shares of vertex pharmaceuticals inc vrtx shed 020 to 22142 wednesday on what proved to be an allaround rough trading session for the stock market with the sp 500 index spx falling 194 to 470058 and dow jones industrial average djia falling 107 to 3640711 this was the stocks second consecutive day of losses vertex pharmaceuticals inc closed 2157 short of its 52week high 24299 which the company reached on january 25th the stock underperformed when compared to some of its competitors wednesday as johnson  johnson jnj rose 067 to 17222 merck  co inc mrk rose 243 to 7888 and abbvie inc abbv rose 053 to 13587 trading volume 17 m remained 212695 below its 50day average volume of 19 m editors note this story was autogenerated by automated insights an automation technology provider using data from dow jones and factset see our market data terms of use