UnitedHealth Group is one of the largest private health insurers, providing medical benefits to about 50 million members globally, including 1 million outside the US as June 2024. As a leader in employer-sponsored, self-directed, and government-backed insurance plans, UnitedHealth has obtained massive scale in managed care. Along with its insurance assets, UnitedHealth's continued investments in its Optum franchises have created a healthcare services colossus that spans everything from medical and pharmaceutical benefits to providing outpatient care and analytics to both affiliated and third-party customers.

UnitedHealth Group is one of the largest private health insurers, providing medical benefits to about 50 million members globally, including 1 million outside the US as June 2024. As a leader in employer-sponsored, self-directed, and government-backed insurance plans, UnitedHealth has obtained massive scale in managed care. Along with its insurance assets, UnitedHealth's continued investments in its Optum franchises have created a healthcare services colossus that spans everything from medical and pharmaceutical benefits to providing outpatient care and analytics to both affiliated and third-party customers.

By revenue, UnitedHealth Group is the nation's largest publicly traded managed care company. It operates through two business segments, UnitedHealthcare and Optum. UnitedHealthcare provides healthcare benefits through four membership groups: Employers & Individual, Medicare & Retirement, Community & State, and International. Optum is a health services business that serves payers, care providers, employers, governments, life science companies, and consumers. OptumInsight uses advanced data analytics and technology to help optimize the performance of clients. Optum includes OptumRx, which operates a pharmacy benefit management service (PBM).

Back on October 9, we started to talk about Information Technology waking up after three months of technical basing by some in the sector. We wrote the following. 'Technology was led by a few major semiconductors, including NVDA (+4%) and AVGO (+3%). NVDA has been tracing out a bullish continuous inverse head-and-shoulders, while AVGO has been forming a complex double bottom since the middle of June. Both are very close to completing these patterns and possibly breaking out to all-time highs. One concern about jumping back on the semi train is that we are not seeing other stocks completing bases and many are nowhere near highs. That can be rectified, but the strongest industry moves occur when the majority of stocks are participating.' Little did we know how prophetic those last two sentences were and in no way did we expect the obliteration that some of the semis got on October 15. ASML was destroyed, plunging over 16% after providing disappointing 2025 guidance. It was the company's worst day since the pandemic and, prior to that, during the IT wreck in 2002. KLAC plummeted 15%, and LRCX and AMAT both plunged 11%. Volume was huge and it almost felt like a capitulatory selloff. But those usually come after an extended selloff. Because the three largest semis held in there (NVDA, TSM, AVGO), losing only between 2.6% and 4.5%, the major semi ETFs (SOXX, SMH) fell only around 5%. While the major indices lost between 0.7% and 1.4%, NYSE breadth was only slightly negative at -157, this as the selling was concentrated in Information Technology, Energy, Healthcare, and Industrials. In addition, NYSE advancing volume/declining volume was neutral at 50%.