Stocks tumble with Nasdaq 100 posting largest weekly loss since April tariff sell-off
Fridays have been the worst day for the S&P 500 since the war began.
The ongoing Mideast war continues to leave investors jittery and unwilling to hold stocks over the weekend.
The S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Russell 2000 all suffered heavy losses on Friday, with the tech-heavy gauge down nearly 2% as front-month West Texas Intermediate futures climbed toward $100 per barrel.
Since the initial US-Israeli strikes against Iran, the final two trading days of the week have been the worst for the S&P 500, with the steepest drops coming on Fridays. Traders have tended to build in a risk premium ahead of the weekend — when they’d be unable to react to any potential escalation in the war — before reversing some of that move at the start of the next week.
Moving higher:
Energy shares continues to benefit from rising crude oil prices, with gas driller APA Corporation, oil field services company Halliburton, and integrated giant Exxon gaining.
Consumer staples stocks such as Campbell’s, Altria, Kraft Heinz, and McCormick rallied as traders flocked to a sector known for relative safety during rough economic periods.
Entergy rose after making a deal with Meta to fund the creation of seven natural gas-fired power plants. The news also boosted other AI-linked utilities plays, including Constellation Energy, Vistra, and NRG.
Argan spiked on a massive Q4 sales beat after reaching “substantial completion” on its Trumbull Energy Center project early.
Unity Software rose following strong Q1 preliminary results and news it will exit its nonstrategic ad business.
Peloton jumped after EMJ Capital’s Eric Jackson said he was long the fitness company at $4.
Moving lower:
Cyber stocks Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Cloudflare, Fortinet, Zscaler, and Okta plunged after a leaked document stirred concern that Anthropic’s new model will enable indefensible online attacks.
Crypto, which had shown some resilience to the general market downturn, turned sharply negative on Friday, with Bitcoin sinking and altcoins from ethereum to XRP roundly suffering.
Consumer discretionary stocks sank. Cruise lines Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival all fell. Less oil-exposed bellwethers like Airbnb, DoorDash, and Starbucks also slipped.
Fundrise Innovation Fund plummeted for the second session in a row amid valuation gap concerns.
