Pulled lower by UnitedHealth Group’s ( UNH) paring back of its forecasts for 2025—the news has the giant’s shares down roughly 19% in early action—the group is dropping Thursday. (Read Investopedia’s live coverage of today’s trading here .) The S&P 500’s health care sector was recently about 0.3% lower.

UnitedHealth Group surprised investors with what its CEO said was an "unusual and unacceptable" quarterly earnings miss, and it lowered its outlook for the full year due to higher-than-expected medical costs,

Chief executive Andrew Witty said UnitedHealth “did not perform up to our expectations, and we are aggressively addressing those challenges to position us well for the years ahe