Trending News Today: Trump Win Leads to Market Increases for Pharma Futures

On Tuesday, Republican candidate Donald Trump was elected the 45^th president of the United States, and health care companies have emerged as gaining the most benefit from the win, reported The Wall Street Journal. Although the US premarket pointed towards a 2% opening loss for the S&P 500 during early European trade, the future of pharmaceuticals showed sharp increases, led by Mylan, Perrigo, and Endo International PLC, according to the Journal. The health care and mining sectors showed 3.5% and 3% gains, respectively, while the Stoxx Europe 600 index was down 0.5%. The Journal reported that all other sectors were in the red.

While Americans were at the polls voting for the next president, voters in California, Massachusetts and Nevada approved recreational marijuana initiatives, while several other states passed medical marijuana provisions. According to The Washington Post, its considered to be the biggest electoral victory for marijuana reform since 2012, when Colorado and Washington approved marijuana for recreational use. “This represents a monumental victory for the marijuana reform movement,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance in a statement as reported by the Post. “With California’s leadership now, the end of marijuana prohibition nationally, and even internationally, is fast approaching.”

The California hospital fee program that helps fund Medi-Cal has been chosen to be made permanent, according to the Los Angeles Times. Early election returns have shown the measure passing with more than 70% of the vote. Proposition 52 will prevent lawmakers from changing or ending the hospital fee program, the LA Times reported. Medi-Cal is California’s subsidized health care program for low income residents.