Alcohol stocks sink after cancer alarm bell

The impact: Shares of beer brewers Molson Coors, AB InBev and Heineken declined 3.3%, 2.1% and 1.8%, respectively Friday.

• Spirits company Diageo fell 4% in London, while U.S. whisky maker Brown-Forman dropped 2.5%.

The big picture: The alcohol industry has already been dealing with slowing sales after a pandemic-era surge, hurt by inflation-wary customers and potentially longer-term headwinds.

• For one, a declining share of Americans are boozing: 58% of adults were drinkers in 2024, a 28-year low, according to Gallup.
• More recently, it's dealing with the threat of increased tariffs, raw material costs and higher taxes, The Spirits Business reports.

What they're saying: "The U.S. beer industry has been a champion of responsible consumption for decades," a spokesperson for the Beer Institute said in a statement following the Surgeon General warning.