NEW YORK: Wall Street’s main indexes fell in choppy trading on Thursday as losses in healthcare stocks eclipsed gains in Cisco, while upbeat economic data kept alive fears of interest rates remaining higher for longer.
Weighing heavily on the S&P 500, CVS Health tumbled 9.8% on news that Blue Shield of California plans to cut its reliance on the company as its pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) and work with others including Amazon.com.
Shares of major health insurers UnitedHealth and Cigna, which also have PBM units, fell 1.3% and 7.6% respectively, dragging the broader S&P 500 healthcare index down 0.3%.
Pressuring equities further, the yield on 10-year U.S Treasury notes hit its highest level since October as a raft of strong economic data this week has stoked concerns the Fed could keep interest rates at the current level for longer.
A report from the Labor Department showed a fall in jobless claims last week, signaling the labor market remained tight.
At 12:04 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 51.71 points, or 0.15%, at 34,714.03, the S&P 500 was down 3.93 points, or 0.09%, at 4,400.40, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 49.17 points, or 0.36%, at 13,425.46.
Shares of Ball Corp climbed 2.8% after Britain’s BAE Systems agreed to buy the beer can supplier’s aerospace assets for about $5.55 billion.
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