Friday's Market Minute: Tech Leads Market Sell-Off

U.S. equity futures are mixed in premarket trading Friday after stocks sold off across the board yesterday, wiping out record highs in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 following a multi-week run of the major indices. The S&P lost 3.5%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 5.2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.8%. Technology stocks led the losses: Microsoft Corporation MSFT fell 6.2%, Alphabet Inc GOOG lost 5.0%, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN dropped 4.6%, and Apple Inc. AAPL fell 8.0%, its biggest one-day decline since March 16.

The S&P 500 Information Technology sector (XLK) also saw its biggest one-day loss since March, after closing 5.8% lower and ending a 10-day winning streak. Work-from-home stocks that have benefitted from people’s working and learning remotely like Zoom Video Communications Inc ZM and even Peloton Interactive Inc PTON also took a hit yesterday, but a few names were able to buck the trend and finish in the green. Shares of beaten-down companies that would benefit from the economy reopening rose, including cruise operator Carnival Corp CCL, which closed the session up 5.2%, and department store Macy’s (M), which rose nearly 8.0%.

All eyes today will be on the August Employment Situation report that comes out at 8:30 am ET, which will provide a look into how the U.S. labor market is recovering since many states have begun reopening their economies over the past couple of months. Econoday estimates an increase of 1.4 million jobs to have been added last month, compared to an increase of nearly 1.8 million in July. The unemployment rate is expected to fall slightly, to around 9.8% from 10.2% in July.

Photo by Alexandre Debiève on Unsplash