Stocks Push Higher as Healthcare Companies Rally. SP500 Laggards: S, THC, EK, PWR, and ETFC

Published on Tuesday, 19 January 2010 12:37 Written by Christopher Lynn

New York, Jan 19^th (TradersHuddle.com) – Stocks were pushing higher after Citigroup rebounded and the gains in drugs, healthcare, and semiconductors were lifting the market higher.

At 12:34 PM the Dow Jones Industrial Average was gaining 95.91 points, or 0.90%. The S&P 500 index was adding 11.40 points or 1.00%. The NASDAQ was jumping 26.94 points or 1.18%.

Citi (NYSE:C) reported a net loss of 33 cents per share, in line with analyst estimates, but its revenue was lower than expected. But investors seemed to focus on the positive as net credit losses fell by about $800 million from the third quarter to $7.1 billion, the second straight quarter of improvement.

Healthcare companies were rallying on speculation Republicans will block an industry overhaul, while Treasuries fell and a stronger dollar sent oil lower. The special election in Massachusetts and a possible shocking victory by the Republicans appear to investors as a positive. With the Republican victory, the Democrats will loose the 60 vote supermajority, making harder for anti-business policies to get through the Senate.

On the flip side, Sprint Nextel was posting the biggest decline in the S&P 500 index as shares of the owner of third wireless carrier in the U.S. were tumbling 4.97% to $3.63. After research firm Bernstein downgraded the company to under-perform from market perform.

Tenet Healthcare (NYSE:THC) was posting the second worst percentage decline in the broad market index. The Dallas based hospital operator shares were falling 4.04% to $5.82, as hospital shares were falling ahead of a possible Republican victory in the Senate special election.

The third worst decline in the broad market index was from Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK), as shares of the photographic supplies company were falling 3.21% to $4.83.

The fourth worst stock in the broad market index was Quanta Services (NYSE:PWR) as shares were falling 2.86% to $18.51. The company was downgraded by research fimr FBR Capital from Outperform to Under-perform.

E*Trade Financial (NASDAQ:ETFC) was the fifth worst S&P 500 index stock, shares of the online broker were losing 2.71% to $1.79, after takeover speculation eased.