What’s News in Markets: Amgen’s Prognosis, Quantum Boost, iPhone Makeover

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Hey, listeners, it's Saturday, September 12th. I'm Imani Moise for the Wall Street Journal. And this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's dive in. It was a rough week for stocks, with intensifying pressures from inflation sending the bond market into a tailspin. The war with Iran pushed oil above $100 a barrel, feeling concerns that higher prices would lead to higher interest rates. The yield on the 10-year treasury climbed to nearly 5 percent, and Friday's inflation report only reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise rates next week. Higher yields put pressure on the stock market by raising the cost of borrowing, while making relatively safe government bonds more attractive. Still, investors welcomed the prospect of the Fed getting inflation under control, helping stocks rebound Friday after four straight days of declines. Overall, the Nasdaq fell two-thirds of a percent for the week, while the S&P 500 lost 0.8 percent, and the Dow finished the week 1.6 percent lower.

Healthcare was the worst-performing sector in the S&P this week, falling more than 3.5 percent after one failed drug trial sent shockwaves through the industry. Amgen shares plunged 10 percent on Tuesday for their worst day in more than 25 years. But here's the thing. It wasn't Amgen's drug that failed. Swiss drug maker Novartis said an experimental heart disease treatment failed a late-stage clinical trial. The drug successfully lowered levels of a type of bad cholesterol called LpA, but that didn't translate into fewer heart attacks, strokes, or deaths. The results from Novartis raised questions about whether lowering LpA can actually prevent cardiovascular problems. That's potentially bad news for Amgen because it's developing a similar treatment that also works by targeting the same risk factor. One Barclays analyst called the trial results, quote, the worst possible outcome for Amgen. For the week, Amgen and Novartis' stock both tumbled more than 13.5 percent.

Some of the standout winners in the stock market this week were quantum computing companies even though quantum computing itself still isn't ready for prime time. Shares of D-Wave Quantum, Regetti Computing and Quantinium rallied after a federal agency awarded each company $100 million in exchange for minority stakes in all three. The money is meant to support research and development in quantum computing, which uses physics to tackle complex problems that conventional computers struggle with. The hope is that it could eventually transform industries from medicine to cybersecurity. But today's quantum computers are still limited and prone to errors. The investment is the latest example of Washington putting taxpayer money behind technologies it considers strategically important. The government already owns 10% of chipmaker Intel, and this week, WSJ exclusively reported that the Pentagon was in talks to lend roughly $5 billion to AI infrastructure startup Fluidstack, by far the largest loan ever considered by the office behind the deal. As for those quantum companies, D-Wave ended the week 1.3% higher, and Regetti gained about half a percent, while Quentinium gave back its post-announcement gains and finished 1.3% lower.

One number that caught investors' attention this week was 1,999. That's the price in dollars of Apple's new iPhone Duo, the company's first foldable phone, and the iPhone's biggest makeover since launching in 2007

It's also Apple's most expensive iPhone ever, costing more than some of its computers.

Convincing customers to pay MacBook Pro money for a phone upgrade could be a tough sell, especially since the category hasn't exactly taken off. Foldable phones have been around for about seven years, but shipments actually fell 15% in the first half of this year. Apple shares slipped by less than half a percent on announcement day, but that's actually pretty typical. Apple stock underperformed the S&P on each of its previous five iPhone reveal days. Historically, investors have tended to warm up to new iPhones in the weeks after their debut. This time, the turnaround came a lot faster. Apple shares jumped on Thursday after an analyst report said the duo's design could drive stronger than expected demand. On top of that, IDC expects Apple to capture 44% of all foldable phone revenue this year, even though it launches with just three months left to go.