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U.S. stocks moved cautiously higher Friday, with the technology sector rising after shares of two heavyweights — Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Netflix Inc. — responded positively to corporate news.
How are stocks trading?
-
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.27%
erased an early decline to rise 27 points, or 0.1%, to 33,072. -
The S&P 500
SPX,
+0.85%
was up 20 points, or 0.5%, to 3,919. -
The Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+1.47%
advanced 107 points, or 1%, to 10,960.
On Thursday, the Dow industrials tumbled 252.40 points, or 0.8%, to turn negative on the year. The S&P 500 fell 0.8% and the Nasdaq Composite shed 1%,. The session marked the third-straight loss for the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials.
What’s driving markets?
All three indexes were facing weekly losses. Investors have been dogged this week by mixed signals on the economy’s strength ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting in early February.
The S&P 500 faltered this week after moving above the 4,000 level.
“Overall, the SPX (S&P 500) is in no-mans land, stuck between 4100 resistance and 3700 support, all within an ongoing downtrend with modest signs of internal momentum,” said Jeff deGraaf, chairman and head of technical research at Renaissance Macro, in a Friday note.
“There’s little conviction in the market, but those who have it seem to have a bearish bias not justified with the tape’s action or conditional factors,” he wrote.
Need to Know: ‘Overbought and overpriced’: This investor sees a bubble popping for one popular group of stocks.
In economic news, U.S. existing-home sales fell 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.02 million in December, the National Association of Realtors said Friday. That was the 11th straight monthly decline in existing-home sales. The losing streak is the longest since NAR began tracking sales in 1999. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal were expecting existing-home sales to drop to 3.95 million.
“Economic data from the U.S. this week has been far less promising,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst, at OANDA in a note Friday. “Rather than focus on disinflation and the labour market, it’s been other economic indicators and earnings that have taken the spotlight and it hasn’t been great.”
Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker said he expects to see “a few more” rate hikes this year, according to news reports. Harker earlier this month backed a downshift in the size of rate increases to 25 basis points, or a quarter of a percentage point. Fed Gov. Christopher Waller is slated to speak later Friday.
Investors have been closely monitoring comments by Fed speakers for clues about the central bank’s tightening plans in light of weak economic data. Ten
TMUBMUSD10Y,
and 2-year Treasury
TMUBMUSD02Y,
yields were rising, though Friday continuing to bounce off four-month lows.
See: Fed’s Williams says ‘far too high’ inflation remains his No. 1 concern
Markets have also been juggling corporate earnings reports, which have been something of a mixed bag. Next week will bring a massive lineup, including Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
3M Co.
MMM,
Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
Boeing Co.
BA,
McDonald’s Corp.
MCD,
and more.
Shares of Netflix Inc.
NFLX,
climbed 6.1% afer the video-streaming company announced it had gained 7.7 million new subscribers in the final quarter, and founder Reed Hastings said he’ll move to executive chairman and a new co-CEO was named.
Opinion: Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings showed Silicon Valley the proper leadership path
Netflix was helping lead gains for the Nasdaq, alongside a gain for Google parent Alphabet
GOOGL,
up 4.1%, which announced 12,000 jobs will be cut globally, in an announcement on Friday. Those layoffs add to a string of tech companies making similar announcements, such as Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
and Microsoft and Intel Corp.
INTC,
“For so long companies have been reluctant to lay staff off following the post-pandemic re-hiring struggles but the tide appears to be turning and it could accelerate from here, at which point the economic data may become much more downbeat,” said Oanda’s Erlam.
Read: Intel cuts hundreds more jobs in California, and indicates more to come
Companies in focus
-
Costco Wholesale Corp.
COST,
+0.79%
late Thursday said its board reauthorized a stock buyback program of up to $4 billion. Shares rose 0.7%. -
T-Mobile US. Inc.
TMUS,
-0.27%
said a cyberattack exposed limited personal information of some 37 million customers, but not “the most sensitive kind.” Shares fell 0.6%. -
Eli Lilly
LLY,
-1.95%
shares fell 1.3% after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected the drugmaker’s experimental Alzheimer’s disease treatment as it had not provided enough trial data. -
Nordstrom Inc.
JWN,
-0.34%
shares declined 1% after the retailer announced that its holiday sales fell 3.5% year over year and lowered its earnings outlook. -
In a regulatory filing late Thursday, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
BBBY,
-9.09%
said it had received a warning that it is not in compliance for continued Nasdaq listing because the company has not yet filed its Form 10-Q quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Shares of the meme-stock favorite tumbled 11.1%
