Lilly shares up on weight-loss pill gain

Eli Lilly Co. shares surged after its experimental pill helped patients shed weight and control blood sugar about as well as Ozempic, an advance that could turbocharge what’s already one of the fastest growing markets in medicine.

The triumph of Ozempic, the blockbuster diabetes shot from Novo Nordisk A/S, and related drugs including Zepbound and Mounjaro from Lilly, has set off an all-out push to develop a pill that’s easier to take and less expensive to make. While rivals including Pfizer Inc. have suffered setbacks, analysts said success is critical to creating the $130 billion market they predict by the end of the decade.

Results of the Lilly-funded study provide a promising first look. Diabetics given the pill called orforglipron lost 16 pounds, or 7.9% of their body weight, over a 40-week period. That was more than similar patients shed in earlier studies of Ozempic.

Those getting the pill hadn’t hit a weight plateau when the study ended, suggesting they may lose even more, the company said in a statement. Blood sugar levels fell by an average of 1.3%, slightly underperforming rival injections. Analysts hailed the results, which pushed Lilly’s shares up 16%. Novo’s American depositary receipts plunged as much as 8.9%.

30-year rate at highest level in 8 weeks

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. climbed to its highest level in eight weeks, a setback for home shoppers in the midst of the spring homebuying season.

The rate rose to 6.83% from 6.62% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 7.1%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also rose. The average rate increased to 6.03% from 5.82% last week. It’s still down from 6.39% a year ago, Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including global demand for U.S. Treasurys, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions and bond market investors’ expectations for future inflation.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage loosely follows moves in the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans.

The yield, which had mostly fallen this year after climbing to around 4.8% in mid-January, spiked last week to 4.5% amid a sell-off in government bonds triggered by investor anxiety over the potential fallout from the Trump administration’s escalating tariff war.

The 10-year Treasury yield was at 4.32% in midday trading Thursday.

U.S. jobless benefit claims decline

U.S. applications for jobless benefits fell again last week as the labor market continues to hold up despite fears of a tariff-induced recession.

Jobless claim applications fell by 9,000 to 215,000 for the week ending April 12, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s well below the 225,000 new applications analysts forecast.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have mostly stayed between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years.

The four-week average of applications, which can soften some of the week-to-week swings, fell by 2,500 to 220,750.

Compiled from Bloomberg and Associated Press reports.