The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

JNJ’s adverse talc ruling_today—>bearish for 3M, although the two cases are quite different:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/j-js-talc-bankruptcy-case-thrown-out-by-appeals-court-11675096308

A federal appeals court rejected Johnson & Johnson’s plan to use a legal strategy [the “Texas Two-Step”] to push about 38,000 talc lawsuits into bankruptcy court… The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday dismissed the chapter 11 case of J&J subsidiary LTL Management LLC, which the consumer-health-goods giant created in 2021 to move to bankruptcy court the mass lawsuits alleging its talc-based baby powder products caused cancer.

JNJ As I’m typing, JNJ is -3.4% and MMM is -2.0%.