Investing.com – The S&P 500 dipped slightly Thursday on trade uncertainty and a fall in tech stocks led by Facebook.
The S&P 500 lost 0.09%, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.16%. But Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.03%.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) came under pressure after The New York Times reported federal prosecutors had launched a probe into data deals the company made with other tech giants.
Losses in tech stocks, however, were offset by rise in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) amid bullish calls from analysts.
S.G. Cowen initiated coverage of Apple with an outperform rating, helping the iPhone maker add to its gains of more than 6% this week.
On the trade front there was little to cheer amid a Bloomberg report that a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, expected to take place at the end of March, could be pushed back to at least April.
Trade-sensitive sectors like materials and industrials ended lower, though the latter was underpinned by a 2.8% rise in shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE) on upbeat remarks from GE CEO Larry Culp about the conglomerate's struggling power business.
Culp expects the company to generate fiscal 2019 adjusted profit between $0.50 to $0.60 a share and said he expected the power business to be “significantly better but negative” in 2020.
Retailers also weighed on the broader market, falling more than 1% amid a 7.5% slump in shares of Dollar General (NYSE:DG) on mixed fourth-quarter results.
Cloudera also delivered mixed fourth-quarter earnings, sending its share price tumbling 20%.
After hours, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) posted earnings that beat expectations from Investing.com. Oracle posted earnings of $0.87 a share on revenues of $9.6 billion.
In other corporate news, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) reportedly was ordered to pay $29 million to a woman who claimed that asbestos in the company’s talcum-powder-based products caused her cancer. Its shares fell 1%.
On the economic front, new home sales fell by more than forecasts in January. But analysts downplayed the weakness, saying the housing market could be set for a turnaround in the coming months thanks to a decline in mortgage rates.
"(H)ousing demand should pick up in coming months in response to the recent decline in mortgage rates, Residential construction will have a more neutral impact on the economy this year, compared with the persistent dragging effect of last year," BMO said in a note.
Top S&P 500 Gainers and Losers Today:
TechnipFMC (NYSE:FTI), Lam Research (NASDAQ:LRCX) and General Electric (NYSE:GE) were among the top S&P 500 gainers for the session.
Dollar General (NYSE:DG), Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ:TTWO) and Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR) were among the worst S&P 500 performers of the session.