By Kate Gibson
U.S. stock-market investors are following in the footsteps of billionaire investor Warren Buffett by rotating into health-care stocks, with that defensive sector the sole industry group not losing ground to Monday's sharp equity-market decline.
While the broad market was slammed, shares of large insurers rallied as the Obama administration apparently backed off its plan to give Americans the option of signing up for a government-run health-insurance option.
Shares of Coventry Health Care Inc. (CVH) rose 6%, while shares of Aetna Inc. (AET) gained 4%, matching the advances of UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) and Cigna Corp. (CI).
On the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI), pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. was the best-performing stock, up nearly 1%. The Dow industrials were off 187.42 points at 9,133.98. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) fell 22.47 points to 9,131.71. And the Nasdaq Composite (RIXF) declined 49.34 points to 1,936.18.