Investing.com - Health care stocks were among the biggest gainers in midday trading led by Humana (NYSE:HUM), which announced a buyback and reaffirmed its guidance for next year.
The S&P 500 Health Care index rose about 0.6% at 11:30 AM ET (16:30 GMT).
Humana announced it is buying back $750 million in stock and said it still expects adjusted earnings of $14.40 per share for 2018.
Shares jumped about 4%.
Humana is also expecting to add 350,000 to 400,000 members to its Medicare Advantage health plan in 2019, Reuters reported. The program, which is offered to people older than 65 or with disabilities, has helped the company grow in the past few quarters.
Also rising in the sector were UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH), increasing about 2.5%, WellCare (NYSE:WCG), which gained about 3% and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), which climbed 1%.
Meanwhile, retailer Wayfair (NYSE:W) soared about 14% on bullish holiday sales numbers.
Wayfair said direct retail gross sales rose 58% from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, compared with the year-ago period, Briefing.com reported.