Soft inflation data and a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:major AI deal lifted U.S. stock indexes Tuesday, except for one notable exception: the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Dow Jones Industrial Average, the blue-chip index that for many is syno🌄nymous with “the stock market.” 

The Dow fell 0.6% on Tuesday, while the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:S&P 500 and the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.7% and 1.6%, respectively. 

Health care giant UnitedHealth Group (UNH) was the culprit behind the Dow’s sluggish day. Shares 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:plummeted nearly 18% after the company said its CEO would step down for personal reasons, and suspended its💝 full-year guidance, citing unexpect💫edly high healthcare costs. 

The reason for the divergence in the performance of major indexes lies in the Dow’s peculiar construction. The index, composed of 30 of America’s largest companies, is 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:price-weighted, meaning the stock with the highest share price has the greatest impact on the index’s level throughout the day. On the other hand, the S&P 500 is a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:capitalization-weighted index in which the companies with t🌃he largest market caps have the most influence. 

The two indexes contain the same stocks—granted, there are an extra 470 in the S&P 500—but those stocks have vastly different weights within the indexes. Apple (AAPL), with its $3.1 trillion market cap, is the second-most valuable company in the world, and thus the second-largest stock in the S&P 500. But its share price of about $210 ranked it 16th in the Dow as of Monday's close. That gives it less sway within the index than companies a fraction of its size, like the Travelers Companies (TRV), with its $26𝓡8 share price and $60 billion market cap. 

UnitedHealth entered Tuesday with the third-highest share price of any company in the Dow, behind just Goldman Sachs (GS) and Microsoft (MSFT).♋ Thus, UnitedHealth's slump 🍎detracted about 420 points from the Dow, accounting for all of its 270-point loss.

Today was the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:second time in the past month that a sharp drop in UnitedHealth shares single-handedly pulled down the Dow. The stock plunged 22% on April 17, its 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:worst day since 1998, after the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:comp🌠any reported weak first-qua🌱rter results and cut its full-year profit forecast.

This story has been updated with closing stock prices and index levels.