The stock market climbed on Friday, pushing S&P 500 to record closing highs which surpassed its previous record in January 2022. Despite strong retail data, such tempered investors’ expectations for the central bank’s first interest rate cut to May.
Overall, S&P 500 grew 1.2% to 4,840, while NASDAQ was up 1.7% to 15,311.
Tweet of the Day
Celsisus energy drink sales shot up 139% to $1.69 bil in 2023, per NielsenIQ. Firm #3 player in segment. C4 sales were up 67% to $533 mil in 2023 while Alani Nu up 40% to $465 mil and Ghost up 131% to $468 mil for full yr.
— Beverage Insights (@BevInsights) January 17, 2024
Chart of the Day
Here is the ten-year chart of Eli Lilly (LLY) as of December 27, 2023, when the stock was at $582.
Eli Lilly has a new blockbuster drug with its diabetes drug Mounjaro. Now, the drug has been approved by the FDA for weight loss (under the name Zepbound), and is now available in the market.
The medication behind both drugs, Tirzepatide, has proven effective not only for treating Type 2 Diabetes, but also for helping non-diabetic patients lose a remarkable 22.5% of their body weight in 72 weeks. In addition, Novo Nordisk’s similar drug Wegovy reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke, or cardiovascular related death by 20%. Eli Lilly seems to have a do-it-all drug that can treat diabetes, help with weight loss, and reduce the risk of a heart attack. What’s great is insurance companies will now be more likely to cover these drugs under insurance. Together, Mounjaro and Zepbound have the potential to do $30 billion in sales in 2028 (source: IBD). In comparison, Eli Lilly is expected to do $34 billion in sales throughout all of 2023.
LLY is part of our Conservative Growth, Growth and Aggressive Growth Portfolios.
