{"id":65730,"date":"2026-07-31T08:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/novo-nordisk-plunges-11-on-trial-failure-abbvie-beats-estimates-as-fed-dissent-grows\/65730\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T08:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:08:14","slug":"novo-nordisk-plunges-11-on-trial-failure-abbvie-beats-estimates-as-fed-dissent-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/novo-nordisk-plunges-11-on-trial-failure-abbvie-beats-estimates-as-fed-dissent-grows\/65730\/","title":{"rendered":"Novo Nordisk Plunges 11% on Trial Failure; AbbVie Beats Estimates as Fed Dissent Grows"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Novo Nordisk (<a href=\"\/stock\/NVO\">NVO<\/a>) shares plummeted 11%<\/strong> after its Phase 3 <strong>ZEUS trial<\/strong> for ziltivekimab failed to reduce major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), despite hitting biological targets.<\/li>\n<li><strong>AbbVie (<a href=\"\/stock\/ABBV\">ABBV<\/a>) delivered a double beat<\/strong> in Q2 2026 with <strong>adjusted EPS of $3.65<\/strong> and revenue of <strong>$16.99 billion<\/strong>, driven by explosive growth in its immunology and neuroscience portfolios.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Federal Reserve official Neel Kashkari<\/strong> formally dissented at the July FOMC meeting, revealing he preferred a <strong>0.25% rate hike<\/strong> rather than the decision to hold rates steady.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill<\/strong> warned that risks to headline inflation remain firmly to the <strong>upside<\/strong>, citing persistent energy price volatility and &quot;insidious&quot; second-round effects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Novo Nordisk Faces Major Pipeline Setback<\/h2>\n<p>Novo Nordisk (<a href=\"\/stock\/NVO\">NVO<\/a>) saw its market value crater on Friday morning, with shares dropping as much as <strong>11%<\/strong> following the failure of its late-stage <strong>ZEUS trial<\/strong>. The study, which evaluated the experimental drug <strong>ziltivekimab<\/strong> in over 6,300 patients with cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease, failed to show a significant reduction in heart attacks, strokes, or cardiovascular death compared to a placebo.<\/p>\n<p>The trial results were particularly disappointing because the drug successfully inhibited the <strong>IL-6 pathway<\/strong> and reduced inflammation markers as intended. However, this biological activity did not translate into clinical benefits, resulting in a <strong>hazard ratio of 0.99<\/strong>. The company confirmed it will record a <strong>non-cash impairment charge<\/strong> in Q3 2026 related to the program, though it maintained its full-year operating profit outlook.<\/p>\n<h2>AbbVie Outperforms on Strength of Skyrizi and Rinvoq<\/h2>\n<p>AbbVie (<a href=\"\/stock\/ABBV\">ABBV<\/a>) reported robust second-quarter results that surpassed Wall Street expectations, signaling a successful transition away from its former blockbuster, Humira. The pharmaceutical giant posted <strong>net revenue of $16.99 billion<\/strong>, beating the estimated $16.77 billion. Growth was led by <strong>Skyrizi<\/strong>, which generated <strong>$5.51 billion<\/strong> in sales, and <strong>Rinvoq<\/strong>, which brought in <strong>$2.53 billion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the strong quarterly performance, AbbVie slightly narrowed its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to a range of <strong>$13.87 to $14.07<\/strong>. This update accounts for a <strong>$0.14 per share dilutive impact<\/strong> from the company&#39;s $10.9 billion acquisition of <strong>Apogee Therapeutics<\/strong>, which is expected to close in the third quarter. The neuroscience division also showed significant momentum, with revenues rising over <strong>20%<\/strong> year-over-year.<\/p>\n<h2>Central Banks Grapple with Internal Dissent and Inflation<\/h2>\n<p>Monetary policy uncertainty intensified as officials from both the <strong>Federal Reserve<\/strong> and the <strong>Bank of England (BoE)<\/strong> voiced hawkish concerns. Minneapolis Fed President <strong>Neel Kashkari<\/strong> confirmed his dissent at the recent FOMC meeting, stating he preferred a <strong>25-basis-point increase<\/strong> to the federal funds rate to combat persistent price pressures. This marks a notable shift in the committee&#39;s unity as it navigates a &quot;solid&quot; but uncertain economic expansion.<\/p>\n<p>In the UK, BoE Chief Economist <strong>Huw Pill<\/strong> echoed these concerns, noting that the Monetary Policy Committee is &quot;not edging toward a rate increase&quot; yet, but remains wary of <strong>energy price volatility<\/strong> extending into next year. Pill highlighted that while a broad money overhang has not been identified, &quot;insidious&quot; second-round effects in wage and price setting could create lasting inflation persistence. The BoE recently held its base rate at <strong>3.75%<\/strong> in a split 6-3 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways Novo Nordisk (NVO) shares plummeted 11% after its Phase 3 ZEUS trial for ziltivekimab failed to reduce major [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[3709,3744,3826,4945,5227,5527,17351],"class_list":["post-65730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-fed","tag-nvo","tag-abbv","tag-monetary-policy","tag-healthcare","tag-boe","tag-mace"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}