By Medha Singh and Purvi Agarwal
(Reuters) – Technology and emerging stocks dragged Wall Street’s main indexes lower on Friday, ending an upbeat holiday-shortened week fueled by expectations of a traditionally strong period for markets.
Yields on some US Treasuries were higher on the day, with those on the benchmark 10-year note hovering near their highest level in more than seven months reached on Thursday. Last time it was at 4.591%.
Price-sensitive growth stocks fell with Nvidia (NASDAQ: ) down 2.3% and Tesla (NASDAQ: ) down 2.8%, while Microsoft (NASDAQ: ) fell 1.1%.
Among the S&P’s 11 major sectors, information technology and consumer discretionary fell the most, each down about 1.3%, after leading most of the broader market’s gains in 2024.
“U.S. equity markets and investors appear to be lukewarm toward the end of the year. No one wants to make significant moves before 2025 when the new administration comes in,” said Clayton Allison, portfolio manager at Prime Capital Financial.
At 9:58 a.m. ET, it was down 98.04 points, or 0.23%, at 43,228.17, lost 42.91 points, or 0.71%, at 5,994.68 and lost 259.17 points, or 1.29%, at 19,761.26.
The S&P 500 index still recouped most of last week’s losses stemming from the US Fed’s forecast of tapering interest rate cuts in 2025 and the erosion of risk appetite.
All three indexes are set for weekly gains, with the benchmark ending Thursday about 1% below its all-time high of 6,099.97 points reached on Dec. 6.
With three sessions left until the end of the year, the markets are in a stock-buying season dubbed the “Santa Claus Rally” – the last five sessions in December and the first two in January.
Since 1969, the S&P 500 has risen an average of 1.3% in a seven-day trading period, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
“If yesterday is any indication, we kind of got off to a bad start at the Santa rally. I feel like we have a lot going on after the election … today will give us a pretty good indication, but it seems like more market participants are pretty cautious,” she said. is Allison.
US stocks have largely extended their gains since a stellar November, when Donald Trump won the US presidential election, as hopes of pro-business policies under the incoming administration fueled optimism.
Trading volume in this holiday-shortened week was below the six-month average and is likely to remain muted through January 6. The next big market focus will be the December employment report due out on January 10.
Among individual movers, Amedisys (NASDAQ: ) gained 4% after home health provider and insurer UnitedHealth (NYSE: ) extended the deadline to close their $3.3 billion merger.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing issues by a ratio of 3.63 to 1 on the NYSE and by a ratio of 1.96 to 1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 index recorded no new 52-week highs and 2 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 32 new highs and 9 new lows.
