Selling in health care and energy stocks resulted in minor losses with the broad-based S&P 500 down just 0.1%.
The health care sector fell 1.8% after UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH) said it will consider withdrawing from the Affordable Care Act exchanges because it expects major losses from them. The stock fell 5.7%. The news also hit Aetna Inc (AET), down 6.5%, Anthem Inc (ANTM), off 6.9%, and CIGNA Corporation (CI), down 5.3%.
Energy stocks fell 1.4% as crude oil futures dropped 0.5% to $40.54 a barrel, the lowest close since Aug. 26.
On a brighter note, Intel Corporation (INTC) jumped 3.4% after raising its quarterly dividend 8.3% to 26 cents per share for a current yield of 3%. The iShares S&P NA Tec. Semi. Idx. Fd.(ETF) (SOXX) rose 0.2%.
Gold advanced 0.9% to $1,078 an ounce. And the U.S. dollar fell 0.7% to $1.0735 against the euro, which gained on the prospect of more stimulus from the ECB.
At Thursday’s close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 4 points to 17,733, the S&P 500 fell 2 points to 2,081, the Nasdaq lost 2 points at 5,074, and the Russell 2000 was down 5 points at 1,167.
The NYSE Composite’s primary exchange traded 821 million shares with total volume of 3.6 billion. The Nasdaq crossed 1.8 billion shares. On the Big Board, advancers outpaced decliners by 1.1-to-1, and on the Nasdaq, decliners led by 1.2-to-1. On the Big Board, there were 5,117 block trades versus 5,412 on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the SPDR S&P MidCap 400 ETF (MDY) managed to close above both its 50-day and 20-day moving averages. And volume was relatively high — a positive indicator.
But on Thursday, a lack of follow-through was evident, as was the higher-than-average negative volume.
Conclusion
Virtually all of the important charts have been covered this week. Some of the best technicians say, “Never sell a dull market.” They may be correct, but it is difficult to be inspired to buy at the current levels.
Six months or so of overhead and P/E ratios of 22.70 on the S&P 500 and 22.75 on the Nasdaq, as well as a market that is lacking in leadership, do not normally encourage many buyers.
I’ll believe a breakout when I see it. Until then, I’ll sell into this rally.
Today’s Trading Landscape
To see a list of the companies reporting earnings today, click here.
For a list of this week’s economic reports due out, click here.
