NEW YORK — Stocks on Wall Street are off to a mixed start Friday morning as another pullback in big technology companies weighs on the market. The S&P 500 was down less than 0.1 per cent and on track for a weekly loss. The benchmark index remains near the all-time high it set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 387 points, or 0.8 per cent, as of 10:02 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite was down 0.6 per cent and headed for its first weekly loss in five weeks. Weakness for AI stocks has been a major drag on on the tech-heavy index this week. Despite the uneven start, the majority of U.S. stocks were rising. Technology companies were the biggest drag on the market. Micron Technology fell 3.9 per cent, Advanced Micro Devices dropped 3.2 per cent, Broadcom was down 1.8 per cent and Intel lost 2.2 per cent. Netflix’s stock fell 1.4 per cent a day after the company announced that Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria will be replaced by Peter Rice. The news comes just days after Netflix said that it plans to lay off about 6 per cent of its workforce, amounting to nearly 1,000 positions. Gains by financial companies helped limit the market slide. JPMorgan rose 2.2 per cent, Citigroup gained 2.9 per cent and Wells Fargo was up 2.1 per cent. In the bond market, Treasury yields eased. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 5.09 per cent from 5.10 per cent late Thursday. It had topped 5.30 per cent earlier this month and touched its highest level since 2002 because of worries about high inflation, signals of a strong U.S. economy and other factors. European markets were higher and Asian markets rose. Oil prices remained elevated as the global oil supply continues to be under pressure without a deal between the U.S. and Iran to end the Iran war. Brent crude, the international standard, was flat at US$105.89 per barrel. That is still high compared with around US$72 a barrel in late February before the start of the war. Brent climbed into triple digits last month, the first time since July. The national average for gasoline is at US$4.33 a gallon on Friday, according to AAA. While that’s lower than the US$4.37 a gallon that it averaged last month, it’s sharply higher than the US$3.06 a gallon from a year ago. Oil remains well-supported as uncertainties surrounding the situation in the Middle East and concerns over oil flows in the Strait of Hormuz had the market “pricing in a significant risk premium,” ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey wrote in a commentary Friday. --- Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman, The Associated Press
