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The S&P 500 advanced on Thursday, the last trading day of the week, as traders tried to recover some of the steep losses suffered in the previous session. However, a massive drop in UnitedHealth sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average sharply lower.
The 30-stock index crumbled 528.83 points, or 1.3%, to kick off Thursday at 39,140.56, driven by a 19% decline in UnitedHealth following an earnings miss.
The S&P 500 forged up 8.92 points to 5,284.62
The NASDAQ Composite slid 13.73 points to 16,291.34.
Eli Lilly, on the other hand, jumped more than 15% after delivering positive trial results for a weight-loss pill. U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor popped around 2% on a strong quarterly financial report.
Those moves come after a sharp decline on Wednesday, led by tech names, that sent the Dow down nearly 700 points and the NASDAQ cratering more than 3%.
The major averages were headed for a losing week, which concludes with Thursday’s close as the market is dark for Good Friday. The Dow and NASDAQ have each lost more than 2% week to date, while the S&P 500 has shed more than 1%.
Chipmaking giant Nvidia retreated 1.5% on Thursday, building on its drop of nearly 7% in the previous session. The artificial intelligence darling disclosed a quarterly charge of about $5.5 billion tied to exporting its H20 graphics processing units, or GPUs, to China and other destinations due to U.S. export controls.
Stocks also took a hit on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Trump’s levies could drive up inflation in the near term and are “likely to move us further away from our goals.” Powell said the central bank may find itself in a “challenging scenario” in which its dual-mandate goals — to achieve maximum employment and stable prices — are in tension.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury were up Wednesday, easing yields to 4.30% from Wednesday’s 4.28%. Treasury prices and yields in opposite directions.
Oil prices squeezed up 95 cents to $63.42U.S. a barrel.
Prices for gold cooled off $22.30 to $3,324.10 U.S.