The Dow Is Falling Wednesday for Just 1 Reason
Wall Street has been in bull market mode for the past few weeks, and for the broader market, Wednesday morning was no exception. Both the S 500 and Nasdaq Composite were flat at the open on Wednesday as investors remained optimistic that the Federal Reserve won't do too much more to clamp down on the economy in its efforts to tame inflation.
Yet the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) wasn't as fortunate, as it opened lower on the day. The big culprit: UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), which plunged 8% and cost the average hundreds of points. Below, you'll learn more about what happened to health insurance stocks more generally, and why there could be more pain ahead for the industry.
UnitedHealth isn't close to being the Dow Jones Industrial Average's most valuable component in terms of market capitalization, weighing in Tuesday at around $450 billion. However, its stock price approached $500 per share as of Tuesday's close, and that was enough to give it by far the most influence over the price-weighted Dow. UnitedHealth's weighting within the Dow amounts to 9.5%, nearly triple what it would be in an equal-weighted index of all 30 index components.
Source Fool.com
