Investing.com - Energy and health care stocks led another market selloff in midday trading, as tamer-than-anticipated retail inflation failed to overcome Wall Street’s pessimism.
The slump in energy stocks deepened after the Energy Information Administration reported a bigger-than-expected weekly rise in U.S. crude inventories of 6 million barrels, pushing oil prices deeper into the red.
Oil prices were already struggling as concerns about a tanking stock market stifling demand overshadowed the impact on Hurricane Michael on production.
The S&P Energy Sector index fell about 1.6% at 12:19 PM ET (16:19 GMT).
Among the biggest losers in the index were Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD), down 3%, Marathon Petroleum (NYSE:MPC), off 1.0%, and Newfield Exploration (NYSE:NFX), which lost about 2.33%.
One outlier in the green was Murphy Oil (NYSE:MUR), which jumped about 11.5% after announcing a joint venture with Brazil’s Petrobras to explore oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Murphy will have an 80% stake in the venture.
And health care stocks also took it on the chin, with the S&P Health Care Sector index falling about 1%.
CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) was the hardest hit, falling about 4% following rival Walgreen's (NASDAQ:WBA) miss on sales in its latest quarterly numbers. Walgreen’s was up about 1.9%.
Drugmakers also struggled. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) sank about 2.3%, Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) lost about 2.9% and Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) fell about 2.4%.