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Stocks were little changed on Friday as Wall Street tried to recover from another sharp selloff in major technology names. The market was also on pace for its first weekly gain of the month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 53.3 points to 27,848.68.
The S&P 500 dipped 2.43 points to 3,354.58.
The NASDAQ regained 18.65 points to 10,928.93.
Shares of Facebook rose 1.4%. Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet were all higher as well. Oracle, meanwhile, slipped 0.3% 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.
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.
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.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury gained slightly lowering yields to 0.68% from Thursday’s 0.69%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices added 25 cents to $41.22 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices were shot up $8.40 to $1,958.30 U.S. an ounce.
