Stocks dipped on Friday as Wall Street tried to recover from another sharp sell-off in major technology names. The market was also on pace for its first weekly gain of the month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 104 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite was down by 0.1%.
Friday’s moves come as a series of individual stock, ETF and index options are set to expire. This could lead to volatile trading as small and large investors alike unwind these positions ahead of the expirations.
Shares of Facebook rose 0.8%. However, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet were all lower. Oracle, meanwhile, slipped 0.7% after the U.S. government said it will block all TikTok and WeChat downloads in the country on Sunday. Oracle is trying to finalize a partnership deal with TikTok-parent ByteDance.
Big Tech struggled in the previous session, dragging down the broader market and adding to its steep September drop. Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple have all lost at least 10% month to date.
Investors also remained on edge about the outlook on further coronavirus stimulus as well as the timing of a viable vaccine. Republicans and Democrats are still struggling to agree on how much aid to continue to provide in a follow-up bill to the previous $2 trillion package. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he liked “the larger numbers,” urging GOP lawmakers to go for a bigger coronavirus stimulus, but his comments left Republicans skeptical.
“The signs point to a decelerating U.S. economic recovery and increasing thematic risks,” analysts at MarketDesk Research said in a note. “It feels as if the bullish market narrative is changing in real time. Given all of the headline risks, we would error on the side of caution in the coming months.”
Meanwhile, the path to a Covid-19 vaccine, which is critical to the economic recovery, still seems unclear. Health officials said vaccinations would be in limited quantities this year and not widely distributed for six to nine months.
“A safe and transparent vaccination process is critical to encouraging widespread inoculations once effective vaccines are identified and tested.” Mark Haefele, UBS Global Wealth Management’s chief investment officer, said in a note. “In our central scenario, we expect widespread vaccine availability by 2Q21.”
Still, the major averages were set to snap two-week losing streaks despite the uncertainties surrounding the market and economic outlook. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up about 0.5% week to date heading into Friday’s session. The Dow was up 0.85% for the week.
“‘Buying weakness and selling strength’ has been the only trustworthy trend over the last two weeks,” said Frank Cappelleri, executive director at Instinet, in a note. This trend, Cappelleri said, has kept the S&P 500 moving in a range of about 100 points recently.
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