The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other major stock indexes were near session lows in afternoon trading Friday. JPMorgan and Intel were down sharply in the Dow Jones. But the selling in the stock market today was most concentrated in the Nasdaq composite, with Nvidia under pressure after two days of strong gains. Fellow AI stock Arm also lagged with a decline of nearly 3%.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures spiked more than 2% to just over $87 a barrel. Oil has been strengthening amid tensions in the Middle East and fears that the Israel-Hamas conflict could escalate. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Israel expects an attack from Iran as soon as today or Saturday.
Sellers knocked Intel and Advanced Micro Devices lower after The Wall Street Journal reported that China earlier this year told its largest telecom carriers to phase out foreign chips.
Nvidia was also near session lows, down more than 2% in light volume. The AI juggernaut is showing a classic test of its 10-week moving average after a breakout from a base all the way back in January.
Earnings reports from JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup were also in focus. JPMorgan gapped down and flashed a sell signal with a sharp undercut of its 50-day line in heavy trading.
Stock Market Today
The Dow Jones industrials, S&P 500, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 small-cap index showed losses ranging from 1.2% to 1.6% around 12:45 ET.
The Nasdaq composite was down 1.6% after a strong rally Thursday in lower volume. Signs of institutional selling have been increasing on the Nasdaq. The index now shows seven higher-volume declines since March 8. Three of those were at least 1%.
The Nasdaq 100 was down 1.7%. Besides AMD and Intel, Micron Technology, ASML and Broadcom also lagged in the Nasdaq 100 with losses of 3% or more.
Breadth was about 3-to-1 negative on the Nasdaq and 4-to-1 negative on the NYSE$. Volume on the NYSE was higher compared to the same time Thursday. Nasdaq volume was slightly lower.
See Which Stocks Are In The Leaderboard Model Portfolio
Arista Networks gapped below its 50-day moving average and slumped more than 8% after Rosenblatt downgraded the stock to sell. The sell-off is a sell signal for Arista shares.
Insurance stocks like Progressive and Allstate outperformed in the S&P 500. So did Occidental Petroleum and Newmont Mining.
CCJ Follows Through
Cameco extended gains in the stock market today after the uranium miner cleared a cup-with-handle base Thursday. But Cameco got pulled down with the broad market, and the stock fell below a 51.43 entry.
Cameco is a member of the MarketSurge Growth 250. CCJ joined Leaderboard Thursday. Headed into Friday, the model portfolio was just under 70% invested.
Agnico-Eagle Mines also outperformed in the MarketSurge Growth 250. Gold futures rose another 2% to just over $2,4o0 an ounce, but like oil, early gains faded.
Royal Caribbean gave back nearly 4% after a short-lived breakout attempt. The breakout was on March 20, but after three higher-volume declines since April 2, RCL is now testing its 50-day line.
In the biotech sector, Ascendis was setting up in a new base headed into Friday, but the stock slumped below its 50-day line, falling about 4%.
The stock market continues to perform well despite a big jump in the 10-year Treasury yield this week. Early Friday, the yield was trading around 4.5%, down 7 basis points. After rising 17 basis points last week, the yield is up another 13 basis points so far this week. Interest rates have been heading higher after another hot reading on consumer prices earlier in the week.
According to CME Group, federal funds futures traders think there's a 50/50 chance that the first rate cut will come at the July meeting. Rate cut expectations have been dialed back quite a bit amid signs of sticky inflation.
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