LATIMES.COM/BUSINESS C
Wall Street closed out the
week with more milestones
Friday as the Dow Jones in-
dustrial average surpassed
28,000 points for the first
time and the Standard &
Poor’s 500 index and Nasdaq
also set record highs.
Healthcare and technol-
ogy stocks powered most of
the broad rally, which helped
drive the S&P 500 to its sixth
straight weekly gain. The
Dow is on a four-week win
streak.
Investors have been en-
couraged by surprisingly
good corporate earnings,
three interest rate cuts by
the Federal Reserve and
data showing that the U.S.
economy is still growing sol-
idly. Hopes that the United
States and China can make
progress in their latest push
for a trade deal have also
helped keep investors in a
buying mood.
“Over the past week, the
market absorbed a number of
challenging trade headlines,
and it didn’t go down,” said
Willie Delwiche, investment
strategist at Baird. “It might
just be the case that with pos-
itive momentum, after not
having had a chance to pull
the market down, the bulls
stepped in again and said,
‘Let’s keep this thing going.’ ”
The S&P 500 index rose
23.83 points, or 0.8%, to
3,120.46.
The Dow advanced
222.93 points, or 0.8%, to
28,004.89. The Nasdaq com-
posite climbed 61.81 points,
or 0.7%, to 8,540.83. The Rus-
sell 2000 index of smaller
companies rose 7.66 points,
or 0.5%, to 1,596.45.
The S&P, Dow and
Nasdaq are now all up more
than 20% for the year.
Bond prices fell Friday,
pushing yields higher, a sig-
nal that investors were shift-
ing away from safe-play
holdings. The yield on the 10-
year Treasury rose to 1.84%
from 1.81%.
Traders hope the world’s
two biggest economies can
make a deal before new and
more damaging tariffs take
effect next month. Beijing is
pressing Washington to roll
back tariffs as part of a po-
tential deal that the nations
are trying to hammer out.
Investors mostly
shrugged off news reports
this week suggesting that
trade talks have hit a snag.
On Friday, Commerce Sec-
retary Wilbur Ross told Fox
Business that it is likely a
trade deal will get done,
though he said it’s possible
that a pact could unravel at
the last minute as it did
when both sides got close to
a deal in May.
A report showing U.S. re-
tail sales rebounded a mod-
est 0.3% in October after fall-
ing the previous month also
encouraged traders. J.C.
Penney surged after it raised
its profit forecast.
Healthcare stocks
jumped Friday, with insur-
ers getting a boost after the
Trump administration offi-
cially announced a rule that
would require hospitals and
other providers to make
public the rates for drugs,
doctor visits and other serv-
ices and Democratic presi-
dential candidate Elizabeth
Warren provided details on
her “Medicare for all” plan.
Humana climbed 5.5%,
UnitedHealth Group rose
5.3%, and Anthem gained
5.6%.
Technology stocks also
notched solid gains. Applied
Materials jumped 9%, the
biggest gain in the S&P 500,
after reporting solid quar-
terly earnings.
The materials sector was
the only sector to slip. Util-
ities and makers of house-
hold goods posted the small-
est gains as investors turned
away from less risky, defen-
sive stocks.
Home furnishings firm
RH climbed 7.6%, and ener-
gy company Occidental Pe-
troleum gained 2.9% after
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire
Hathaway disclosed that it
had picked up shares of both
companies.
Benchmark crude oil
rose 95 cents to settle at
$57.72 a barrel. Brent crude,
the international standard,
rose $1.02 to close at $63.30 a
barrel. Wholesale gasoline
rose 2 cents, to $1.64 a gallon.
Heating oil climbed 3 cents,
to $1.95 a gallon. Natural gas
rose 4 cents, to $2.69 per 1,
cubic feet.
Gold fell $4.50, to $1,467.
an ounce. Silver fell 8 cents,
to $16.93 an ounce. Copper
rose 2 cents, to $2.64 a pound.Interest rates
T-bill: 1 year 1.54 -0.02 -0.76 -1.
T-note: 5 year 1.65 -0.09 -0.50 -1.
T-note: 10 years 1.83 -0.10 -0.55 -1.
T-bond: 30 years 2.31 -0.11 -0.51 -1.Weekly 6 month 1 year
Treasuries Yield change change changeMajor stock indexes
Dow industrials 28,004.89 +222.93 +0.80 +20.
S&P 500 3,120.46 +23.83 +0.77 +24.
Nasdaq composite 8,540.83 +61.81 +0.73 +28.
S&P 400 2,000.61 +9.15 +0.46 +20.
Russell 2000 1,596.45 +7.66 +0.48 +18.
EuroStoxx 50 3,337.19 +6.75 +0.20 +20.
Nikkei (Japan) 23,303.32 +161.77 +0.70 +16.
Hang Seng (Hong Kong) 26,326.66 +2.97 +0.01 +1.Daily Daily % YTD %
Index Close change change change6 Month CD 0.79 0.79 0.92 0.
1 Year CD 1.15 1.16 1.27 1.
2 Year CD 1.19 1.19 1.21 1.
30 Year Fixed 3.73 3.80 3.77 4.
15 Year Fixed 3.17 3.23 3.17 3.
30 Year Jumbo 4.30 4.38 4.33 4.Week 6 months 1 year
Bank & mortgage rates Rate ago ago agoCommodities
Oil: Barrel Dec 19
Gold Ounce Nov 19
Silver Ounce Nov 19Delivery Close Weekly 1 year
Commodity: Unit date in $ change change
57.72 +0.48 +1.
1,467.30 +6.00 +246.
16.93 +0.15 +2.
Associated Press (Bank and mortgage rate figures from Bankrate.com)Online updates
For current market coverage plus stock prices and
company data, go to latimes.com/business2400025000260002700028000290003000024000250002600027000280002900030000MJ J A S O NFriday:28,004.
Up 222.Dow: six months
MARKET ROUNDUP
Tech stocks
and healthcare
star in a rally
associated press
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
explained Friday how she
plans to gradually move the
United States into her gov-
ernment-run “Medicare for
all” system, sending man-
aged-care and hospital
stocks higher as the Demo-
cratic presidential candi-
date mapped out her three-
year design to fundamen-
tally change the way Ameri-
cans get healthcare cov-
erage.
Warren said in a Medium
post Friday that she would
ask Congress to use a legis-
lative maneuver to put chil-
dren and poor families
under Medicare for all in her
first 100 days in the White
House, and that she would
not fully implement her
$20.5-trillion plan until her
third year in office.
Managed-care and hos-
pital stocks rallied, leading
the S&P 500 Health Index to
an all-time high Friday.
Shares of some of the na-
tion’s largest insurers, in-
cluding UnitedHealth
Group Inc., Humana Inc.,
Anthem Inc. and Centene
Corp., climbed more than
5%.
The healthcare stocks’
jump is a turnaround from
the first nine months of the
year, when the industry
trailed most of its market
peers amid drug-pricing
regulations and Medicare
for all proposals.
Warren would need
Democratic majorities in
the House and Senate toachieve her plan.
She said she would ask
Congress to use a quirk in
the budget process to allow a
simple majority vote — by-
passing the 60-vote Senate
threshold — and “fast-
track” a Medicare for all op-
tion that would immediately
cover children under 18 and
families making less than
$51,000 a year, and provide an
option for expanded Medi-
care for people over 50.
In the first three years,
anyone else could buy into
Medicare for all at a “mod-
est” cost, Warren said, be-
fore it eventually became
free.
By her third year in office,
Warren said, “the American
people will have experienced
the full benefits of a true
Medicare for all option, and
they can see for themselves
how that experience stacks
up against high-priced care
that requires them to fight
tooth and nail against their
insurance company.”
She added, “I won’t hand
Mitch McConnell a veto over
my healthcare agenda,” re-
ferring to the current Senate
majority leader.
After repeated question-
ing about how she would fi-
nance a government-run
Medicare for all system that
eliminates private insur-
ance, Warren on Nov. 1 rolled
out a $20.5-trillion proposal
funded by taxing the rich
and large corporations.
Her gradual implemen-
tation “will give people time
to adjust, people in the in-
dustry will have time to look
for other jobs, pension plans
will have time to start chang-
ing their portfolio, and it will
give the government time to
gear up the bureaucracy,”
said Gerald Friedman, pro-
fessor of economics at the
University of Massachusettsat Amherst, who consulted
with Sen. Bernie Sanders’
2016 presidential campaign
on Medicare for all, the basis
of Warren’s plan.
The new proposal sets
Warren apart from Sanders,
who is running for president
again and has said he
wouldn’t compromise with
incremental healthcare
changes.
But Friedman cautioned
that a long transition period
could leave the private
health insurance industry in
shambles.
“If you know that in three
years your company is going
to be wiped out, then it could
create perverse incentives,
staff start exiting, and com-
panies may become dys-
functional before the gov-
ernment program is set up,”
Friedman said.
Warren’s new proposal at
least at first looks much like
those of her moderate rivals,
Joe Biden and Pete
Buttigieg: expanded govern-
ment-run insurance without
mandating it for everyone.
Representatives for Bid-
en and Buttigieg quickly
weighed in.
“Sen. Warren is now try-
ing to muddy the waters
even further,” said Biden
deputy campaign manager
Kate Bedingfield. “We’re not
going to beat Donald Trump
next year with double talk on
healthcare.”
Buttigieg spokeswoman
Lis Smith said, “Sen. War-
ren’s new healthcare ‘plan’ is
a transparently political at-
tempt to paper over a very
serious policy problem,
which is that she wants to
force 150 million people off
their private insurance —
whether they like it or not.”
Even if Democrats con-
trol the entire federal gov-
ernment in 2021, their best-case scenario is a narrow
Senate majority that would
probably leave Warren far
short of the votes to pass
Medicare for all. And several
key Democrats have
pledged not to eliminate the
legislative filibuster. But the
party is more united around
the idea of a government-
run insurance option.
The budget fast-track
process, known as reconcili-
ation, has been used by ma-
jorities in both parties to
avoid a filibuster. Demo-
crats under then-President
Obama used it to pass Oba-
macare in 2010. Republicans
under President Trump
tried to use the procedure to
repeal the healthcare law in
2017 but came up short.
“While Republicans tried
to use fast-track budget rec-
onciliation legislation to rip
away health insurance from
millions of people with just
50 votes in the Senate, I’ll use
that tool in reverse — to im-
prove our existing public in-
surance programs,” Warren
wrote.
Still, budget reconcilia-
tion creates complications
as Senate rules require that
such legislation be limited to
changes involving taxes and
spending. Republicans
struggled to shoehorn their
attempted repeal of Oba-
macare, which included
regulatory reforms, into the
process.
Warren also vowed to
take immediate action to
lower drug prices in her first
days as president, including
on insulin, EpiPens and
drugs that save people from
opioid overdoses. A Warren
administration would help
companies produce expen-
sive medicines as a price-
control measure and use ad-
ministrative authority to en-
sure sufficient supply.SEN. ELIZABETH WARRENsays she would need Democratic congressional majorities to achieve her plan.Jim WatsonAFP/Getty ImagesWarren maps her timeline
toward ‘Medicare for all’
Three-year plan starts
with ‘fast-track’ move
in her first 100 days.
Health stocks rise.
bloombergNew rules the Trump ad-
ministration issued Friday
would require insurers and
hospitals to disclose upfront
the actual prices for com-
mon tests and procedures to
promote competition and
push down costs.
The sweeping changes
face stiff pushback from the
healthcare industry. A coali-
tion of major hospital
groups quickly announced
that hospitals will sue to
block key provisions, which
regardless don’t take effect
immediately.
Even in an ideal world
where information flows
freely, patients and their
families would have to deal
with a learning curve to get
comfortable with the byzan-
tine world of healthcare
billing. What sounds like the
same procedure can have
different billing codes de-
pending on factors that may
not be apparent to an un-
trained person.
Speaking at a White
House event, President
Trump skipped over poten-
tial difficulties, at times
making it sound like open-ness in healthcare pricing
was a done deal.
“After many years, we will
have transparency,” Trump
said. “Within about 12
months I think it will be fully
implemented.” He predicted
“a tremendous impact on
prices.”
A final rule issued Friday
would apply to hospitals,
and a proposed regulation
would apply to insurance
plans. Disclosure require-
ments for hospitals would
not take effect until 2021; for
insurers, the timing is un-
clear. The requirements do
not directly affect doctors.
Officials say the rules
would shine a spotlight on
the confusing maze of
healthcare prices, enabling
informed patients to find
services at the lowest cost.
Prices for an MRI scan, for
example, can vary by hun-
dreds of dollars depending
on where it’s done.
“American patients have
been at the mercy of a shad-
owy system with little access
to the information they need
to make decisions about
their own care,” Health and
Human Services Secretary
Alex Azar said, pointing out
that many hospital pro-
cedures are scheduled in ad-
vance, giving patients a
chance to shop around.
Under the administra-
tion rules, insurers would
have to provide patients
with online access to individ-ualized estimates, in ad-
vance, for what they would
owe out of pocket for covered
services. Most people now
see such information after
the fact, when their “expla-
nation of benefits” form ar-
rives in the mail.
Insurers and hospitals
say the push for disclosure
goes too far. They say the
government would force
them to publicly disclose
rates they negotiate as part
of private contracts that
normally are beyond the
purview of authorities.
“This rule will introduce
widespread confusion, ac-
celerate anticompetitive be-
havior among health insur-
ers, and stymie innova-
tions,” the American Hospi-
tal Assn. and three other
major hospital groups said
in a statement. “Our four or-
ganizations will soon join
with member hospitals to
file a legal challenge to the
rule on grounds including
that it exceeds the adminis-
tration’s authority.”
Insurers also contend the
plan could backfire, prompt-
ing relatively low-cost pro-
viders to try to raise their
prices when they see that
others are getting more.
Azar dismissed such
criticism. “Point me to one
sector of the American econ-
omy where having price in-
formation in a competitive
marketplace actually leads
to higher prices,” he said.With the hospital indus-
try going to court, it could be
a long time before consum-
ers see changes.
For hospitals, the rule
would require publication in
a consumer-friendly manner
of negotiated rates for the
300 most common services
that can be scheduled in ad-
vance, such as a knee re-
placement, a cesarean-sec-
tion delivery or an MRI scan.
Hospitals would have to dis-
close what they’d be willing
to accept if the patient pays
cash. Information would be
updated annually.
It also would require hos-
pitals to publish all their
charges in a format that can
be read on the internet by
other computer systems.
This would enable web de-
velopers and consumer
groups to come up with tools
that patients and their fam-
ilies can use.
For insurers, the rule
would require creating an
online tool that policyhold-
ers can use to get a real-time
personalized estimate of
their out-of-pocket costs for
all covered healthcare serv-
ices and items, including
hospitalization, doctor vis-
its, lab tests and medicines.
It also would require in-
surers to disclose online the
rates they negotiate for in-
network providers, as well as
the maximum amounts they
would pay to an out-of-net-
work doctor or hospital.Healthcare price disclosure pushed
Trump touts new rules
that would require
insurers and hospitalsto publish their rates.
associated press