Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange on June 24, 2024.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Stock futures were quiet on Friday as Wall Street looked toward to end of a week defined by rotation.
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 122 points, 0.3%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures both flickered around flat.
Those moves comes after stocks declined across the board on Thursday. The Dow fell more than 500 points to snap a six-day winning streak. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite shed 0.8% and 0.7%, respectively.
Despite Thursday’s broad sell-off, a market rotation still appears to be theme of the week. The S&P 500 has dropped 1.26%, on pace for its worst week since April. The Nasdaq Composite has slipped 2.87%, putting a six-week winning streak at risk. On the other hand, the Dow is up 1.66%, while the small cap-focused Russell 2000 has climbed 2.33%.
That divergence has been encouraging to some Wall Street pros who had worried that the market rally was becoming too dependent on a handful of massive tech stocks. A shift away from megacap artificial intelligence beneficiaries can explain the Nasdaq’s underperformance this week, as well as why the information technology and communication services sectors have led the broad S&P 500 lower.
“The headline is ‘these are down’ with some of the momentum stocks getting hit,” said Chis Verrone, head of technical and macro research at Strategas, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” But, “the breadth under the surface these last two weeks has been absolutely spectacular.”
Verrone also said the move to small caps “has more durability than the consensus expects.”
CrowdStrike tumbled more than 10% following a major information technology outage that impacted business around the world. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq both said trading did not appear impacted.
Investors will also be keeping an eye on the the political sphere. Donald Trump is ramping up his campaign as the Republican National Convention draws to a close, while President Joe Biden is under pressure from fellow Democrats to bow out of the race.
