U.S. stocks lower late on Thursday, led by the medical sector. Merck stopped clinical trials of a drug caused its stock price down substantially broader market under pressure. But Spain and Italy, the news of a successful auction of bonds to some extent, boosted market sentiment.
EST at 15:25 on January 13 (Beijing time at 4:25 on January 14), the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38.30 points to 11,717.14 points, down 0.33%; the Nasdaq composite index fell 5.47 points to 2,731.86 points, or 0.20%; Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.45 points to 1,282.51 points, down 0.27%.
Merck (MRK) fell 6.8%, becoming the largest decline in the Dow stocks, after the company announced the end of the candidate's research and development of heart drugs vorapaxar. However, Merck will continue to study the drug in heart disease or heart attack than patients in the application. The news that the company's most important mode of one of the drugs vorapaxar reserve cast a shadow over the prospects.