Wall Street Today: S&P, Nasdaq open higher as US-Japan tariff talks begin; UnitedHealth drags Dow down 1.5%

Wall Street Today: US stock markets opened higher on Thursday, April 17, as investors focused on the tariffs talks between the United States and Japan, which started on Wednesday, April 16, amid an ongoing trade war.

“A Great Honour to have just met with the Japanese Delegation on Trade. Big Progress!” said US President Donald Trump in his social media post on Truth Social. 

At 9:30 p.m. (EDT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 462.72 points or 1.17 per cent to 39,206.67 points on Thursday's Wall Street open, compared to 39,669.39 points at the previous stock market session.

The Dow Jones on Thursday was dragged down by the UnitedHealth Group shares, which plunged more than 22 per cent after the company slashed its full-year outlook as it missed the expectations over the quarterly earnings.

UnitedHealth Group shares are currently trading 22.88 per cent lower at $451.14 at 11:42 p.m. (EDT), compared to $585.04 at the previous US market session. 

Dow Jones Stocks

Chevron Corp., Home Depot Inc., Walt Disney Co., Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble Co., Merck & Co. Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Boeing Co., Honeywell International Inc., Walmart Inc., Caterpillar Inc., Nike Inc., Coca-Cola Co., Verizon Communications Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Travelers Cos. Inc., Apple Inc., 3M Co., International Business Machines Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., American Express Co., Visa Inc., and McDonald's Corp., were among the top gainers on the Dow Jones index, as per the early trends data.

UnitedHealth Group Inc., Nvidia Corp., Amgen Inc., Salesforce Inc., Amazon, and Microsoft Corp., were among the top laggards, Marketwatch data shows. 

S&P 500 Today

The S&P 500 index opened 0.56 per cent higher at 5,305.45 points on Thursday's Wall Street session, compared to 5,275.70 points at the previous market close. The index is trading 0.27 per cent higher after a brief fall.

The companies fueling the S&P 500's rise were Eli Lilly & Co., Fidelity National Information Services Inc., Dollar Tree Inc., Diamondback Energy Inc., APA Corp., Occidental Petroleum Corp., Devon Energy Corp., ConocoPhillips, Halliburton Co., and Huntington Bancshares Inc.

As per the Marketwatch data, the top losers in the early trends were UnitedHealth Group Inc., Global Payments Inc., Snap-On Inc., Humana Inc., Marsh & McLennan Cos., Nvidia Corp., Super Micro Computer Inc., West Pharmaceutical Services Inc., Bio-Techne Corp., and Intel Corp. 

Nasdaq Composite

Nasdaq Composite opened 0.57 per cent higher at 16,399.973 points, compared to 16,307.16 points at the previous US market close. The index is currently trading 0.11 per cent lower as of 11:52 am (EDT).

Adagio Medical Holdings Inc., China SXT Pharmaceuticals Inc., Motorsports Games Inc., Baijiayun Group Ltd., uniQure N.V., Hertz Global Holdings Inc., SMX (Security Matters) Plc., Ohmyhome Ltd., Sharps Technology Inc., ENDRA Life Sciences Inc., were the top gainers as of the early market session on Wall Street.

Others like Google's parent Alphabet, Aspira Women's Health Inc., Click Holdings Ltd., Shineco Inc., iOThree Ltd., Femto Technologies Inc., Janover Inc., CaliberCos Inc., TNF Pharmaceuticals and Greenwave Technology Solutions were among the losers on Thursday's stock market session.

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