Healthcare stocks were higher Wednesday afternoon, with the NYSE Healthcare Index rising 2.2% and the State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) adding 2.7%.
The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) climbed 4.8%.
In corporate news, Moderna (MRNA) shares surged 133% and Merck (MRK) shares jumped nearly 11% after the companies said a trial of intismeran autogene plus Keytruda met the primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival and a key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival in people with completely resected stage IIB-IV melanoma.