NEW YORK — U.S. stocks struggled to add to the biggest rally in nearly a month, as a profit warning from UnitedHealth Group jolted the health-care sector.
Energy producers followed oil lower a day after the Federal Reserve eased concern that higher interest rates would derail economic growth.
UnitedHealth Group slumped 5.7 percent after saying it might pull out of the Obamacare insurance exchange market amid high costs. Competitors Anthem and Aetna fell more than 6.5 percent.
Consumer staples and technology shares countered with gains as Keurig Green Mountain jumped 18 percent on better- than-expected results, while and Intel rallied on stronger-than-estimated sales outlooks.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index slipped 0.1 percent to 2,081.24, with the gauge trading in its tightest intraday range since May 22. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 4.41 points to 17,732.75, and the Nasdaq composite index declined less than 0.1 percent.
About 6.5 billion shares traded hands on U.S. exchanges, 13 percent below the three-month average.
“The market probably needs to move sideways here for a while,” said David Spika, global investment strategist for GuideStone Capital Management. “The way we rebounded from the correction was very rapid. There are more reasons to go down than up.”
The earnings season is drawing to a close, with 95 percent of S&P 500 companies having reported. Of those, 74 percent beat earnings estimates, while 44 percent exceeded sales forecasts. Analysts project profits for index members dropped 3.7 percent in the third quarter, compared with a 7.2 percent decline at the start of the season.
Energy companies in the benchmark sank 1.3 percent, nearly erasing a 1.6 percent rally Wednesday as the group continued to swing with seesawing crude prices. Oil slid to its lowest in almost three months.
