{"id":58078,"date":"2026-01-28T08:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/dowjonestodaydow-jones-slides-as-unitedhealth-plummets-on-medicare-rate-concerns\/58078\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T08:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:09:15","slug":"dowjonestodaydow-jones-slides-as-unitedhealth-plummets-on-medicare-rate-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/dowjonestodaydow-jones-slides-as-unitedhealth-plummets-on-medicare-rate-concerns\/58078\/","title":{"rendered":"[DowJonesToday]Dow Jones Slides as UnitedHealth Plummets on Medicare Rate Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/indices\/dowjones\/today\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Dow Jones Today\">Dow Jones<\/a> Industrial Average (^DJI) was down <strong>408.99 (-0.8277%)<\/strong> points today, largely driven by a significant decline in <strong>UnitedHealth Group<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/UNH\">UNH<\/a>). The healthcare giant&#39;s shares plummeted approximately <strong>19.35%<\/strong> after reporting its <strong>fourth-quarter 2025 earnings<\/strong>, with revenues slightly missing forecasts and adjusted earnings per share significantly lower year-over-year. The primary catalyst for the steep sell-off was a surprisingly low <strong>Medicare Advantage (MA) rate proposal for 2027<\/strong> from the Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services (CMS), indicating a mere <strong>0.09%<\/strong> payment increase, which was weaker than anticipated and pressured the stock. Analysts from UBS and Jefferies subsequently lowered their price targets for <strong>UNH<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This company-specific event overshadowed broader market movements, including anticipation of the Federal Reserve&#39;s interest rate decision, where the central bank is widely expected to hold rates steady. Despite the overall Dow decline, several technology and consumer discretionary stocks posted gains. <strong>Amazon<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/AMZN\">AMZN<\/a>) rose <strong>2.98%<\/strong>, <strong>Microsoft<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/MSFT\">MSFT<\/a>) climbed <strong>2.60%<\/strong>, and <strong>Cisco<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/CSCO\">CSCO<\/a>) advanced <strong>2.26%<\/strong>, emerging as the biggest gainers within the index.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, beyond <strong>UnitedHealth Group<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/UNH\">UNH<\/a>), other significant losers included <strong>Nike<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/NKE\">NKE<\/a>), which fell <strong>2.89%<\/strong>, and <strong>Home Depot<\/strong> (<a href=\"\/stock\/HD\">HD<\/a>), down <strong>1.58%<\/strong>. The pronounced impact of <strong>UNH&#39;s<\/strong> performance highlights how a single major component&#39;s news, particularly related to regulatory outlook and earnings, can steer the direction of a price-weighted index like the Dow Jones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was down 408.99 (-0.8277%) points today, largely driven by a significant decline in UnitedHealth [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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