Stocks - Dow Tops 27,000 as UnitedHealth Soars

The Dow hit a new high as it topped 27,000 for the first time on Thursday thanks to a huge gain for health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group and sizable for gains for Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS). But stocks overall were mixed. While the Dow industrials finished up 0.85%, the S&P 500 was up just 0.23%. The NASDAQ Composite fell 0.08%. The Dow surged to a new intraday high of 27,072 on news the Trump administration had abandoned a proposal to end rebates paid to middlemen who negotiate drug prices on behalf of health insurers. That was great news for UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH), whose shares jumped 5.6% and added around 90 points to the Dow's gain by itself. Boeing (NYSE:BA), up 1.9%, added 44 points to the blue-chip index. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), up 2.6%, added more than 30 points to the index, which was up 180 points on the day.