Sector Update: Healthcare Stocks Gain Tuesday Afternoon

01:38 PM EDT, 10/20/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Healthcare stocks were higher Tuesday afternoon, with the NYSE Healthcare Index rising 2.4% and the State Street Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) adding 2.2%. The iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) climbed up 2.6%. In corporate news, Qiagen (QGEN) is in advanced talks to be acquired by EQT AB and has received a binding offer of over $50 a share from the Swedish buyout firm, Bloomberg reported. KKR (KKR) has also made a bid for Qiagen, the report said. Qiagen shares jumped 5.8%. Labcorp (LH) has agreed to buy Myriad Genetics' (MYGN) prenatal health testing business for $210 million in cash, plus the value of inventory at closing, the companies said Tuesday. Labcorp shares rose 1%, and Myriad surged 36%. GeneDx (WGS) shares gained 3.6% after the firm said it plans to add long-read whole genome sequencing to its genome testing portfolio to close diagnostic gaps and deliver diagnosis faster.