AI, health insurance stocks drove a bumpy week for markets

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

January was a wild ride for investors. Just last week, the S&P 500 hit a new record high. But beneath the surface, there's a lot of lingering anxiety, including around tech, health care and, of course, politics. NPR's Maria Aspan joins us now to unpack Wall Street's latest drama. Great to have you, Maria.

MARIA ASPAN, BYLINE: Great to be with you, Ayesha.

RASCOE: So a lot happened this month, from the U.S. strike in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro to President Trump naming a new Federal Reserve chair. How did investors react to all this drama?

ASPAN: There were so many mood swings. I mean, at one point this month, the stock market had its worst day since October. That was after President Trump made new threats about tariffs and taking U.S. control of Greenland. Then this past week, the S&P 500 hit that all-time high. We're seeing all this sort of anxiety and volatility play out, especially with gold and other precious metals. Gold has been on this crazy run for the past couple of years, and earlier this week, it was selling for $5,000 per ounce. Silver and copper also hit record highs before they all fell back. And gold and these other precious metals are seen as a safe haven. It's what people buy when we get anxious.

RASCOE: It was also a bumpy week for AI, which has been a huge bright spot for Wall Street. So why did investors freak out about it?

ASPAN: So tech companies are largely powering the stock market, as we've covered extensively at NPR. They're responsible for about a third of the S&P 500, so what happens with tech matters for all of Wall Street. And in general, big tech companies are spending so much money on AI, and they're just not seeing a payoff yet. They might eventually, but every time investors get reminded about how much companies are betting on what could be a bubble, they freak out a little. Now, last week, there were a bunch of big tech companies that put out earnings reports, and many were pretty good overall. But they also showed a lot of spending on AI. Microsoft, in particular, reported quarterly earnings that beat expectations, but also said that it was spending more than investors expected on building out AI infrastructure. And then its stock fell 10% the next day.

RASCOE: We also saw a huge sell-off in health insurance stocks last week. What was behind that?

ASPAN: So health care has been kind of a drag on Wall Street in recent months, and it had another very bad week. In particular, investors got spooked after the Trump administration said the government is barely going to increase the amount that it pays these companies to run Medicare programs. Now, Medicare is a big business for a lot of private insurers. But their costs are going up, and the government payments are not, really, so health care stocks had a terrible week. And UnitedHealth Group, for example, saw its shares plummet almost 20%. This matters because health insurance companies also play a big role in the stock market and in the broader economy. UnitedHealth is one of the largest companies in the country, so it can drag down the broader market.

Now, obviously, health insurance companies are facing a lot of consumer pressure because people are paying so much more money for health insurance these days. But despite all that, from an investor perspective, they're not making enough money.

RASCOE: That's NPR's Maria Aspan. Thank you so much for speaking with us.

ASPAN: Thank you.

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