Shares of Johnson & Johnson JNJ took a dive in midday trading Monday, after The Wall Street Journal reported that a federal appeals court rejected the consumer products and drug maker’s move to place its talc liabilities into bankruptcy. The stock was down 2.8%, enough to pace the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s decliners. Before the WSJ report, the stock was down only about 0.1%, and had been up as much as 0.2% earlier. Monday’s WSJ report said the talc bankruptcy case was dismissed, because the appeals court said J&J’s talc unit, LTL Management LLC, wasn’t in financial distress. J&J faced about 38,000 lawsuits, over links to the company’s Baby Powder to ovarian cancer, asbestos poisoning and other illnesses, the WSJ reported. J&J’s stock has lost 6.5% over the past three months while the Dow has gained 3.2%.
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