Health Care ETFs Slump

Chairman Dan Wiener joined CNBC’s “ETFA type of security which allows investors to indirectly invest in an underlying basket of financial instruments (these may include stocks, bonds, commodities or other types of instruments). Shares in an ETF are publicly traded on an exchange, and the price of an ETF’s shares will fluctuate throughout the trading day (traditional mutual funds trade only once a day). For example, one popular ETF tracks the companies in the S&P 500, so buying a share of the ETF gets an investor exposure to all 500 companies in the index. Edge” to discuss the slumping medical sector. Health Care Select Sector SPDR fund and iShares Dow Jones US Health Care ETF respectively dropped 2% and 5% this past month as a result of rising drug prices, uncertainty related to the Affordable Care Act and Senator Bernie Sanders’ recent “Medicare-for-All” proposal. Dan noted that Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer carry heavy weight in large health care ETFs—currently representing around 15% of combined holdings. As a result, these sector funds suffer when either of these stocksA financial instrument giving the holder a proportion of the ownership and earnings of a company. declines.