STORY: Stocks finished mixed Friday, with the Dow rising marginally and the S&P 500 slipping three tenths of one percent and the Nasdaq falling four tenths.
The Dow hit an intraday high with the help of UnitedHealth, shares of which jumped 12% after Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed a new investment in the healthcare company and others boosted their stakes.
The stock had fallen about 40% this year as a result of financial missteps, among other issues.
Joe Hegener, founder and Chief Investment Officer with Asterozoa Capital, said his firm picked up shares in the company recently too.
“It's the largest healthcare provider in the country. It's just not going away. It makes perfect sense why Berkshire Hathaway would want to, you know, take a hard look at that. You know, historically speaking, that business traded for 20 to 25 times earnings. It got down into the low teens and that's just a very interesting entry point. It was an interesting entry point for us and, you know, and for Berkshire and I'm sure for many other value investors.”
The healthcare sector had its best weekly performance since October 2022.
More broadly, Wall Street's main stock indexes recorded their second week of gains, buoyed by expectations that the Federal Reserve could restart its monetary policy easing cycle with a 25-basis-point interest rate cut in September.
A meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was also on the radar, with markets hoping it could pave the way for a resolution to the war in Ukraine and determine the outlook for oil prices.
The two leaders began their face-to-face discussion in Alaska on Friday.
Other stocks on the move included Applied Materials which tumbled 14% after the chip equipment maker issued weak fourth-quarter forecasts.
And shares of Intel rose roughly 3% after a report said the Trump administration was in talks for the U.S. government to potentially take a stake in the chipmaker.
