By Heard Editors

Powell Out? U.S. markets wrapped a shortened week Thursday with a bit of high drama, after President Trump amped up his rhetoric against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, even claiming he has the authority to fire the head of the independent agency.

Markets avoid panic. U.S. stocks were mixed, with the Dow sliding more than 1% even as the S&P 500 picked up a slight gain.

UnitedHealth drags down the Dow. The health insurance giant's shares crashed 22% after it slashed its outlook. UnitedHealth was the most expensive stock in the price-weighted Dow, so the selloff effectively outweighed gains by two-thirds of the stocks in the blue-chip index.

Eli Lilly bulks up on weight-loss pill news. Ely Lilly shares jumped 14% for the day-leading up the S&P 500-after the company said its GLP-1 weight-loss pill met its goals in a pivotal study.

Google loses in court-again. Parent company Alphabet's shares slipped 1.4% by the closing bell after a judge ruled against Google in an antitrust trial over its advertising technology.

Netflix earnings jump. The streaming giant reported a strong jump in first-quarter operating income on better-than-expected revenue after the closing bell. Its shares picked up 2% in after-hours trades following the report.

This analysis comes from the Journal's Heard on the Street team. Subscribe to their free daily afternoon newsletter here.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 17, 2025 17:02 ET (21:02 GMT)

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