Energy sector stops slide
NEW YORK — Two key stock indexes, the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq composite, nudged higher Friday after energy companies clawed back some of their sharp losses from earlier in the week.
More than twice as many stocks rose than fell on the New York Stock Exchange. However, the Dow Jones industrial average slipped less than 0.1 percent for the day.
Energy stocks led the way, and those in the S&P 500 climbed 0.8 percent for the largest gain of the 11 sectors that make up the index.
Modestly rising prices for oil and natural gas drove the gains. Friday’s gains, though, weren’t enough to keep energy stocks from closing out their worst week in nine months. They had earlier sunk four straight days as oil dropped to its lowest price since August on expectations that the world has more crude supplies than users need. Energy stocks lost 2.9 percent over the course of the week.
What kept broad indexes afloat for the week were big gains for health care and technology stocks. The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent for the week.
Health care stocks climbed as the Senate unveiled its proposal to revamp how Americans get medical care. Technology companies, meanwhile, are forecast to report strong growth in the upcoming earnings season.
“In terms of the overall market, what you really worry about with oil is what it does to earnings,” said Steve Chiavarone, portfolio manager at Federated Investors.
A big pickup in corporate profits has been one of the main reasons for the market’s continued climbs this year, and energy companies had been forecast to provide some of the strongest growth in 2017.
As long as oil’s price can hold close to where it is, “that’s good enough given that there’s corporate profit growth everywhere else,” Chiavarone said.