Investing.com – U.S. equities traded lower on Thursday, as gains in Financials were mostly wiped out by losses in healthcare stocks, after President Trump’s budget blueprint proposed spending cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Healthcare stocks nosedived, as President Trump’s budget blueprint proposed cutting the NIH budget by $5.8 billion while Financial stocks mostly banks traded tentatively higher after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates on Wednesday.
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday, raised interest rates by 0.25% to a target range of 0.75% to 1% but kept its previous forecast of three rate increases this year unchanged.
Meanwhile economic data failed to lift sentiment, as weekly initial jobless claim fell less than expected while housing starts and the Philadelphia Fed Index beat forecasts.
Weekly initial jobless claims fell to 241,000. Housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.288 million in February while the Philadelphia Fed Index topped forecasts at 32.8 for March. Both the Philadelphia Fed Index and the housing starts beat forecasts.
In corporate earnings news, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) soared more than 6% higher, as the tech giant delivered better than expected fiscal third quarter earnings after the US close on Wednesday.
Oracle posted earnings of 69 cents per share on revenue of $9.21 billion against expectations of earnings of 62 cents per share on revenue of $9.255 billion.
Oracle traded at $45.86, up 6.5%, by 14:56 EDT.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded 0.2% lower at 20,908. The S&P 500 lost 0.26% and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.17% to trade at 5,890.