Wall Street choppy as Eli Lilly jumps, UnitedHealth plummets

By Noel Randewich and Lisa Pauline Mattackal

(Reuters) -Wall Street stocks ended mixed on Thursday, lifted by Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), as investors weighed progress in U.S. trade negotiations with Japan against concerns about the interest rate outlook.

Traders leaned toward optimism following U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about "big progress" in the bilateral talks after Wednesday’s steep selloff.

Trump also told reporters he expects to make a trade deal with China, although he offered no indication of how talks would get underway with the two superpowers at an apparent impasse.

The S&P 500 pared gains in the session’s final minutes and the Nasdaq turned negative, suggesting traders were wary of owning U.S. stocks over a three-day weekend, with the market closed for the Good Friday holiday.

Eli Lilly surged 14% after the drugmaker said its experimental pill worked as well as blockbuster drug Ozempic to lower weight and blood sugar in a trial of diabetes patients.

Apple climbed 1.4%, with the iPhone recovering from some of its recent deep losses.

UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) plunged 22% and kept the blue-chip Dow in negative territory after the insurer lowered its annual profit forecast on expectations of high medical costs for the rest of the year.

Other health insurers slumped, with CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) down almost 2% and Humana (NYSE:HUM) falling 7.4%.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.13% to end the session at 5,282.70 points.

The Nasdaq declined 0.13% to 16,286.45 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 1.33% to 39,142.23 points.

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Volume on U.S. exchanges was relatively light compared to unusually high volumes in recent sessions, with 14.6 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 19.2 billion shares over the previous 20 trading days.

Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, eight rose, led by energy, up 2.3%, followed by a 2.2% gain in consumer staples.

U.S. stocks have been whiplashed in recent weeks by Trump’s on-again off-again tariffs and his trade war with China.

In extended trading, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) rose 2.5% after the video streamer exceeded Wall Street expectations for quarterly results and offered a bullish revenue outlook.

For the shortened trading week, the S&P 500 fell 1.5%, the Nasdaq lost 2.6% and the Dow declined 2.7%.

The S&P 500 remains down about 7% since April 2, when Trump announced sweeping global tariffs that he later put on pause.

Investors are now laser-focused on talks with dozens of countries over the coming weeks for more clarity on the size and scope of tariffs on individual nations and sectors.

"The market wants Trump to announce trade deals," said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa. "The market wants tangible results, and that’s something the market is not getting."

Trump said on Thursday in a social media post that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s termination "cannot come fast enough," and he called for the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates.

Wall Street stocks fell on Wednesday after Powell warned that Trump’s trade policies risked fueling inflation while weakening economic growth.

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"It’s been known that Trump hasn’t been happy with Powell. The question is, does he attempt to do anything about it?" said Tom Bruce, macro investment strategist at Tanglewood Total Wealth Management, noting that removing Powell would damage confidence in U.S. markets.

Traders have scaled back the probability of a May rate cut to about 6%, according to CME’s FedWatch, while a Reuters poll showed economists see a higher probability of a U.S. recession in the next 12 months.

Data on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, suggesting labor market conditions remained stable in April, although uncertainty around tariffs is making businesses hesitant to boost hiring.

With the U.S. stock market closed on Friday, all three major Wall Street indexes logged their third weekly decline in four.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s shares dropped 1.4% after a federal judge ruled Google illegally dominated two markets for online advertising technology.

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 3.3-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted two new highs and two new lows. The Nasdaq recorded 29 new highs and 133 new lows.

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