US stocks wavered on Friday as worries over a global IT outage calmed, with Wall Street looking for recovery from a sell-off that saw the Dow snap a run of wins and a tech rout continue.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped 0.2%, coming off a drop of over 1% for the blue-chip index. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) hovered near the flatline, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose slightly.
Stocks are facing weekly losses after a wobbly handful of sessions that saw a dive in techs, with AI-focused chip stocks bearing the brunt. Investors are rotating out of the tech heavyweights that have fueled the recent rally and into small caps, seen by some as benefiting more from interest-rate cuts.
In the early hours, investors assessed the potential impact of an “unprecedented” failure in computer systems worldwide that grounded flights and hit banks, telecoms and media companies, among others. But concerns eased after CrowdStrike (CRWD) said a fix was in place for the glitch, a botched update that affected Microsoft-based (MSFT) systems.
CrowdStrike shares plunged as much as 20% as the outage spread, but pared losses to around 12% at the open. Shares in Microsoft — which was working on problems with its Azure cloud services — were slightly lower but also recovering.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential contender Donald Trump used his nomination speech on Thursday to say he would “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one.” His comment comes as the market wakes up to the “Trump trade” — the implications of his policies for assets if the former president takes the White House.
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