FINANCIAL MARKETS
Wall Street turned in an uneven finish Friday as investors unloaded their technology company shares in favor of energy and financial stocks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite, which has outpaced gains by other U.S. stock indexes this year, fell the most. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed slightly lower.
Even with the sell-off in technology stocks, the Dow Jones industrial average and the Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks closed higher, each setting new highs.
All told, the S&P 500 index fell 2.02 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,431.77. The Dow gained 89.44 points, or 0.4 percent, to 21,271.97. The Nasdaq declined 113.85 points, or 1.8 percent, to 6,207.92. The Russell 2000 picked up 6.09 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,421.71. The indexes also closed out the week unevenly after several days of trading in a mostly narrow range. Despite the day’s big tech stock slide, more stocks rose than declined on the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. stocks were coming off a twoday winning streak, which included a record high for the Nasdaq on Thursday. They were on track to extend those gains early Friday, each at one point trading above their most recent closing highs. But then investors began to unload technology stocks. The selloff centered on the biggest companies in the stock market: Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and Facebook. But the biggest decliner was chipmaker Nvidia, which lost $10.34, or 6.5 percent, to $149.60. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, fell $34.16, or 3.4 percent, to $970.12, while Apple slid $6.01, or 3.9 percent, to $148.98. “It’s had a good run,” said Scott Wren, senior global equity strategist for Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “People are taking a little money off the table.”
The technology sector fell 2.7 percent. It remains up 18.5 percent for the year. Traders also bid up shares in energy companies as the price of crude oil rose. Helmerich & Payne added $2.87, or 5.7 percent, to $53.27. Rig operator Transocean picked up 39 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $8.81. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 19 cents to close at $45.83 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, added 29 cents to settle at $48.15 a barrel in London. In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose a penny to $1.50 per gallon. Heating oil inched up 1 cent to $1.43 per gallon. Natural gas added 1 cent to $3.04 per 1,000 cubic feet.