The S&P 500 slipped on Friday, as investors took profits on Nvidia and this week’s market breather continued despite the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure coming in largely around expectations.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average regained 62.72 points to 38,174.20, buoyed by UnitedHealth’s advance of more than 2%.
The S&P 500 slid 27.69 points to 5,207.79.
The NASDAQ jettisoned 213.93 points, or 1.3%, to 16,523.15, as Nvidia and other megacap technology stocks took a hit.
The S&P 500 was set to lose 1.8%, while the NASDAQ was poised to retreat 2.4%. Both indexes were on pace to snap five-week win streaks. The Dow slipped 2.3%, heading for a second straight week of losses.
Despite those moves, it’s shaping up to be a winning May, with each of the major benchmarks set to register a sixth positive month in seven. The Dow is up 0.9% this month, while the S&P 500 is higher by almost 3.5%. The tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite has gained 5.5%.
A chunk of May’s strength can be attributed to a surge in Nvidia, which released blockbuster earnings last week. Though the artificial intelligence darling’s stock fell more than 1% on Friday, shares are poised to end the month more than 26% higher. Tesla, Microsoft, Meta and Netflix also all shed more than 1% on Friday, weighing down the broader market.
Traders also reacted to the latest corporate earnings results. Dell Technologies tumbled 22% even after its first-quarter results beat expectations. Cloud security stock Zscaler popped 5.7%, while developer data platform MongoDB plunged almost 25%. Apparel retailer Gap jumped 26%.
The core personal consumption expenditures price index increased 0.2% in April, in line with the consensus forecast of economists polled by Dow Jones, according to data released Friday. Core PCE rose 2.8% on an annualized basis, slightly above the 2.7% prediction from economists.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained a bit of ground, lowering yields to 4.51% from Thursday’s 4.55%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices shed 82 cents to $77.09 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices docked $16.60 to $2,349.90.
