The Federal Reserve issued its first benchmark rate cut since 2008.
After the Federal Reserve's decision to cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a point, a majority of healthcare stocks experienced a late afternoon slide.
The announcement to cut the target overnight lending rate from 2.25% to 2% was made at 2 p.m., followed by a press conference at 2:30 p.m. by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
The Dow Jones U.S. Health Care Index bottomed at 1.50% within an hour of Chairman Powell's announcement, after spending most of Wednesday in the black. By 3:05 p.m., the index was only down 0.60%.
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Teladoc Health endured one of the biggest drops at 3.04%, followed by Fresenius Medical Care at 2.75% and Centene Corp. at 2.30%.
UnitedHealth Group fell by 1.80%, CVS Health Corp. dropped by 1.26%, and WellCare Health Plans fell over 1.20%.
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Cigna Corp. and Anthem Inc. both experienced slight losses, but did not fall more than 1%.
Few healthcare stocks remained above board, with Magellan Health up 3.70%, Quorum Health Corp. up 3.60%, Humana up 4.31%, and HCA up slightly at 0.40%.
Jack O'Brien is the Content Team Lead and Finance Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.