Health stocks pull market higher as Mass. votes

[harun]

Source: Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) -- Investors moved back into stocks on hopes that a special election in Massachusetts will take away power from Senate Democrats and make it harder for President Barack Obama to make changes to health care.

The prospect of a logjam in Washington over health care eased concerns that profits at companies like insurers and drug makers would suffer. Rising health stocks pulled the broader market higher.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Health-stocks-pull-market-apf-2391737630.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=0cfe57dc0913fa1b550846c9e5fc3e55&ccode=mp

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Wall Street seems to think they know the outcome of the vote.

[AlphaCentauri]

1. At least they own this democracy n/t

[prolesunited]

2. If reform is such a boon to them

why are they betting on its defeat?

[tridim]

3. Because that meme is a lie.

Always has been.

[harun]

4. Proof of Wall St.'s Short Sightedness

The real boon to Wall St. would be a healthy populace and business's that didn't need to spend so much on Health Insurance. Entrepreneurs that could start new business's and attract talent without having to worry about how to fund their health insurance costs.

Single Payer for everyone would take that cost out of the equation for business's. They don't look that far ahead though. They just care that profits would tick a little higher for a few select companies if Health Care Reform fails.

[high density]

7. No kidding

What corporation, outside of the healthcare industry, is eager about the idea of paying more and more of their profits every year to a health insurance company? Unfortunately the initial hurdle to get companies to admit they're onboard with this change seems to be amazingly high.

[Unvanguard]

11. Because the removal of the public option was the boon, not HCR as a package.

They're probably better off if it's defeated, and they know it. They just didn't think that was an option before now.

[kirby]

13. It is all relative...

They are more than happy to keep their current system.
But if they are forced to change, they want the system they and their lobbyists helped write.

[Iowa]

17. The Senate bill will probably be a boon to them long-term, but...

...daily price fluctuations are driven by traders, emotion, and smoke & mirrors. It means nothing. Prices will probably go up if the Senate bill passes too.

Daily price fluctuations in the stock market is a very poor yardstick by which to measure the long-term effect of HCR (or anything else, for that matter).

[TomClash]

5. It's only 11;45 a.m.

Let's wait and see.

Believe it or not, Wall Street has been wrong before.

[harun]

6. I think they are dead wrong. No chance we lose that seat.

[TomClash]

8. I'd like to see the GOTV numbers

I like the better than expected turnout numbers.

[AlinPA]

9. A few weeks ago, some people here were talking about the increase in health care

stocks prices at that time was because the HCR bill made the industry more attractive for investment. Who knows?

[boomerbust]

10. It's the old Wall Street shuffle

Buy on the rumor sell on the news. They will sell no matter what the outcome of this election is.

[Zorra]

12. OMG. OMG. What has our country come to? Shameful. Disgusting.

Text deleted due to extreme obscenity.
:cry:

[DCBob]

14. Investors are knee jerk idiots for the most part..

They are mostly betting on the concept that other investors will see a Brown win and a subsequent HCR fail as a boon to the healthcare industry. I doubt they are thinking much more beyond that.

[wisteria]

15. There predicting based on what they have heard through the media.

Speculation is all it is.
And, I hope their speculation is wrong.

[wisteria]

16. And, doesn't this indicate that Obama was not helping the insurance companies?

Apparently with the idea that health care might not go through, the wall streeters are hedging their bets and investing in insurance companies today.

[Iowa]

19. No...

This is not an indication that Obama was not helping the insurance companies. Prices will probably go up if the Senate bill passes too. Daily price fluctuations in the stock market is like static... just meaningless background noise driven by traders.

While one might assume they are betting that the Senate bill will fail (and that its failure will harm insurance companies), they are more likely betting on things like the public's perception of the future. Traders are not long-term buyers; they assess perceptions, confusion, and uncertainty, and they make their bets accordingly. They will be long gone before the outcome is known - often in minutes - even seconds.

Short-term fluctuations in the stock market provides almost no useful information, and is certainly no vindication of Obama's HCR policy, nor should such fluctuations be used to criticize him. Using short-term fluctuations in this way would comprise the weakest of arguments.

[Turbineguy]

18. Heads

they win, tails, we lose.

[harun]

20. I think you might be right.