Tobacco stocks fell on 19 April, as investors reacted to reports that the Biden administration is considering new regulations on cigarettes, Reuters reported.

Shares of Altria fell 6.15 per cent, while British American Tobacco fell 2.22 per cent and Philip Morris fell 1.35 per cent after the Wall Street Journal reported that President Joe Biden is weighing whether to consider reducing nicotine levels in conjunction with a ban on menthol cigarettes.
According to the report, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is facing an 29 April deadline to respond to a citizen petition to ban menthol cigarettes and that the administration is considering including a measure to reduce nicotine content in cigarettes in the same law.
Altria representative George Parman, in a statement to CNBC, called on the FDA to ensure that its decision is based on scientific evidence. "Any action that the FDA takes must be based on science and evidence and must consider the real-world consequences of such actions, including the growth of an illicit market and the impact on hundreds of thousands of jobs from the farm to local stores across the country," Parman was quoted as saying.
A 2018 study by University of Waterloo researcher Geoffrey Fong found that a ban on menthol cigarettes in Canada led to a 59 per cent increase in the likelihood that menthol smokers would quit.
A similar ban in the United States, the study found, could lead to an additional 923,000 smokers quitting, the report said.