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Stocks fell in choppy trading Friday as traders digested news about a potential coronavirus treatment as well as another record spike in virus cases.
The Dow Jones Industrials nosed up 1.28 points to 25,707.37.
The S&P 500 ducked 1.96 points to 3,150.09
The tech-heavy NASDAQ docked 45.12 points to 10,503.28.
Gilead Sciences said its coronavirus treatment candidate, remdesivir, "was associated with an improvement in clinical recovery and a 62% reduction in the risk of mortality compared with standard of care." The news sent Gilead shares up more than 1%.
BioNTech’s CEO also told The Wall Street Journal the company’s coronavirus vaccine candidate could be ready for approval by December. The company’s U.S.-listed shares rose 4%.
The news led to a rotation out of major tech stocks and into companies that would benefit from the economy reopening. Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft were all lower. Delta Air Lines, United and American all gained at least 1%. Bank shares such as JPMorgan Chase gathered 2.1%, and Citigroup rose 1.8%.
Gilead and BioNTech’s comments came after the U.S. reported more than 63,000 additional coronavirus cases, a record. The country’s seven-day average now stands at more than 53,000 cases.
Investors have flocked into mega-cap tech names such as Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix and Apple amid fears this latest resurgence in coronavirus could lead to people staying home for longer. All four of these stocks are trading at, or near all-time highs. They are also up at least 3.9% each week to date.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury rose, dropping yields to 0.60% from Thursday’s 0.61%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices regrouped 14 cents to $39.76 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices progressed $3.70 to $1,807.50 U.S. an ounce.
