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Health care, long an ailing stock market sector, has recovered over the past six months, with currently robust vital signs and strong growth projections.
The recovery comes after the sector failed to make good on positive expectations for 2022 based on estimates of pent-up demand for physician office visits and elective procedures after the pandemic.
Health care was basically flat in 2022 and again for most of 2023, a year when its overall performance was the third-worst among the market’s 11 sectors and the S&P 500 grew 26%.
Why this year may be different
Late in 2023 and in the first quarter of 2024, health-care stocks turned around, advancing about 5%, about half of the gain of the S&P 500. In mid-April, as the S&P 500 pulled back, the health-care sector gave up its first-quarter gains.
Yet, like the S&P 500, health care has gained since the market’s October low, catching some wind after two years of …