Wall Street ends lower on healthcare losses, interest rate jitters

Wall Street’s main indexes closed lower after choppy trading on Thursday as losses in healthcare stocks eclipsed gains in Cisco and energy stocks, while upbeat economic data kept alive fears of interest rates remaining higher for longer.

Weighing heavily on the S&P 500, CVS Health tumbled 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, dropped by 1.9% and 6.4% respectively, pushing the broader S&P 500 healthcare index 0.8% lower.

The S&P 500 lost 33.97 points, or 0.77%, to 4,370.36 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 143.75 points, or 1.07%, to 13,330.88.

The S&P 500 is down 2.7% over the past three sessions, its deepest three-session drop since mid-March. The Nasdaq’s 3.4% drop over three days marks its deepest three-day drop since February.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 290.91 points, or 0.84%, to 34,474.83.

Higher oil prices lifted shares of Exxon Mobil and Chevron by 1.9% to 1.7% respectively, as commodities were helped by hopes that China’s central bank was seeking to bolster the property market and wider economy.

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