FDA to order Juul to pull e-cigarettes off U.S. market: Report

Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss reports that the FDA has ordered Juul to pull its e-cigarettes from the U.S. market.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: We have some more movers for you right now. First up is Altria. And that's after "The Wall Street Journal" is report-- as "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting the Food and Drug Administration is preparing to order Juul products off the market. Remember, Juul-- J-U-U-L-- are those e-cigarettes that had been under fire for health-related concerns for several years now, really. And I believe Altria still holds a 35% stake in Juul. So that's why we are seeing those shares take such a hit here this morning.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, and even in their most recent earnings report, they had to acknowledge some of the impacts that they're going to continue to see on those investments. Perhaps none bigger than this, though, when you consider any type of company product that would have to get pulled off the market and some of what Juul has had to go through in the past with its own marketing and the marketing being deemed too much or too much going towards some of that younger audience and trying to make it kind of flashy, use these colors that would make it seem like, all right, cool, it's trendy. It's the fun thing to do, if you will.

And then having to go back and revisit some of those materials so that it wasn't overly going after that younger end of the market. And then additionally, within some of the investments that larger entities like Altria had made within Juul, how there were both legal proceedings, how there were a lot of the divestments that I think investors had been hoping that Altria would make of Juul. That's still not the case, though, to this point, and them still having to recognize this on their balance sheet as recent as last quarter, too.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, and remember, we also just got the news yesterday that the government was planning to limit the nicotine levels in cigarettes. Nothing to do with e-cigarettes specifically, but that it was seeking to limit the nicotine level in all cigarettes. So that already was a potential blow for the likes of Altria. So this is all something to definitely keep a close eye on.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, absolutely.