NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks were heading for a quiet weekend close on Friday as Nvidia Inc. shares continued to cool from a sharp rise and concerns grew about the strength of the European economy.
The S&P 500 was down 0.1% at the open but remains near the all-time high it reached on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 6 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq Composite was little changed.
Nvidia again dragged the market down after falling 2.7%. The company’s shares have soared more than 1,000% since October 2022 on frenzied demand for its chips, which power much of the world’s transition to artificial intelligence technologies, and briefly overtook Microsoft this week to become Wall Street’s most valuable company.
But nothing goes up forever, and Nvidia’s stock price has fallen over the past two days, marking its first declining week in the last nine weeks.
U.S. stocks generally fell, following European markets, after preliminary data suggested economic activity in euro zone countries was weaker than economists had expected.
Concerns about the fragility of the European economy have pushed down European government bond yields, which have also put pressure on government yields in the U.S. Treasury market.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.22% from 4.26% late Thursday. Preliminary data on U.S. business activity is due to be released later in the morning.
As the majority of futures contracts for buying stocks and other investments expire, trading can feature a lot of changes throughout the day.
On Wall Street, gun maker Smith & Wesson Brands fell 9.8 percent despite reporting profits for its latest quarter that beat analysts’ expectations.
Sarepta Therapeutics shares rose 31.5% after U.S. regulators approved the company’s drug for use in children ages 4 and older with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Overseas, many Asian stock indexes also fell, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index down 1.7% and South Korea’s KOSPI down 0.8%.
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AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed.
