Wall Street continued its sluggish decline throughout Friday's session, with mega-cap tech shares commanding the lead of the broader market despite some encouraging economy progress made this week. All three major benchmarks ended the week in the red, with the S&P 500 leading the decline by a drop of 0.64%, the Nasdaq posting its worst week in months falling 0.56%, and the Dow almost eking out a gain but ultimately slipping 0.03%.
Recent declines from major tech stocks like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) have slumped the broader market just a few sessions after the stock's reached new record highs.
Yet, fresh U.S. economic data shows signs of recovery, although the recovery is happening slower than previously predicted. The consumer sentiment index tracked by the University of Michigan's Surveys of Consumers gained higher in preliminary reports for September than expected, rising to 78.9 from August's 74.1. The index now rests at its highest level since the coronavirus pandemic began in the U.S., but remains lower from February's level of 101.0.
Meanwhile, tensions between the U.S. and China has begun to flare up yet again, with the Trump administration announcing that it will block all TikTok and WeChat downloads in the U.S. on Sunday. The news pressured Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) shares as the company seeks to take a minority stake in the ByteDance subsidiary.
Here's how the market closed out the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -1.12% or -37.68 points to 3,319.33
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -0.88% or -244.69 points to 27,657.29
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -1.07% or -116.99 points to 10,793.28
For Major Stock News, Unity Software (NYSE: U) opened its shares at over $70 following its $52 per share initial public offering. The stock ended its first day of trading up 31% following the blockbuster debut of Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), which is currently the biggest software IPO in history. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares gained ahead of its upcoming Battery Day, with Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) stating that the event could be "potentially narrative changing" for the electric car company. Dave and Buster's Entertainment (NASDAQ: PLAY) settled its roller coaster week up almost 17% after an upgrade from Raymond James called the stock's recent sell-off "overdone."
For Sector Performance, every industry ended Friday's session lower as the broader market declined. The negative performance losses were as follows: Real Estate -1.96%, Utilities -1.79%, Materials -1.72%, Information Technology -1.66%, Consumer Discretionary -1.44%, Energy -1.16%, Communication Services -1.10%, Industrials -1.08%, Consumer Staples -0.92%, Financials -0.24% and Health Care -0.13%.
For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) continued to lose strength against rival currencies as the Federal Reserve's updated monetary policy hinted at slower economic recovery from the coronavirus financial crisis. Gold (NYSE: GLD) rose on the greenback's weakness. Spot gold rose 0.6% to $1,953.72, while gold futures settled higher by 0.6% at $1,962.10. Crude oil futures left Friday mixed despite an OPEC+ decision to leave production targets unchanged to respond to lower demand outlooks. International benchmark Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) slid lower to price at $42.75 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) rose 0.35 higher to $41.11 per barrel.
For the week ahead, a few major companies are scheduled to deliver quarterly earnings including Costco (NASDAQ: COST) and Nike (NYSE: NKE). Tesla's Battery Day is also slated for Tuesday.