Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading on Oct. 14, 2026 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
The Dow slid on Friday as a sell-off in tech in the prior session shifted to other areas of the market and U.S. oil prices topped $100 a barrel amid rising fears that the U.S.-Iran conflict would flare up again.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 652.82 points, or 1.23%, to settle at 52,215.16, while the S&P 500 slipped 0.52% to 7,623.68. The Nasdaq Composite lost 0.21% to close at 25,955.34.
More defensive stocks came under pressure on Friday, with the consumer staples, utilities and healthcare sectors all lower. Dow component American Express fell more than 3% after announcing it was cutting about 5% of its global workforce, citing the need to “prepare for AI.” Caterpillar also edged down about 2%, while Goldman Sachs lost more than 1%, adding pressure to the 30-stock index.
On Thursday, many technology stocks had pulled back as traders assessed the impact of outsized corporate borrowing and rising rates on AI and other tech names. Microsoft ticked higher on Friday. However, chip stocks such as Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices made a stronger move, with gains of nearly 3% and almost 2%, respectively.
“For the last two weeks, investors have been sprinting from tech stocks and data center beneficiary stocks to safe stuff, and eventually, you run out of people willing to do that sprint, and that’s what today looks like and feels like,” Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management, told CNBC.
Ellerbroek added that tech companies’ earnings have proven strong this season, giving investors a reason to embrace tech stocks and focus less on emotion-based flights to safety.
“Emotion and fear play a really big role,” the investor said. But, “we’ve gotten a few tech companies’ [latest quarterly financial reports] and their earnings results have been good.”
The 10-year Treasury yield was at around 4.999%, up more than 4 basis points on the day. The benchmark yield had fallen below the key 5% level on Thursday for the first time in a month as investors grew cautious about the massive borrowing that is underway to finance the building of AI data centers.
Oil prices also rose on Friday, further pressuring stocks. West Texas Intermediate futures were up 3.8% to settle at $103.27 per barrel. Brent crude prices rose 3.1% to end the session at $116.72 for the highest settle since April. The gains follow reports that the U.S. and Israel may be drawing up plans for renewed attacks on Iran as part of the regional war that started in late February. Iran has countered that it is prepared to strike back as well.
On the week, the S&P 500 lost 0.5%, and the Nasdaq shed 0.7%. The Dow gained 0.4% in the period.
