The stock market climbed on Friday as latest inflation data posted its lowest rise in almost two years.
The Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Price Index, reportedly the preferred inflation data of the Federal Reserve, stood at 3%, from the 3.8% increase in May. Such continued to show easing inflation.
Overall, S&P 500 rose 1.0% to 4,582, while NASDAQ went up 1.9% to 14,317.
Tweet of the Day
Meta announced that Reels (across their apps) is now on a $10B revenue run-rate, up 3.3x since last year.
For comparison, TikTok made ~$9.5B last year.
— Tanay Jaipuria (@tanayj) July 28, 2023
Chart of the Day
Here is the one-year chart of UnitedHealth (UNH) as of July 24, 2023, when the stock was at $507.
UnitedHealth, the nation’s leading health insurer, is comprised of two main divisions, UnitedHealthcare and Optum. UnitedHealthcare, the larger division, is responsible for the provision of health insurance. Optum, on the other hand, aims to take preventive measures to improve a people’s health.
UnitedHealth is delivering slower profit growth as people are now doing procedures that they postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic. And more procedures mean more medical bills that UnitedHealthcare has to cover. The medical care ratio was 83.2% last quarter, up from 81.5% in the year-ago period. This is due to deferred procedures during the pandemic are now being addressed.
Last quarter, the company met estimates of 10% profit growth, which is a good number. But it also delivered 16% revenue growth, which was accelerated growth from 12% the prior three quarters.
UNH is part of the Conservative Growth Portfolio.
