The leading US equities indexes portrayed a varied picture on Thursday at midday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced a drop of almost 400 points, due to a swift downturn in UnitedHealth Group's (UNH) shares. However, the tech-centric Nasdaq and the S&P 500 showed minor inclines.
UnitedHealth Group's shares, due to the healthcare group's trimmed projections owing to inflated costs, significantly impacted both the Dow and S&P 500. This decrease also had repercussions on other insurers' shares, like Humana (HUM), Elevance Health (ELV), and CVS Health (CVS).
Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) continued their downward trend from Wednesday after alerting investors of damage from new export restrictions to China. Additionally, Broadcom's (AVGO) shares also dipped.
On the brighter side, Eli Lilly (LLY) topped the gainers on S&P 500, following the announcement of encouraging clinical trial results for its oral medication, orforglipron. Contrarily, shares in Novo Nordisk (NVO) witnessed a decrease as BMO downgraded the Danish pharmaceutical firm, indicating its loss in the weight-loss medication competition.
Shares in Netflix (NFLX) saw an upswing since analysts largely believe this streaming platform, which will soon release its Q1 results, remains mostly unaffected by tariffs and economic setbacks.
Crude oil futures and the 10-year Treasury note yield climbed, while the US dollar appreciated against the euro and yen and depreciated versus the pound. The prices for most major cryptocurrencies primarily rose.