By Kate Gibson
With health care a hotly debated topic on Capitol Hill and Wall
Street for the foreseeable future, stock market observers on
Thursday weighed the impact of possible reform on the bottom lines
of U.S. households and public companies.
"The big question is whether investors have already factored in
the implications of a significant health-care related tax increase
into their estimates of consumer spending and corporate profits,"
wrote Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at Davidson Cos., in a
note Thursday.
President Barack Obama threw his support behind a government-run
insurance option as one part of a broader health-care plan in a
speech Wednesday night before a joint session of Congress.
On Thursday, the health-care sector was among those on the rise,
as the major indexes ended at 2009 highs to extend a winning streak
to a fifth consecutive day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI)
added 80.26 points, or 0.8%, to 9,627.48. The S&P 500 Index
(SPX) gained 10.77 points, or 1%, to 1,044.14, while the Nasdaq
Composite Index (RIXF) climbed 23.63 points, or 1.2%, to
2,084.02.
With the costs of employer-sponsored health soaring more than
100% in the past decade, experts in the aerospace and manufacturing
sectors say the skyrocketing costs are hobbling growth and
shareholder value.
Large-cap aerospace companies including Northrop Grumman Corp.
(NOC), Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Rockwell Collins Inc. (COL)
are among those seeing the cost of their health-care benefits
spiking yearly at more than twice the rate of inflation. .
Health-care companies have witnessed their share of upheaval
this year in terms of changes at the top, with the sector leading
the rest, according to outplacement firm Challenger & Christmas
Inc. The firm on Thursday reported 13 chief executive departures in
health care in August, bringing to 134 the count of CEO exits in
the sector so far this year.
Jeffrey Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial,
pointed to a recent revival in merger-and-acquisition activity in
health care as boosting the sector's performance during the past
month, and said he expects the dealmaking to continue.
"The credit markets have healed enough to allow specialty
drugmaker Warner Chilcott Ltd. (WCRX) to raise about $4 billion to
refinance debt and purchase Procter & Gamble Co.'s (PG) drug
business," he said of the transaction announced late last month.
.
The household products giant and Dow component factored in the
sale of its pharmaceutical unit on Thursday, sticking to its fiscal
2010 sales forecast, with its shares finishing up more than 4%.
.
Another market strategist, Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research Inc.,
said Obama's speech included fairly noncontroversial talking points
that could be a starting point toward what he calls a reasonable
compromise.
Yardeni lists the points as follows:
* The health-care system may work for many of us, but too many
Americans aren't receiving sufficient care.
* Even if the system is working well for most of us now, it will
be strained to accommodate the needs of retiring baby boomers.
* While health care isn't an entitlement, all citizens should
have access to good care. It should be universal.
* Health insurance should be transportable. It should not be
employer-based.
* There should be a way to cover pre-existing conditions.
* Senior citizens should have adequate access to health care
regardless of their age.
* Health care should be financed on a pay-as-you-go basis,
rather than through government deficits.
* We can't all have access to unlimited free care. There must be
some limits imposed by the government or the marketplace.