Stocks were little changed on Friday as Wall Street tried to recover from another sharp sell-off in major technology names. The market was also on pace for its first weekly gain of the month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained in the red 46.1 points to 27,855.88.
The S&P 500 dipped 20.9 points to 3,336.16.
The NASDAQ ditched 110.83 points, or 1%, to 10,795.66.
Shares of Facebook rose 1.4%. Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet were all higher as well. Oracle, meanwhile, slipped 0.3% after the U.S. government said it will block all TikTok and WeChat downloads in the country on Sunday. Oracle is trying to finalize a partnership deal with TikTok-parent ByteDance.
Big Tech struggled in the previous session, dragging down the broader market and adding to its steep September drop. Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple have all lost at least 10% month to date.
Republicans and Democrats are still struggling to agree on how much aid to continue to provide in a follow-up bill to the previous $2-trillion package. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he liked “the larger numbers,” urging GOP lawmakers to go for a bigger coronavirus stimulus, but his comments left Republicans skeptical.
Meanwhile, the path to a COVID-19 vaccine, which is critical to the economic recovery, still seems unclear. Health officials said vaccinations would be in limited quantities this year and not widely distributed for six to nine months.
Still, the major averages were set to snap two-week losing streaks despite the uncertainties surrounding the market and economic outlook.
Both the S&P 500 and NASDAQ were up about 0.5% week to date heading into Friday’s session. The Dow was up 0.85% for the week.
Prices for the 10-Year Treasury slumped, raising yields to Thursday’s 0.69%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices added 31 cents to $41.28 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices were shot up $11.70 to $1,961.60 U.S. an ounce.