By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com - The Dow claimed a weekly win despite rounding off the week on a sour note as investors assessed whether Apple's decision to close some its U.S. stores in the midst of rising infections was a sign that parts of the U.S. could be forced to roll back the easing of some restrictions to curtail growing outbreaks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.80%, or 208 points, after racking up as many as 371 points intraday. The S&P 500 fell 0.62%, while the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.03%.
After hitting record highs intraday, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) fell 1% as the tech giant announced it would again close 11 stores across the U.S. in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Arizona following a rise in coronavirus cases.
Wall Street, however, largely shrugged off Apple's announcement, insisting that store closures are unlikely to have a significant impact on near-term demand ahead of the tech giants' launch of its 5G iPhone, expected in the fall.
"(F)undamentally speaking we view these temporary closures as having a negligible demand impact near-term," Wedbush said in a note.
The move from Apple, however, appeared to exacerbate some investor concerns that an ongoing rise in coronavirus cases could hamper the pace of economic reopening.
Several states including Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma reported record daily surges this week.
Investors shunned sectors of the market tied to the progress of the economic reopening, including energy, financials, and industrials.
Energy pared its gains to end lower even as oil prices rose more than 2% after OPEC and its allies ramped-up efforts to meet supply cuts.
In corporate news, meanwhile, Slack Technologies (NYSE:WORK) fell 3.2% after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) downgraded its rating on the company to sell from neutral, citing concerns over rising competition from Microsoft’s rival messaging platform, Teams.