Johnson & Johnson Jumps in Premarket As UK Approves Its Coronavirus Vaccine

Summary:

The United Kingdom gets a 4th coronavirus vaccine as the MHRA approves the use of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine.

Shares of Johnson & Johnson are higher in premarket trading after the UK medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), approved the company’s single-dose vaccine against the coronavirus. This approval makes this vaccine the 4th COVID-19 vaccine to be approved for use in the UK.

The vaccine in question was developed by Janssen, which is the pharmaceutical arm of Johnson & Johnson. Despite a lower percentage of effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 compared with its peers, studies seem to suggest that it can prevent disease progression and death.

Johnson & Johnson currently trades at 168.92 in premarket, higher than yesterday’s close at 168.81.

Technical Levels to Watch

Johnson & Johnson’s stock had completed the breakdown of the rising wedge after 5 straight losing sessions. The rise of the stock in premarket trading points to a higher open, which poses as a return move to the broken border of the wedge. If this border holds firm and resists further upside on the stock, we could see a resumption of the downside break, targeting 166.78 initially, before a measured move towards 161.61. Below this point, 157.85 constitutes another support level.

On the other hand, if bulls get momentum from the news and push prices above the 170 psychological resistance (27 May high), we could see a move towards the 170.98 resistance (28 January and 11 May highs), before the 2021 high at 173.65 comes into play.