The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down modestly in afternoon trading Friday, while more intense losses hit both the Nasdaq composite and Russell 2000 indexes. Meanwhile, Tesla slumped for the second-straight day ahead of its Q4 delivery data due Jan. 2.
The Dow Jones held up well, down just 0.2%. But the Nasdaq composite fell 0.6% and the Russell 2000 small-cap index slumped 1.1%. The S&P 500 was down 0.4%.
Volume was running about 10% higher on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq compared with the same time Thursday. Declining stocks outnumbered advancers by nearly 3 to 1 on both exchanges.
NVDA stock reversed lower after the company introduced a new gaming chip in China to comply with tighter U.S. export restrictions. Nvidia was bumping against the 500 level as it forms a new base with a 505.48 entry.
TSLA stock lost 2% after some stiff selling Thursday. For Tesla bulls, Thursday's weak price action wasn't great to see after the stock gave an early buy signal Wednesday. The electric-vehicle giant is expected to release fourth-quarter delivery data early next week, most likely on Jan. 2.
In other EV news, Fisker shares shot up more than 15% after the company said deliveries rose more than 300% between the third and fourth quarter. Demand is strong for the company's Ocean sport-utility vehicle crossover. Note that Fisker is a highly speculative, low-priced stock.
Dow Jones Today
Health insurer UnitedHealth edged higher after the health insurer agreed to sell its Brazil operations to the founder and former chief executive of health insurance firm Qaulicorp, the largest manager of collective health plans in Brazil.
Top Stock With Booming Revenue Growth Thrives In Niche Market
After an earnings sell-off late last week, Nike reversed lower after an early pop. But the stock's converged 50-day and 200-day moving average lines, currently just below 110, mark a potential resistance point to watch.
Boeing was slightly down by midday. Boeing is in a bullish technical setup like loads of other stocks right now. After hitting a low of 176 in late October, the stock started rising in heavy volume and hit a high of 265 earlier this month. It's now trading tightly near highs while holding support at the 10-day line. It's also on the Leaderboard Watchlist.
Meanwhile, Procter & Gamble outperformed in the Dow Jones today, but Walgreens slumped around 3%.
While various overbought and sentiment indicators raise the likelihood of a pullback for the major stock indexes, the fact that everyone seems to be expecting it means it could take a while for a pullback to happen. The first two trading weeks of January will give hints about the stock market's underlying health.
If price gains in the indexes come with higher volume, with declines in lower volume, that would bode well for stock market bulls. The bears want to see meaningful percentage declines in higher volume, otherwise known as distribution days.
As of last week, the latest Investors Intelligence survey of stock market newsletters writers showed the bulls at 56.9%, just below the late-July peak of 57.1% and just ahead of a 9% pullback for the Nasdaq. At the very least, traders might consider taking partial profits by trimming some big winners.
Stocks On The Move
Outside the Dow Jones index, Leaderboard stock Uber gave back more than 2%, hurt by a Nomura Securities report that downgraded the stock to neutral from buy. The news wasn't all bad, though, because Nomura lifted Uber's price target to 62 from 59.
Nomura also downgraded Lyft to reduce from neutral, citing shrinking market share. LYFT stock shed 4%. UBER shares have gained around 150% year to date, while LYFT shares are up 37%.
Inside the MarketSmith Growth 250, bitcoin miner Marathon Digital plunged another 16% after shares sank 9.5% Thursday in the heaviest volume in months. That's a sign MARA could be topping.
The 10-year Treasury yield was up slightly at 3.86%. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures inched up 0.3% to around $72 a barrel.
Follow Ken Shreve on Twitter @IBD_KShreve for more stock market analysis.
