U.S. stocks end mixed after another erratic day

NEW YORK (AP) — Another erratic day of trading on Wall Street ended with an uneven finish for the major stock indexes Thursday, after the market reversed most of an early slide in the final hour of trading.

The S&P 500 closed only 0.1% lower after having been down 1.9% earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, while the Nasdaq rose 0.1%.

Trading on Wall Street has been volatile, with indexes prone to sharp swings from one day to the next, or within a single day, as investors try to shield their portfolios from the impact of the highest inflation in decades and rising interest rates as the Federal Reserve moves to tame surging prices.

Another dire readout on inflation sparked a wave of selling early Thursday, with technology stocks weighing down the S&P 500 index the most. The sector made solid gains during the pandemic amid a broad shift to working and shopping from home, but it has seen sharp declines as inflation worsens and interest rates head higher. Apple and chipmaker Nvidia each fell 2.7%, while Microsoft dropped 2%.

“The pullback in growth stocks, tech in particular, has been dramatic,” said Brian Price, head of investment management at Commonwealth Financial Network.

“We have a reckoning, if you will, that maybe we did go too far too fast” with many of those stocks.

The S&P 500 fell 5.10 points to 3,930.08. The Dow dropped 103.81 points to 31,730.30. The Nasdaq rose 6.73 points to 11,370.96. The indexes are all on pace for sharp weekly declines, extending the market’s slump so far this year.