U.S. stocks close little changed, health shares hold markets back

Tue, 21 May 2019

U.S. stocks close little changed, health shares hold markets back

Lola Evans
18 Apr 2019, 08:53 GMT+10

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 3.12 points or 0.01% at 26,449.54
The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 6.61 points or 0.23% to 2,900.45
The Nasdaq Composite eased 4.15 points or 0.05% to 7,996.08

NEW YORK, New York - Wall Street was little changed on Wednesday as buyers and sellers evened out the trading.

The indices probably would have recorded good gains except for the healthcare sector, which saw shares tumble an average 2.90%.

"Companies are worried about the attention ‘Medicare for all’ is getting," Jim Bell, president and chief investment officer at Bell Investment Advisors in Oakland, CA was quoted as saying by the Reuters Thomson news agency. "The way the CEOs of these companies are going on offense against the discussions in Congress, it starts a momentum of its own."

"Investors would rather invest in sectors that aren’t going through such a big controversy," he said.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 3.12 points or 0.01% at 26,449.54.

The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 6.61 points or 0.23% to 2,900.45.

The Nasdaq Composite eased 4.15 points or 0.05% to 7,996.08.

The U.S. dollar had a quiet day, although it was well bid against the euro which hovered around the 1.1300 level. It was in fact last quoted in New York on Wednesday at 1.1300.

The British pound inched down to 1.3039. The Japanese yen eased to 112.04.

The Swiss franc was unchanged at 1.0107. The Canadian dollar fell a fraction to 1.3343. The Australian dollar edged up to 0.7177. The New Zealand dollar dipped to 0.6728.

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