Stocks finished mixed as a chipmaker selloff dragged tech: Friday recap

Stocks finished mixed on Friday as a selloff in chipmakers pulled the technology-heavy Nasdaq lower while the rest of the market climbed. The Nasdaq fell 1.12% to close at 24,975.82. The Dow rose 0.48% to 51,947.25, and the S&P 500 edged up 0.10% to 7,411.98, held near flat by the weight of its largest members. The split ran straight down the middle of the market. One sector fell. The other ten rose.

Real estate led the advance with a 2.22% gain. Materials followed close behind at 1.93%, and consumer staples rose 1.11%. Financials climbed 0.86%, and communication services nearly matched them at 0.87%. Health care gained 0.70%. The rest of the board filled in with smaller advances, from consumer discretionary at 0.60% down to utilities at 0.22%. Ten of the eleven S&P sectors finished higher. Technology was the lone decline. The market’s largest sector slipped 1.44%, the weakest group by a wide margin, and its heft was enough to sink the Nasdaq even as nearly everything else moved up.

The drag came from semiconductors. Chip stocks sold off through the session as investors kept pressing a single question: whether the industry’s heavy spending on artificial intelligence will pay off. That doubt has dogged the group for weeks, and Friday extended the run of losses. The mechanics did the rest. Chipmakers and other large technology names carry the most weight in the Nasdaq and the S&P 500, so their slide pulled both cap-weighted benchmarks below the broad gains showing up elsewhere. The Dow, which leans less on those names and more on industrial and financial shares, was free to rise.

Breadth ran counter to the headline indices. The small-cap Russell 2000, tracked by the IWM exchange-traded fund, eased 0.31%, a shallower loss than the Nasdaq and a sign the selling stayed lodged at the top of the market and did not spread. Volatility stayed calm. The Cboe Volatility Index, Wall Street’s fear gauge, held at 18.58, little changed on the day, a reading that framed the tech pullback as rotation rather than alarm. The 10-year Treasury yield firmed to 4.67%. For the week, all three major benchmarks lost ground: the S&P 500 slipped 0.59%, the Nasdaq gave back 1.60%, and the Dow eased 0.39%. The weekly picture favored the market’s steadier corners. Energy led every sector over the five days with a 3.36% gain, and utilities added 2.48%. Consumer discretionary was the weakest, down 5.22%.

The calendar turns to another heavy stretch of corporate results, with more large technology and consumer names due to report. Investors will weigh those against fresh readings on the economy for clues on the pace of growth and the path of interest rates. Chip stocks stay in focus. Their run of losses has become the market’s central story, and whether it proves a pause or the start of something deeper is the question traders carry into a new week.

This is a general-market summary for information only — not investment advice, and not a recommendation regarding any security.