Tech Shares Ease as Buyers Shift Choices
Stocks finished mostly higher Friday as investors continued to hunt for issues that were underappreciated last year.
In other markets, bond yields fell, and the dollar weakened after two days of strong gains.
Crude oil futures hit five-week highs and closed above $36 a barrel on supply fears ahead of the summer driving season.
Wall Street continued a shift that picked up steam this month: Many of last year’s highflying technology stocks are pulling back, and investors are favoring other issues that had been underperformers, including energy, food and utility stocks.
Mild selling in the tech sector left the Nasdaq composite index down 2.75 points, or 0.1%, at 2,029.82. For the week, the index dropped 0.4%, its sixth straight weekly decline. It was down 1.8% for the month.
Still, rising stocks outnumbered losers by 17 to 14 on Nasdaq on Friday.
Blue chips fared better. The Dow Jones industrials added 3.78 points to 10,583.92. The Dow was down 0.3% for the week but up 0.9% for the month.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index was up fractionally for the day, to 1,144.94. It rose 0.1% for the week and 1.2% for the month.
Winners outnumbered losers by more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.
The market rallied early in the day after the government slightly raised its estimate of fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth. But a downbeat report on February consumer confidence may have given some investors pause, analysts said.
Bond traders were cheered by the low reading of an inflation gauge in the GDP report. Subdued inflation could help keep the Federal Reserve on hold.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to a five-week low of 3.97% from 4.03% on Thursday.
The dollar declined as some traders shifted to the yen in the wake of some strong reports on Japan’s economy. The Nikkei-225 stock index rose 2.1% to 11,041.92 and was up 2.4% for the month.
Among the day’s highlights:
* Energy stocks advanced as near-term oil futures in New York rose 65 cents to $36.16 a barrel. Marathon Oil gained 70 cents to $35.14, Amerada Hess jumped $2.03 to $64.35, and Burlington Resources added 58 cents to $58.54.
* Food stocks were strong. Many of those issues are considered “defensive,” meaning investors turn to them if they believe the pace of the market overall may slow. Kellogg rose 39 cents to a 52-week high of $39.49. Kraft Foods gained 53 cents to $33.79, and Adolph Coors surged $1.26 to $67.78.
* In the utility group, another classic defensive sector, American Electric Power rallied 62 cents to $34.50, and First Energy rose 58 cents to $38.63.
* The GDP report may have bolstered some commodity-related issues, including Phelps Dodge, up $1.07 to $86.26, and aluminum firm Alcan, up 63 cents to $47.63.
* Builders rallied for a second day on hopes that home sales would remain strong. KB Home gained $1.90 to $72.35, and Centex jumped $2.65 to $106.80.
Mortgage lender Countrywide Financial surged $3.56 to $91.63.
* Walt Disney lost 20 cents to $26.53. Its unwanted suitor, Comcast, was flat at $29.95.
* In the tech sector, Intel lost 30 cents to $29.20. It dropped 4.3% for the month. Cisco Systems was off 19 cents to $23.16 and fell 10% for the month.
Other tech issues falling Friday included Dell, down 65 cents to $32.65; QLogic, down 80 cents to $41.80; and Veritas Software, down 89 cents to $30.55.
But Autodesk jumped $2.79 to $28.76 and Motorola added 36 cents to $18.45, a 52-week high.
