Wall St rises despite fall in biotech shares – New York Report
THE MAJOR US stock indexes ended higher yesterday, rebounding from losses late last week with help from Apple and financial shares, but a drop in biotech shares limited Nasdaq’s advance.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 125.54 points, or 0.77 per cent, to 16,510.12, the S&P 500 gained 9.03 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 1,967.06 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.73 points, or 0.04 per cent, to 4,828.96.
Shares of biotech companies fell after US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she would announce a plan to stop “price gouging” for specialty drugs.
Biogen fell 5.6 per cent to $297.16 and Gilead was down 2.5 per cent at $105.74.
The S&P healthcare sector fell 1.4 per cent and was the only S&P 500 sector index to end lower. The Nasdaq biotech index slumped 4.4 per cent.
Financial shares bounced back after losing ground following Thursday’s Federal Reserve decision to keep rates unchanged. The S&P financial index was up 1.1 per cent.
Apple was up 1.6 per cent at $115.21, leading the S&P 500 higher. The Wall Street Journal reported Apple has designated building an electric car as a “committed project” and has set a target shipping date for 2019.
Chipmaker Atmel jumped 12.7 percent to $8.19 a day after Dialog Semiconductor agreed to buy the company for about $4.6bn (£2.97bn).
Shares of GoPro were down 8.2 per cent at $32.27 after Barron’s said the video camera maker’s shares could plunge to $25 as its latest product launch underwhelmed customers amid increasing competition.