An afternoon rebound helped stock market indexes reduce their losses Friday. Sellers hit Big Tech the most, weighing down the Nasdaq composite in the stock market today.
Forget any Santa Claus rally. Instead the Grinch spoiled the Nasdaq's holidays as the tech-dominated index tumbled 1.5% at the close. The tech-heavy index undercut its 21-day moving average but regained that level by the close as stocks trimmed losses.
The S&P 500 descended a sharp 1.1% and dropped below its 21-day moving average. The index, however, managed to hold above the 50-day moving average.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.8%. The index snapped a five-day win streak as it meets resistance near its 50-day line.
Volume surged on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq exchange. Decliners easily outnumbered advancers by about 3-to-1 on the Nasdaq and by about 11-to-2 on the NYSE, according to FactSet.
The small-cap Russell 2000 snapped a two-day winning streak and plunged 1.6%. And the Innovator IBD 50 exchange traded fund fell 2.8%, but remained above its 50-day moving average.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note remained persistently firm, up four basis points to 4.62%.
All 11 S&P sectors fell, with Energy Select Sector SPDR down slightly. Consumer discretionary and technology sectors fell more than 1%.
1:51 p.m. ET
Stock Market Today: Tesla Retreats From Highs
Tesla retreated from its record high of 488.54 and fell more than 4%. Shares had rallied 81% since Nov. 6 when they gapped up to start the postelection rally. But the strong action has not allowed the stock to form a base or buy point.
Shares are falling as fourth-quarter delivery numbers loom next week for the electric-vehicle giant. Analysts expect 510,000 units while the company forecasts 515,000 units, up from 462,890 vehicles in the third quarter. But Tesla may have to beat its own prediction to justify the strong rally.
Meanwhile, Cathie Wood's Ark Innovation ETF sold 19,000 shares of Tesla. The ETF also unloaded 42,293 shares of artificial intelligence leader Palantir according to a website that tracks the Ark ETF trades.
Palantir is one of the biggest 2024 gainers in the S&P 500. It is up 378% year to date as of Thursday's close.
12:18 p.m. ET
Warren Buffett's Year-End Pick
Elsewhere, Warren Buffett purchased an additional $28.55 million worth of shares of VeriSign over three sessions ending on Dec. 24. Berkshire Hathaway has a total stake of $2.67 billion in the web domain registration company.
Also, a Barron's report picked Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway as one of the top 10 stocks to watch in 2025 that trade near or below a market multiple. Others include Alphabet, ASML, Alibaba, and Citigroup. Berkshire stock fell 0.8%.
10:48 a.m. ET
Dow Jones: Nvidia Stock Down, But Building A Base
Dow Jones stocks are meeting resistance at the 50-day moving average as the year winds down. Nvidia fell below its 50-day moving average but is on track to build a late-stage double bottom base with a buy point of 146.54.
Nvidia is a hedged position on IBD Leaderboard. It is also one of the growth stocks on IBD 50. Shares have been meeting resistance at the 50-day line since Dec. 10.
Apple dropped 1.5% after Wedbush analyst Dan Ives raised the price target to $325 with an outperform rating. This is the second price target hike in a week. On Monday, the analyst raised the price target to $300 citing strong iPhone upgrades in the holiday season.
Apple's latest artificial intelligence rollout integrates ChatGPT in Siri. Further, Ives thinks Apple could sell 250 million iPhones in 2025 — a historical high. The analyst estimates that around 300 million iPhones worldwide haven't been upgraded in four years.
Further, Apple is nearing a $4 trillion market cap and would be the first company to achieve the milestone. Shares have to hit 264.62 to reach that valuation. Shares have been rallying since they broke out of a flat base's buy point of 237.49 in November and are extended.
A few stocks that have surged in recent action showed mixed action. SoundHound AI fell nearly 4% while Rigetti Computing added 2%. D-Wave Quantum plunged while Rocket Lab fell out of orbit. Rocket Lab offers a buy point at 28.10.
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