Shares of packaged-foods companies Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), Hershey (NYSE: HSY), and J.M. Smucker (NYSE: SJM), along with craft brewing giant Boston Beer (NYSE: SAM), surged on March 17. Boston Beer finished up 13%, while Hershey gained 10.2% on the day. Both Campbell and Smucker closed up about 9% after giving up some of their earlier gains in afternoon trading.
Today's big move was the same thing that lifted most stocks today: news that the federal government was taking more big actions to soften the economic blow from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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