Novartis's failed heart trial hit Amgen, and a health-care fund that does not hold Novartis
On Tuesday, September 8, 2026, the S&P 500 health-care fund XLV fell 2.5% as Amgen dropped 10%; energy fund XLE rose 1.1%, and nine of eleven sector funds declined.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis struck Saudi energy sites on Tuesday. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $94.23 a barrel, up 3.0%, as of 4:37 p.m. Eastern, and the 10-year Treasury yield closed at 4.80%. The energy fund was paid. The health-care fund XLV took the worst session on the board after Amgen, 3.8% of the portfolio, fell 10.1%, and Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and AbbVie sold off with it.
Health care was the session's worst sector fund
- +1.1%
- +0.9%
- −0.1%
- −0.2%
- −0.5%
- −0.5%
- −0.7%
- −0.7%
- −1.0%
- −1.4%
- −2.5%
Amgen transmits a trial the fund does not own
Novartis said Friday that pelacarsen, meant to lower lipoprotein(a), an inherited cardiovascular risk factor, missed its primary goal of cutting heart attacks, strokes, and related events versus placebo, according to a filing from partner Ionis Pharmaceuticals. Lipoprotein(a) did fall. The outcomes did not. Novartis, the Swiss drugmaker, dropped 13.9% on Tuesday, the first session after the Labor Day weekend. Amgen's olpasiran targets the same Lp(a) pathway.
The S&P 500 health-care fund XLV fell 2.5% and traded at 1.5 times usual volume. UnitedHealth was a small plus. Everything that mattered sat on the other side.
Amgen was the shock. Eli Lilly, which is developing lepodisiran against the same target, is nearly four times Amgen's weight and took almost as much off the fund on a 2.2% decline. The eight largest contributors accounted for 1.58 percentage points of the 2.50% drop.
The equal-weighted biotech fund XBI fell 1.1%, less than half as much. The damage in the health-care fund ran through a handful of mega-cap weights that an equal-weight biotech sleeve does not concentrate.
Refiners lift energy; staples get nothing
The energy fund XLE rose 1.1%, a 47% year-to-date total return that left it 1.1% below its 52-week high. Brent crude was at $99.27 a barrel, up 3.1%. The points inside XLE came from refiners first: Valero, 5.3% of the fund, rose 3.3% and added 0.17 percentage points, tagging a 52-week high in the session. Marathon Petroleum added 0.13 points. Exxon Mobil and Chevron, 35% of the fund together, each rose less than 1%. SLB and Halliburton, the oilfield-services names, slipped. Same oil print, different sleeves.
The utilities fund XLU rose 0.9%, with PG&E and Edison International up 3.6% and 4.5%. The consumer staples fund XLP fell 0.7%, led by Walmart, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General. The day paid oil. Staples and health care got nothing.
Yields take back Thursday; Nvidia outweighs Intel
The financials fund XLF fell 1.4%, with almost no offsetting winners among 77 holdings. JPMorgan Chase, 11.7% of the fund, dropped 1.4%. The two-year Treasury yield closed at 4.39%. Thursday's bounce, after Fed Governor Christopher Waller said the central bank could wait a meeting, did not survive the oil-and-yield combination. The information-technology fund VGT fell 0.2%. Intel, 1.7% of the fund, rose 9.1% after DigiTimes reported a planned 10% rise in CPU prices and Northland Securities upgraded the chipmaker to outperform. Advanced Micro Devices rose 5.9%. Nvidia, 17.2% of the fund, fell 2.0% and took off 0.35 percentage points, more than Intel and AMD added combined. The Nasdaq-100 fund QQQ slipped 0.08%. Cap-weighted technology cushioned the index. It did not lead.
The S&P 500 closed at 7,674.13, down 0.58%. The S&P 500 fund SPY fell 0.55%. The equal-weight S&P 500 fund RSP fell 1.0%. Cap-weight hid the damage. The health-care fund did not.
Frequently asked
Why did the health-care fund decline when it does not hold Novartis?
The failed drug trial targeted a cardiovascular pathway that major fund holdings Amgen and Eli Lilly are also targeting.
Which companies drove the gains in the energy sector?
Refining companies led the energy sector higher, while oilfield-services stocks slipped.
How did big-cap technology stocks perform during the session?
A decline in Nvidia outweighed strong gains from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices to drag down the technology fund.