following the release of quarterly results. The stock has added around 11% over the past six months.
What to watch: Investors will continue monitoring sales of the company’s cancer drugs, which are expected to provide a further boost to overall results ahead.
Context: The CAD/USD forex pair rose on Tuesday, as investors monitored the latest inflation data.
Details: Data released on Tuesday showed Canada’s annual inflation rate easing more than projected to 1.6% in September, from 2% in the previous month. With this, the inflation rate eased to its lowest level since February 2021 and came in better than market expectations of 1.9%.
The news triggered speculations of the Bank of Canada becoming more aggressive with its monetary policy.
Traders now widely expect the BoC to cut interest rates by 50 basis points (bps) next week. Canada’s central bank has lowered rates by 25 bps at each of its previous three meetings.
Canada reported a decline in wholesale sales of 0.6% to $81.9 billion in August, which came in better than forecasts of a 1.1% decline. Last week the country reported higher-than-expected job adds for September and a decline in the unemployment rate to 6.5%.
Weakness in the US dollar also lent support to the CAD/USD forex pair. The US dollar index, which measures the greenback’s performance versus a basket of major peers, edged lower to 103.26 on Tuesday.
A sharp decline in the price of crude oil, one of Canada’s major exports, limited the overall gains for the loonie. WTI crude oil prices dipped $3.25 to settle at $70.58 per barrel on Tuesday.
The CAD/USD forex pair rose slightly to 1.3776 on Tuesday. The S&P/TSX Composite Index slipped 0.13% to close at 24,439.08.
What to watch: Investors await the release of economic data on housing starts, manufacturing sales and new motor vehicle sales from Canada today. Housing starts in Canada, which declined by 22.3% to 217,405 units in August, are expected to increase to 240,000 in September.
Analysts expect manufacturing sales in Canada to decline by 1.5% in August, compared to a 1.4% gain in July. Car registrations are projected to decrease to 162,000 units in August, from 168,791 units in the previous month.
Other Markets: European indices closed lower on Tuesday, with the FTSE 100, DAX 40, CAC 40 and STOXX Europe 600 Index down by 0.52%, 0.11%, 1.05% and 0.80%, respectively.
Russia said its military forces had launched a drone attack on Kyiv. The news sent the RUB/USD pair higher in forex trading this morning.
Australia’s Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Economic Index came in almost flat in September, exerting slight pressure on the AUD/USD forex pair.
South Korea’s unemployment rate rose to 2.5% in September, from a one-year low of 2.4% in August. However, the number of unemployed persons declining by 5.9% year-over-year to 622,000 sent the KRW/USD pair higher in forex trading this morning.
New Zealand’s Consumer Price Index rose by 0.6% in the third quarter, compared to a 0.4% increase in the June quarter, which exerted pressure on the NZD/USD forex pair.
Israel’s annual inflation rate eased to 3.5% in September, from a 10-month high of 3.6% in the previous month. Despite this, inflation remaining higher than the government’s target range of 1% to 3% sent the ILS/USD pair lower in forex trading this morning.
UK’s inflation rate, PPI input, producer price inflation and retail price index, Indonesia’s loan growth and Bank of Indonesia’s interest rate decision, Italy’s inflation rate, South Africa’s retail sales, US MBA mortgage applications, export prices, import prices and API crude oil stocks change, India’s money supply M3 and balance of trade, as well as Russia’s producer price inflation.