Aetna, Cigna and UnumProvident Show Declines; Rise of Texas Instruments, IBM Fails to Lift Market Rattled by Insurance News
Dow Jones Newswires</br></br>NEW YORK -- Stocks of Aetna, Cigna and UnumProvident were especially weak as the probe of insurers appeared to be taking a bigger turn toward health-care providers. Even strength by International Business Machines and Texas Instruments couldn't lift the market.</br></br>The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 58.70 points, or 0.59%, to 9897.62 and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 13.62, or 0.7%, to 1922.90. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 10.79, or 0.97%, to 1103.23, continuing its seesawing between positive and negative territory. The index is now back in the red for the year.</br></br>The insurance news rattled the market, traders said, helping to set the trend for the session.</br></br>"The hammer can drop, and this time it came from chatter about what Spitzer is doing regarding the investigations of insurance companies," said William Choi, trader at Pali Capital Management.