Amazon's Latest Move Hits Pharmacy Stocks Hard

Wall Street retreats from record highs
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 17, 2020 3:53 PM CST
Wall Street Hits the Brakes After Record High
A sign for Wall Street is carved in the side of a building in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

Stocks took a pause on Tuesday from their big rally this month that vaulted them back to record heights. Treasury yields also dipped after a report showed US shoppers spent less at retailers last month than economists expected. The numbers underscore how the coronavirus pandemic is worsening and threatening to drag the economy lower, at least in the near term, the AP reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.56%, or 167.09 points, to 29,783.35 from the record high it set Monday. The S&P 500 dipped 17.38 points, or 0.48%, to 3,609.53 and the Nasdaq fell 24.79 points, or 0.21%, to 11,899.34. Stocks that stormed higher this month on hopes that a vaccine or two may get the global economy back to normal next year receded amid the worries.

"Today is a good example of how the markets have been pricing in a lot of the good news," said David Trainer, CEO of investment research firm New Constructs. Stocks in the pharmacy business were among the biggest drags on the market after Amazon targeted them as the latest industry it’s trying to upend. The retailing behemoth opened an online pharmacy Tuesday that allows customers to have prescriptions delivered to their door in a couple days. CVS Health fell 9%, Walgreens Boots Alliance dropped 9.2% and Rite-Aid lost 16.2%. Amazon, meanwhile, rose 0.7%. On the winning side was Tesla, which rose 9.2% following an announcement that it will join the S&P 500 index next month.

(More stock market stories.)

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