Investors are pushing up Johnson & Johnson share price today after the company announced that it has developed a possible candidate for a coronavirus vaccine. Johnson & Johnson share price surged nearly 6.5% in Monday afternoon trading, as the company says that the potential vaccine candidate could be ready for phase 1 clinical trials by September 2020. The U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and Jansen Pharmaceuticals were partners in the project. The vaccine candidate could be deployed for mass use as early as January 2021.
The company says it will commit to producing 1 billion doses of the vaccine candidate as its contribution to fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The company says it intends to build sites in the U.S. and abroad to expand its production capacity to meet this target.
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Technical Outlook for Johnson & Johnson Share Price
Johnson & Johnson share price has touched off 132.00; up by 7.14% at the moment after opening with a considerable upside gap. This price move has allowed the weekly candle to challenge the 130.94 price resistance, formed by previous lows of 10 December 2018 and 24 February 2019. The weekly candle has to close above this price level by a penetration close of at least 3%, for the breakout to be confirmed. This breakout would then allow the next upside resistance target of 133.67 to come into focus. Further resistance on Johnson & Johnson share price lies at 138.40, with a possible pitstop at 136.62 (20 November 2017 low and 16 March 2020 high).
However, there are concerns among some analysts that the Johnson & Johnson share price surge may be a knee jerk reaction of traders looking for a glimmer of hope out of the market depression caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This school of thought has cast doubts on the ability of the company to profit from any vaccine candidates, given that there may be political pressure on companies involved in this effort to sell their vaccine candidates at cost price. If this sentiment gains traction in the market, then we could see prices pulling back to the identified support targets at 126.73, 124.20 or even the previous lows of June and July 2018 at 120.42.
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