 "Wall Street slips, led by health care decline")
US stocks ended lower on Friday, with health care stocks leading the declines, as investors cashed in on a post-election rally and waited for clarity on the next administration’s policies.
Wall Street equities took a breather after rising dramatically since Donald Trump’s surprise victory in the presidential election last week.
While the three major indexes closed higher for the second week in a row, the rally lost some steam this week as investors awaited more information to support their bets that Trump could succeed in passing proposals to lift infrastructure spending and reduce taxes.
“I see the market kind of churning here because it’s had a very decent move,” said Ken Polcari, director of the NYSE floor division at O’Neil Securities in New York. “Trump’s policies continue to be just rhetoric because none of it has been enacted.”
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 35.89 points, or 0.19 percent, to 18,867.93 while the S&P 500 dropped 5.22 points, or 0.24%, to 2,181.9.
The Nasdaq Composite slipped 12.46 points, or 0.23 percent, to 5,321.51 after hitting a record of 5346.8.
The Nasdaq’s biggest drags came from technology companies such as Alphabet and drug firms including Amgen.
Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors closed lower. Losses in shares of Allergan and Merck were the biggest drags on the S&P health sector, which led the decliners. The health index pared its post-election lift but was still 1.8% higher than November 8, even after Friday’s drop of 1.2%. Only five of the indexes stocks ended higher.
Consumer staples fell 0.4%, weighed down by a 1.3% fall in Procter & Gamble. The S&P Energy sector .SPNY was the second best performer with a 0.5% increase as producers added to rig count, suggesting that they might be expecting a demand boost, Polarci said.
Traders are pricing in an 83% chance for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in December, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The S&P financial sector .SPSY ended up 0.08%, and has risen 10.8% since the US election, boosted by prospect of higher interest rates and lighter regulation.
St Louis Fed President James Bullard said Friday he was leaning toward supporting a December increase and that the real question would be the Fed’s rate path in 2017.
Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George said that while she supports raising rates, the U.S. central bank must do so only gradually. The comments added to Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s Thursday statement that the rate hike could come “relatively soon”.
