Health Care Leads Stocks Lower
(AP) -- U.S. stocks fell sharply in early trading Tuesday, extending the market's losses from a day earlier. Health insurers, drugmakers and distributors led the slide following news that JPMorgan Chase, Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway are launching a health care venture. Technology stocks also posted losses. Energy companies fell as crude oil prices headed lower.
KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 31 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,821 as of 10:11 a.m. Eastern Time. The Dow Jones industrial average slumped 306 points, or 1.2 percent, to 26,132. The Nasdaq lost 82 points, or 1.1 percent, to 7,383. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks gave up 15 points, or 1 percent, to 1,583.
HEALTH SCARE: Health care sector companies slumped on news that Amazon is teaming up with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to create a company that helps their U.S. employees find quality care at a reasonable cost. The venture, whose initial focus would be on developing technology, is in its early planning stage. Express Scripts fell $6.91, or 8.4 percent, to $75.01. Cigna slid $13.47, or 6 percent, to $210.43. UnitedHealth Group lost $11.70, or 4.7 percent, to $235.71.
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TECH SLIDE: A sell-off in technology shares continued in early trading Tuesday. Corning lost $2.37, or 6.9 percent, to $31.88.
BOND YIELDS: Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.71 percent from 2.70 percent late Monday.
ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude slid 98 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $64.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international oils, dropped 99 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $68.22 a barrel in London.
The slide in oil prices weighed on energy stocks. Noble Energy was down $1.48, or 4.6 percent, at $30.65.
CURRENCIES: The dollar, which fell sharply last week, declined to 108.51 yen from 108.94 yen late Monday. The euro rose to $1.2430 from $1.2389.
BITCOIN: The price of bitcoin fell 4.2 percent to $11,207, according to the tracking site CoinDesk. Bitcoin futures on the Cboe Futures Exchange slid 5.7 percent to $10,530.
MARKETS OVERSEAS: Major indexes in Europe declined amid investor worries that new data showing the eurozone grew in 2017 at its fastest pace in a decade could prompt the European Central Bank to wind down its monetary stimulus program earlier than expected.
The DAX in Germany lost 0.9 percent, while the CAC 40 in France fell 0.8 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 gave up 0.9 percent. Indexes in Asia closed lower. Japan's Nikkei 225 index lost 1.4 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.1 percent. South Korea's Kospi sank 1.2 percent.
(BE)