Why the Dow is being dragged down by a Swiss company’s bad news

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures experienced significant underperformance following the Labor Day break, sliding 506 points or 0.95% compared to a milder 0.4% decline in S&P 500 futures. The divergence between the two major benchmarks was largely driven by the price-weighted construction of the Dow and a sharp premarket decline in biotechnology heavyweight Amgen. Amgen shares fell roughly $22, or 5%, in early premarket trading, subtracting approximately 120 points from the index on its own due to Amgen holding the fourth-highest nominal share price in the 30-stock gauge. In contrast, Amgen's smaller market-cap weighting in the broader S&P 500 diluted its negative effect on that index. The selloff in Amgen was triggered by negative clinical trial results from competitor Novartis, which announced that its late-stage study evaluating experimental cardiovascular drug pelacarsen failed to meet its primary endpoint. Citi analysts highlighted that the trial failure creates broader headwinds for biopharmaceutical firms developing therapies targeting Lipoprotein(a), generating sector-wide pressure across cardiovascular drugmakers.