US stocks were lower in early afternoon trading on Thursday as a steep fall in crude oil prices weighed on energy shares and with healthcare stocks in focus ahead of a cliffhanger vote on repealing Obamacare. Lawmakers will vote later in the afternoon on a Republican healthcare bill to repeal and replace major portions of former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare act.
If the bill passes it will hand a major legislative victory to President Donald Trump, but will face steep hurdles in the Senate. The S&P healthcare index was up 0.5 percent, the second-biggest increase among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors. The losers were led by the energy sector, which fell 2.24 percent to its lowest level since August as crude oil prices slumped more than 4 percent on fears of an oversupply.
Exxon and Chevron were among the biggest drags on the three major indexes. Facebook also weighed on both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq as its shares fell 1 percent after the company's outlook on advertising growth and expenses spooked investors. Apple was down 0.5 percent, and was the biggest drag on the Nasdaq. At 12:52 pm ET (1652 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 49.08 points, or 0.23 percent, at 20,908.82.
The S&P 500 was down 2.16 points, or 0.09 percent, at 2,385.97 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 5.10 points, or 0.08 percent, at 6,067.45. The US stock market had opened higher after the Federal Reserve indicated it could raise interest rates in June and downplayed recent weak economic data. "I think the Fed's diagnosis of what happened in the first quarter was basically correct," said David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management in Washington. "The economic data waxes and wanes and there's clearly a seasonal adjustment in the first quarter from which we see a bounce back."
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