Wall Street ended lower on Friday, weighed down by declines in Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc and other heavyweight technology stocks, while investors worried about a rise in cases tied to the highly contagious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Los Angeles County on Thursday said that it would reimpose its mask mandate for the weekend.
Public health officials on Friday said that US COVID-19 cases were up 70 percent from the previous week, with deaths up 26 percent.
Photo: AP
Cruise lines Carnival Corp and Norwegian Cruise Line fell about 5 percent.
“COVID is starting to affect the market, ironically, for the first time since last summer, when the reopening trade began,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Amazon and Apple fell more than 1 percent. Nvidia Corp lost 4.2 percent, and the three companies contributed more than any others to the S&P 500’s and NASDAQ’s declines. The S&P 500 technology sector index lost almost 1 percent, dipping for a second session after hitting a record on Wednesday.
The utilities index rallied 1 percent, while the real-estate index edged up 0.1 percent and touched an intraday record high.
This week, investors have balanced worries about a recent inflation spike with reassurances from US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell that the surge in prices is temporary.
Second-quarter earnings season is set to pick up next week, with reports from companies including Netflix Inc, Johnson & Johnson, Verizon Communications Inc, AT&T Mobility LLC and Intel Corp.
Analysts on average expect 72 percent growth in earnings per share for S&P 500 companies, Institutional Broker’s Estimate System estimate data from Refinitiv showed.
With the S&P 500 up about 15 percent so far this year, investors are expected to look for healthy company forecasts to justify sky-high valuations.
“It’s been hard for the market to gain here from these already elevated prices,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey.
The S&P 500 energy sector index sank nearly 3 percent and ended the week 8 percent lower, with investors worried about expectations for more supply and a rise in COVID-19 cases that raised demand concerns.
Data from the US Department of Commerce showed retail sales rebounded 0.6 percent last month as spending is shifting back to services, bolstering expectations that economic growth accelerated in the second quarter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.86 percent to end at 34,687.85 points, while the S&P 500 lost 0.75 percent to 4,327.16. The NASDAQ Composite dropped 0.8 percent to 14,427.24.
For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.97 percent, the Dow lost 0.52 percent and the NASDAQ shed 1.87 percent, their fist weekly declines in four weeks.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.42-to-1 ratio; on the NASDAQ, a 2.21-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 48 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 46 new highs and 124 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 9.3 billion shares, compared with the 10.3 billion average for the full session over the past 20 trading days.
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