STORY: U.S. stocks slumped on Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled a slower pace of interest-rate cuts and investors reacted to cabinet selections by President-elect Donald Trump.
The Dow dropped seven-tenths of a percent, the S&P 500 slid 1.3% and the Nasdaq plunged two-and-a-quarter percent.
Shares of vaccine makers and packaged food companies sank after Trump said he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who has spread misinformation on vaccines and criticized ultra-processed foods, to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
And shares of defense firms and government contractors also fell, partly on concerns about Trump’s picks earlier this week to head a new Department of Government Efficiency.
Rob Haworth is senior investment strategy director at U.S. Bank Asset Management Group.
“There’s been such a positive reaction post election that I think it’s tough for markets to not be a little surprised at how far the policies may go and maybe exhibiting some caution. As we’re seeing in the pharmaceutical stocks today, as we’re seeing in some of the other companies that have kind of reacted to the to the picks. The market’s really trying to interpret how far will the agenda go? How deep will policies go?”
Shares of Moderna and Pfizer sank, weighing on the S&P healthcare sector, which hit its lowest level since May.
The Consumer staples index, also hurt by the nomination news, was dragged down by stocks including Monster Beverage, Lamb Weston and PepsiCo.
Among other movers, Applied Materials tumbled more than 9% after the U.S. maker of chip-manufacturing equipment forecast first-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates.
