Stocks finished mixed as technology rebounded: Friday recap

Wall Street closed an unsettled week with its major gauges pointing in opposite directions on Friday. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.09%, or 264 points, to 24,579.42, as technology shares clawed back part of a steep weekly decline. The S&P 500 added 0.31% to 7,376.86, a gain of about 23 points. The Dow Jones Industrial Average went the other way, off 0.46%, or 237 points, to 51,285.73. More than a point and a half separated the strongest index from the weakest. That is a wide spread.

The divide ran straight through the sectors. Only three of the eleven groups in the S&P 500 finished higher: technology led with a gain of 1.45%, communication services rose 0.43%, and industrials added a slim 0.12%. The other eight fell. Consumer staples brought up the rear at a loss of 1.28%, with materials down 0.73% and real estate off 0.68%. Financials gave up 0.59% and utilities 0.39%, while energy and health care finished all but flat. The distance between the top and bottom sectors came to less than three percentage points. After a week of violent sector swings, Friday looked tame.

The calmer finish did little to repair the week. Technology was the hardest-hit corner of the market over the five sessions, down 8.23%, and energy fell even further, off 12.0%. The Nasdaq lost 4.98% across the week and the S&P 500 fell 2.70%. Not everything bled. Communication services gained 4.89% over the stretch, the best of any group. Real estate and consumer discretionary each rose 1.9%, and financials and consumer staples also closed higher. Industrials and materials deepened the week’s losses, down 2.83% and 1.50%. The move amounted to a rotation out of the market’s recent leaders and into the groups that had lagged them.

The two time frames told different stories. Friday brought a bounce in the very names that had fallen hardest during the week, yet the five sessions as a whole still ended with the market’s largest sectors deep in the red. Technology alone remained more than eight percent below where it had traded a week earlier, and energy sat lower by double digits.

Smaller companies held up better than the blue chips. The Russell 2000 rose 0.99%, well ahead of the Dow and the S&P 500 and nearly matching the Nasdaq’s gain, a sign the day’s buying was not confined to the largest technology names. For the week, though, the small-cap gauge still fell 2.03%, and the Dow gave back 0.95%, the mildest weekly loss among the major indexes. Expected volatility eased. The Cboe Volatility Index fell 9.01% to 25.64, a drop of 2.54 points, though it stayed elevated by the standards of the year’s quieter months. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped to 4.90%.

The coming week brings fresh data. A monthly reading on consumer prices leads the economic calendar, the next major print due. Reports of that kind often move the tape in both directions.

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