The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 200 points, losing 0.5% in afternoon trading Friday amid an earnings sell-off for Nike stock. Tesla stock recovered off lows in the stock market today amid more negative headlines out of China.
Nike plunged nearly 8% even after the company reported a 24% increase in adjusted profit and flat revenue at $12.4 billion. But Nike acknowledged its direct-to-consumer strategy shift is facing challenges. Nike also said it's losing share in the running category. The stock has been on a sharp downtrend since it gapped down on earnings in December.
Tesla rallied off lows but was still down more than 2% in recent action. The electric-vehicle giant reportedly is cutting production at its Shanghai factory due to waning demand.
Lululemon plummeted more than 16%. The retailer reported a 20% increase in quarterly profit and a 16% revenue hike to just above $3.2 billion. But the company warned of softening demand in North America. Lululemon stock gapped below its 200-day moving average, a longer-term support level.
Apple reversed higher in the Dow Jones after Thursday's sell-off in higher volume. Sentiment was negative after the Department of Justice sued Apple, accusing the company of maintaining an iPhone monopoly.
Stock Market Today
The Russell 2000 small-cap index lagged with a 1.1% drop after two days of strong gains. Selling pressure was muted on the Nasdaq composite and S&P 500 after the S&P 500 marked a stalling session Thursday. Stalling is another version of distribution, which is important to monitor during a stock market uptrend. When distribution days start to cluster in the Nasdaq and S&P 500, it can forewarn of a looming pullback.
Losers beat winners on the Nasdaq and NYSE by about 2-to-1.
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The 10-year Treasury yield was down 5 basis points to 4.22% after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday flagged three rate cuts before the end of the year, in line with market expectations.
FedEx was the top gainer in the S&P 500. FedEx was off session highs but still rallied 7%, helped by a strong earnings report and news of a $5 billion share buyback program.
Reddit slumped 10% intraday but was off lows after a strong debut Thursday. The stock priced at 34 Wednesday night and closed Thursday at 50.44.
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Stocks On The Move
Inside the MarketSurge Growth 250, Google parent Alphabet outperformed with a gain of nearly 2%. Wedbush raised Alphabet's price target to 175 from 160 while maintaining an outperform rating.
Bitcoin-related stocks lagged on the stock market today, with bitcoin down 3% to just over $63,700. MicroStrategy, which has recently announced some debt offerings to help it buy more bitcoin, pared losses and was 2% in recent action. Coinbase rallied back to session highs after falling nearly 5% intraday.
At the end of February, MicroStrategy owned about 193,000 bitcoins worth $11 billion.
In the chip space, Arm continues to show strength and support after surging on earnings in February. A pullback and successful test of the 10-week moving average, currently around 113, would put Arm in an alternate buy area. The other scenario is that Arm will form a new base.
Follow Ken Shreve on X @IBD_KShreve for more stock market analysis and insight.
