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Stocks End Mixed As 5 Names Spearhead The Tech Dive

X A bruising session Friday left stocks mostly lower and tech investors recovering from the Nasdaq's second-worst session of the year.

The Nasdaq ended down 1.8%, while the S&P 500 held to a 0.1% loss. The Dow held its ground, closing 0.4% higher.

A hat trick of negatives hit tech stocks at the end of a confusing news week. A report released late Thursday by Bank of America concluded that the tech sector currently "trades at its highest relative multiple since the Tech Bubble." The BofA report alone wasn't enough to restrain the Nasdaq early progress Friday, with the index hauling in a new high, but peaking in the first 45 minutes of trade.

IBD 50 stock and recent highflier Nvidia (NVDA) appears to have helped trigger the slide, after a report from short-selling specialist Citron warned of weakness in the chipmaker's core gaming businesses. It also called the price target hike assessed Thursday by Citigroup on Nvidia "irresponsibly bullish."

Nvidia dived 6.5% in heavy trade, despite a rebound off lows in afternoon trade. Shares remained extended above a 121.02 buy point but the reversal came in the highest volume of the stock's run, a bad sign.

The move sent chip stocks sprawling, with IBD's three chip-related groups posting three of the session's four worst losses among industry groups. Ichor Holdings (ICHR), Nova Measurement (NVMI) and Brooks Instruments (BRKS) falling sharply. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Cirrus Logic (CRUS) caved more than 5%. Macom Technology Solutions (MTSI) suffered a 7% loss.

The tech sell-off broadened on reports Friday that Goldman Sachs called into question the what it named the FAAMG group of stocksFacebook (FB), Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) — declaring the group in a "valuation air pocket." Goldman said the group was due for a pause, and had been inappropriately valued as stable, staple issues, acting as key drivers of the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 this year.

The combination sent technology industry groups to 19 of Friday's 20 worst performances among all 197 groups tracked by IBD.  The only non-technology industry in that lineup, automakers, were dragged by the heavy-volume 3% loss in the industry's most techish name, Tesla (TSLA).

There were winners on Friday.

The Dow gained ground, hauled higher by Pfizer's (PFE) 3% advance and gains of better than 2% from JPMorgan (JPM) and Chevron (CVX). Apple tanked more than 4%, but found support at its 10-week moving average. Microsoft dropped 2%.

Dillard's (DDS) spiked 10%. J.C. Penney (JCP) and Kohl's (KSS) vaulted 7% each, after the announcement on Thursday that Nordstrom (JWN) was considering a deal to be taken private sent its shares up 10%. The high-end department store gained 6% in heavy trade on Friday.

Makers of drilling rigs and equipment, and international oil exploration names rebounded after Thursday's harsh sell-off. Oil prices warmed ever-so-slightly, leaving West Texas intermediate up less than a half percent, still well below $46 a barrel and down almost 4% for the week.

Heavy construction firms also found some love on Friday, the last day of President Trump's official "infrastructure week" on the bully pulpit. The President laid out some specific numbers for the first time earlier in the week, proposing to stir $1 trillion in total infrastructure spending by throwing $200 billion in federal moneys into the kitty for projects. Nearly every name in the industry group gained Friday, led by Layne Christiansen's (LAYN) 17% rebound.

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