Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The final session of the week started on a downbeat note. The major indices showed losses across the board in a broad retreat. Index performance has improved, though, and the Nasdaq Composite (+0.2%) is in positive territory while the S&P 500 trades flat. 

There was a surge of buying in the mega caps recently, fueling the upside moves in the market. Apple (AAPL 214.91, +0.76, +0.4%), Amazon.com (AMZN 195.51, +0.58, +0.3%), and Alphabet (GOOG 165.51, +0.45, +0.3%) turned positive while Tesla (TSLA 246.12, +9.90, +4.2%), Meta Platforms (META 596.96, +10.08, +1.4%), and Eli Lilly (LLY 843.13, +1.51, +0.2%) extended early gains.

The underlying bias in equities is still negative. Decliners lead advancers by a 2-to-1 margin at the NYSE and by a 3-to-2 margin at the Nasdaq.

Growth concerns, especially related to earnings growth prospects, are a driver of the negative disposition following earnings results from FedEx (FDX 226.83, -19.38, -7.9%), NIKE (NKE 68.42, -3.44, -4.8%), Lennar (LEN 115.27, -4.83, -4.0%), and Micron (MU 94.86, -8.13, -7.9%). 

Also,  U.S. Steel (X 41.07, +0.01, +0.1%) and Nucor (NUE 121.21, -8.29, -6.4%) issued earnings warnings for the first quarter, piling onto the growth worries.

There was no top-tier US economic data today.