Stocks little changed with eyes on virus
It was a hazy, lazy, summer Friday on Wall Street as investors took a well-needed rest after the first full week of earnings.
The Dow ended the day lower but the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq both edged higher.
The stock of the day - no doubt - Netflix. Shares of the streaming media company tumbled 7 percent. Some Wall Street analysts cut their ratings on the stock or lowered price targets after Netflix gave third-quarter new subscriber numbers that were viewed as disappointing.
As Mercadien Asset Management's Ken Kamen points out, the Netflix news capped off a week in which investors backed away from high-flying tech stocks.
"We are starting to get a little bit of a questioning in these stay-at-home tech stocks, as we are seeing with Netflix. They said they are not as great as people thought as far as their new subscribers going but they are still doing very well. We're just seeing an excuse to take a pause here. So I don't think I would read too much into it but I would still stick with the themes that you have to buy strong quality, buy strong balance sheets because momentum markets have a way of turning on you and you can get stampeded by the herd."
Airline stocks were weak Friday on fear a rebound in air travel will take longer to gain altitude as more states scale-back their reopening plans. American Airlines was also in the news as it introduced contactless check-in at more than 230 airports. American was the biggest loser of the group - down more than 4 percent.
Mixed economic news to bring the week to a close. Home construction projections saw their biggest jump in nearly four years but health fears pushed consumer sentiment lower in mid-July.
