Wall Street stocks ended the week on a modestly higher note on Friday, with the Dow spurred in part by shares of Apple hitting a record top.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average index performed best in the US as it gained 0.43% to settle at 25,669, also led higher by Verizon Communications Inc, Pfizer Inc and Caterpillar Inc.
Tech-laden Nasdaq eked out a miniscule gain, with index crawling up 0.13% to finish at 7,816 points.
Shares of electric car maker Tesla took a beating after its CEO Elon Musk laid bare his struggles in an interview with the New York Times. Its shares closed almost 9% down at US$305.
One of the bright spots were Apple shares, which went up more than 2% to a record US$217.94. The stock closed at US$217.58.
The rest of the exchanges were fractionally firmer.
The S&P 500 gained 0.33% to settle at 2,850.
The Russell 2000 of small-cap stocks added 0.4% to close around 1,692.
Toronto’s TSX increased 0.6% to conclude at 16,323.
1:06 pm: Wall Street sees mixed action as tech sector in limelight
With the exception of the Nasdaq, US indices switched course in the Friday afternoon session and moved higher, with shares of Apple reaching a record high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average index performed best and gained 52 points, or 0.20% to 25,610 led higher by Verizon Communications Inc, Pfizer Inc and Caterpillar Inc.
The battering of the tech-laden Nasdaq, meanwhile, persisted as the index shed 27 points to 7,779, led lower by an 8.3% fall in shares of the electric car maker Tesla which took a beating after its CEO Elon Musk laid bare his struggles in an interview with the New York Times. It was also weighed down heavily by Applied Materials and Nividia Corp.
A bright spot were Apple shares, which added 1.4% and outdid the performance of the wider tech sector, which slipped by 0.32%.
Elsewhere, markets looked to be in a superior position, with the S&P 500 breaking even and picking up nearly 2 points to 2,842.
Toronto’s TSX reversed direction to add 33 points and hover at 16,259 while the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks also broke into the green to rise by 2 points to 1,687.
10:06: US stocks forfeit gains and fail to find footing as Turkish crisis weighs on markets
US stocks started Friday on the back foot and traded in gains from Thursday as the Turkish lira took a steeper tumble and the Turkish economic crisis cast a pall over the markets.
Turkey’s lira was trading about 6% down against the US dollar at TL6.17 in the morning session, sending a signal that investors remain wary about the possibility of more US actions against the country if its government fails to release a US pastor Andrew Brunson. Brunson has been incarcerated in Turkey for the last two years.
Early in the session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell by 6 points to hover at 25,556, led lower by Boeing, Intel, Goldman Sachs and 3M.
Elsewhere, the S&P 500 clung close to the baseline and flirted with turning positive to lose just 2 points at 2,838. The index’s top performer was the fashion retailer Nordstrom Inc which added 10% after crushing market projections for its second-quarter results.
The tech-laden Nasdaq, meanwhile, slipped nearly 17 points, held back by its worst performer Applied Materials, a supplier of chip-making equipment, which shed more than 9% after reporting weaker-than-expected results for its fiscal third quarter.
The chipmaker Nvidia, another bellwether for the chip sector, also put pressure on the Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NVDA) as it was trading down 4.55% on its recent announcement that its revenue for the fiscal third quarter would be lower than expected.
Up in Canada, Toronto’s TSX, the country’s chief stock exchange, shed 17 points to 16,208 while the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks stayed at near break-even levels and lost 3 points to trade at 1,683.