Market report

Health-sector gains offset tech dip

Trader Fred DeMarco, left, and specialist Anthony Rinaldi work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 11, 2018.  (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Fred DeMarco, left, and specialist Anthony Rinaldi work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, May 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

U.S. stock indexes ended mostly higher Friday as the market closed out its biggest weekly gain since March.

Drugmakers and other health companies climbed after investors sized up President Donald Trump's latest plans to rein in drug prices and concluded any policy changes didn't pose immediate threats to health care company profits.

"All of this will have to go through a year-plus regulatory process, and none of it will have immediate impact," Terry Haines, macro research analyst at Evercore ISI, wrote in a research note Friday. "Thus our market positive view today."

The health sector's gains outweighed losses in technology stocks, phone companies and banks.

The S&P 500 index rose 4.65 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,727.72. The benchmark index had its best weekly gain since early March with an increase of 2.4 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 91.64 points, or 0.4 percent, to 24,831.17. The Nasdaq composite fell 2.09 points, or 0.03 percent, to 7,402.88. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks rose 3.08 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,606.79.

For the week, the Dow notched a gain of 2.3 percent, while the Nasdaq finished 2.7 percent higher. The Russell 2000 picked up a gain of 2.6 percent.

Trading was choppy for much of the day as investors waited for the Trump administration to release details of its plan to lower drug prices. After Trump began discussing the broad goals of his plan Friday afternoon, health care sector stocks mostly moved higher.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals jumped 6.2 percent to $306.94 and CVS Health gained 3.2 percent to $64.41. Biogen added 3.1 percent to $282.39.

"Trump had a choice today: To seek disruptive fundamental reform or to embrace more incremental steps," Haines wrote. "Trump chose the incremental over the disruptive, which is the decisive factor for markets today."

Technology stocks, which are up 10.8 percent this year, outgaining all other sectors in the S&P 500, were among the biggest decliners Friday.

Symantec slumped 33.1 percent to $19.52 after the security software company revealed an internal investigation that could delay its annual report. The company also said the matter has been referred to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Symantec also gave weak profit forecasts.

Roughly 90 percent of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported results so far this earnings season, and some 62 percent of those have delivered both earnings and revenue that exceeded financial analysts' expectations, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Walmart, Home Depot and other retailers are due to report quarterly results next week.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 66 cents to settle at $70.70 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, lost 35 cents to close at $77.12. Oil futures this week have remained near their highest levels since 2014 after the Trump administration's decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran, the world's fifth-biggest oil producer.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.97 percent from 2.96 percent late Thursday.

Business on 05/12/2018

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