Nasdaq Inches Higher After Two-day Tech Slump

The Nasdaq inched higher on Friday as a two-day selloff in technology-related stocks halted, but sentiment remained fragile over worries about rising coronavirus cases and a patchy economic recovery.

Wall Street’s three main indexes bounced earlier this week as investors bet on a loose monetary policy by the Federal Reserve, but gains petered out in the absence of firm details on the central bank’s stimulus plan.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have also come under pressure from investors rotating out of high-flying tech-related stocks and into industrial and transportation firms.

But early gains on Friday were led by Netflix, Facebook and Tesla Inc, which have together dominated Wall Street’s recovery from the coronavirus-led slump in March.

“The market’s in a vacuum right now,” said Thomas Hayes, managing member at Great Hill Capital LLC in New York.

“Anytime you have news or perception that things are going to be delayed or (you have a) slow growth economy, those (technology-related) stocks get bid. You’ll get these technical bounce days when coronavirus cases spike up and money will move back into tech.”

Volatility is likely to be higher on Friday related to a quarterly expiration of U.S. stock options, stock index futures and index option contracts, known as “quadruple witching”.

At 10:04 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 76.54 points, or 0.27%, at 27,825.44, the S&P 500 was down 2.01 points, or 0.06%, at 3,355.00 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 28.63 points, or 0.26%, at 10,938.90.

Tesla rose 5.4% as two analysts raised their price targets on the electric carmaker’s shares ahead of its highly anticipated “Battery Day” event next week.

Oracle Corp fell 0.3% after Reuters reported the U.S. Commerce Department plans to issue an order on Friday that will bar people in the United States from downloading Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok starting on Sept. 20.

Power provider PG&E Corp shed 0.1% as Chief Financial Officer Jason Wells resigned to join CenterPoint Energy Inc as its finance chief.

Of the 11 major S&P indexes, industrials, materials and energy have gained more than 2% so far this week, while communication services and consumer discretionary have posted the biggest declines.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.10-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.60-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P index recorded seven new 52-week highs and no new low, while the Nasdaq recorded 39 new highs and four new lows.

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