Health-Care Stocks Slide as Trump Criticizes Drugmakers
DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC. 11:54 AM ET 1/11/2017
Tumbling health-care shares pressured major U.S. stock indexes Wednesday, as President-elect Donald Trump criticized the drug industry in his first press conference since Election Day.
They're "getting away with murder," he said of pharmaceutical companies. Mr. Trump also called for "new bidding procedures" for the drug industry.
Health-care stocks in the S&P 500 fell 1.2%, and the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index slid 2.4%.
The Dow industrials were recently up 17 points at 19873 after having risen more than 100 points earlier in the session. The S&P 500 fell 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.2%.
Stocks have rallied to record highs several times since November as investors betting on business-friendly policies under President-elect Donald Trump flooded shares of banks and industrial companies while largely selling government bonds.
Still, many investors have said they expect volatility, which has hovered at low levels, to pick up as they receive more clarity on Mr. Trump's policies. The CBOE Volatility Index, a measure of expectations for stock market swings in the next 30 days, jumped 4% to 11.95.
"A lot of people are looking for reasons to become worried or concerned, " said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth, who added that, in the long term, he believes stocks have the potential to "move quite a bit higher."
Shortly before noon, the WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a basket of 16 currencies, pared its gains to 0.1%. Meanwhile, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield fell to 2.359% from 2.379% on Tuesday, according to Tradeweb. Yields fall as bond prices rise.
Elsewhere in stock markets, the Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.2% and London's FTSE 100 added 0.2%. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average inched up 0.3%. Hong Kong shares added 0.8% in their fifth straight day of gains, while the Shanghai Composite Index fell by the same amount in its biggest decline this year.
Write to Akane Otani at akane.otani@wsj.com and Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
01-11-171154ET
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