U.S. Stock Indexes Hold Steady As Oil’s Dismal Week Eases

U.S. stock indexes held steady Thursday after the price of oil halted its slide, at least for now.

Energy stocks fell again, but not by nearly as much as earlier in the week, after crude rose for the first time in four days. Big gains for health care stocks also helped to offset losses for financial companies and other areas of the market, leaving indexes close to flat.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index edged down by 1.11 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 2,434.50. The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 12.74, or 0.1 percent, to 21,397.29, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 2.73 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 6,236.69.

Markets this week have been dominated by oil’s tumbling price and worries about how much it will affect the broader market. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 21 cents to settle at $42.74 per barrel, and Brent crude, the international standard, added 40 cents to $45.22 per barrel. It may not sound like much, but it’s a big shift in momentum from earlier in the week, when oil dropped to its lowest level since August on expectations that supplies will exceed demand.

Energy stocks in the S&P 500 dipped by 0.1 percent, a much milder drop than the prior two days, when they fell at least 1.2 percent.

Helping to support indexes were health care stocks, which have been shooting higher this week even as the rest of the market struggled. Health care stocks in the S&P 500 jumped 1.1 percent, by far the biggest gain among the 11 sectors that make up the index, after the Senate unveiled its proposal to revamp how Americans get medical care. The sector is up 3.7 percent for the week when the overall index is up just 0.1 percent.

Envision Healthcare, which provides physician and ambulance services, jumped $2.06, or 3.5 percent, to $60.30. HCA Healthcare, which owns hospitals around the country, rose $2.09, or 2.5 percent, to $86.14, and biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences added $2.98, or 4.4 percent, to $70.48.

The day’s biggest gainer in the S&P 500 was Oracle, which jumped $3.97, or 8.6 percent, to $50.30 after reporting stronger revenue and earnings for its latest quarter than analysts expected. Technology companies are expected to report some of the strongest earnings growth for the April-through-June quarter, one of the reasons their stocks have been leading the market this year.

On the opposite end was Accenture, which fell $5.03, or 4 percent, to $122.08. The consulting company reported quarterly earnings that were in line with analysts’ expectations, but it also trimmed the top end of its forecast for revenue growth this year, when taking changes in foreign-currency values into account.

The 10-year Treasury yield held steady at 2.15 percent, while the two-year yield fell to 1.34 percent from 1.35 percent late Wednesday, and the 30-year yield dipped to 2.72 percent from 2.73 percent.

The euro fell to $1.1147 from $1.1167 late Wednesday, and the British pound dipped to $1.2672 from $1.2668. The dollar held steady at 111.34 Japanese yen.

In overseas stock markets, the French CAC 40 rose 0.1 percent, the German DAX rose 0.2 percent and the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.1 percent. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index slipped 0.1 percent, South Korea’s Kospi added 0.5 percent and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong slipped 0.1 percent.

Gold rose $3.60 to $1,249.40 per ounce, silver added 14 cents to $16.51 and copper was flat at $2.60 per pound.

Natural gas was close to flat at $2.89 per 1,000 cubic feet, heating oil rose 1 cent to $1.37 per gallon and wholesale gasoline added 2 cents to $1.43 per gallon.