Stocks opened in negative territory Friday and stayed there through the close as investors took profits following the post-election surge.
Tech stocks led the path lower, with Nvidia (NVDA) plummeting 3.3% ahead of next week's earnings report. But the chipmaker was hardly the worst Dow Jones stock today.
Rather, that title went to Amgen (AMGN), which tumbled 4.2% to tie Amazon.com (AMZN, -4.2%). Healthcare stocks fell across the board in reaction to President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
The anti-vaccine activist's initiative to Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) will reportedly take aim at Big Pharma, which Kennedy has criticized for prioritizing profits over public health.
Kennedy feels "dramatic changes are needed because of the high levels of chronic disease in the United States" and that "government agencies have corruptly tolerated or promoted unhealthy diets and dangerous drugs and vaccines," wrote KFF Health News on November 14.
Today's decline dropped AMGN into the red for the year to date, but Wall Street remains mostly upbeat toward the drugmaker. Of the 33 analysts covering the blue chip stock tracked by S&P Global Market Intelligence, 10 say it's a Strong Buy, four have it at Buy, 17 rate it at Hold and two call it a Strong Sell. This works out to a consensus Buy recommendation, though with low conviction.
Buffett drops Ulta stock
Ulta Beauty (ULTA) was another notable decliner Friday, sinking 4.6% after regulatory filings revealed it was one of the stocks Warren Buffett sold in Q3.
The Oracle of Omaha first added ULTA to the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio in the second quarter of this year, buying 690,000 shares of the beauty retailer. However, Buffett & Co. sold off nearly the entire stake by September 30 at a notable loss, owning just 24,000 shares at the end of Q3.
Palantir to start trading on the Nasdaq
On the positive side of the ledger was Palantir Technologies (PLTR), which surged 11.1% on news the data analytics firm will change its listing exchange to the Nasdaq from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
The move, which is expected to take place on November 26, follows PLTR's inclusion into the S&P 500 Index in September and positions it for a potential spot on the Nasdaq-100.
PLTR is now up roughly 280% for the year to date, but Argus Research analyst Joseph Bonner thinks it may have run too far, too fast. He downgraded PLTR to Hold from Buy earlier this month.
"As was evident in Q3, the company has been dramatically improving its profitability and cash flow over the past year," wrote Bonner in a November 7 note. "However, PLTR shares have about tripled in value this year and may be getting ahead of what the company fundamentals can support."
As for the main indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7% to 43,444, the S&P 500 shed 1.3% to 5,870, and the Nasdaq Composite slumped 2.2% to 18,680. All three benchmarks closed lower on a weekly basis too.
Retail sales stayed strong in October
In economic news, data from the Census Bureau showed retail sales rose 0.4% from September to October, beating economists' estimate for a 0.3% increase. What's more, September retail sales were upwardly revised to show growth of 0.8% vs the initial reading of 0.4%.
Online sales continue to grow, with the data showing a 7% monthly rise in nonstore retailers. Restaurants and bars saw a 4.3% jump in sales.
"Retail sales surprised to the upside as we expected and showed signs of reacceleration after a few months of sluggish activity," says Scott Helfstein, head of investment strategy at Global X. "This is good news on the consumer going into the holiday season where consumption will be critical to growth."
While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are still a couple of weeks out, many retailers – including Costco (COST) – are getting the deals started early and running them through the annual shopping holidays.
