The leading U.S. stock market indexes showed varying trends in trading on Friday. The Nasdaq index, with a significant tech component, continued its recent slide, while the Dow maintained its sneak gain from the day before.
The Nasadq sunk close to its lowest of the day, a decrease of 138.43 points or 0.9 percent to settle at 15,463.07. The S&P 500 also saw a drop, by 10.05 points or 0.2 percent, landing at 5,001.07. Both indexes endured a sixth day in negative territory.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a narrower index, shot up 195.41 points, or 0.5 percent to reach 37,970.79, building on its minimal growth of 0.1 percent from Thursday.
The Nasdaq's downfall reflects a sharp decrease in Netflix stock. The streaming powerhouse dived by 7.0 percent following a release of Q1 results better than forecast but an underwhelming revenue forecast.
Considerable weakness was also noted among computer hardware stocks, causing a 1.9 percent drop in the NYSE Arca Computer Hardware Index. Additionally, semiconductor stocks also experienced significant weakness, illustrated by the loss of 1.2 percent by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
The Dow's surge owes10 Credit to a noticeable jump in American Express's share values. The financial services behemoth increased by 4.3 percent following a Q1 report that exceeded estimations on both revenue and profits.
Banking shares also showed a robust performance, driving the KBW Bank Index upwards by 1.6 percent. The increase in crude oil price, in retaliation to Israel's missiles strikes against Iran, further boosted energy stocks.
Although the crude oil price surged overnight, it lost some strength following Iranian state media's report that downplayed the missile attacks. They referred to them merely as activation of Iran's air defense systems due to explosions in Isfahan.
In international trading, the Asia-Pacific stock markets faced significant losses on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index plummeted by 2.7 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index decreased by 1.0 percent.
Similarly, the key European markets also fell. Germany's DAX Index dropped by 0.6 percent, while the UK's FTSE 100 Index and the French CAC 40 Index were just short of the unchanged mark.
In the bond market, treasuries lost out on early highs but held onto a modest upward trend. This made the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which operates inversely to its price, decrease by 2.4 basis points and settle at 4.623 percent.
