Healthcare stocks were not immune from Wall Street's worst day since the period of high volatility earlier this year.
Stocks fell across the board on Wednesday, as Wall Street suffered its worst trading day in more than eight months.
In response to heightened concerns over the Federal Reserve's recent decision to increase interest rates and rising Treasury bond yields, stocks plunged in all three major trading markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell sharply by 832 points, the S&P 500 dropped by 3.3%, and the Nasdaq slid by more than 4%.
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Healthcare stocks suffered in the general market slide, with the Dow Jones U.S. Health Care Index down by 2.46% at the end of trading.
However, among the 'Big 5' insurers, Aetna's slide of 0.15% was the smallest drop. The Hartford, Connecticut-based insurer was boosted by receiving approval Wednesday morning from the Department of Justice on its $69 billion merger with CVS. For its part, the retail pharmacy giant finished the day down 0.72%.
Here's how the four other major health plans fared:
- Cigna Corp. finished down 1.9%
- UnitedHealth Group fell by 2.58%
- Anthem Inc. ended down 2.34%
- Humana Inc. fell by 1.82%
Below are how several other healthcare companies finished during Wall Street's downturn on Wednesday:
- Tenet Healthcare dropped by 8.43%
- Centene Corp. dipped by 0.74%
- Express Scripts Holding Co. fell by 1.69%
- Teladoc, Inc. dropped by 8.42%
- Community Health Systems finished down 6.35%
- HCA Healthcare Inc. slipped by 3.19%
- Molina Healthcare dropped by 3.52%
- Magellan Health Inc. fell slightly by 0.61%
- Athenahealth, Inc. dipped by 2.81%
- Quorum Health Corp. fell by 6.89%
- WellCare finished down 2.08%
- LifePoint dropped slightly by 0.36%
- Universal Health Services, Inc. slid by 1.36%
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Jack O'Brien is the Content Team Lead and Finance Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.