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* Tesla rises after PT hikes ahead of "Battery Day"
* Oracle falls as Trump to block U.S. downloads of TikTok
* PG&E Corp slips as finance chief resigns
* Dow off 0.27%, S&P 500 flat, Nasdaq up 0.26%
(Updates to open)
By Shreyashi Sanyal and Devik Jain
Sept 18 (Reuters) - The Nasdaq inched higher on Friday as a
two-day selloff in technology-related stocks halted, but
sentiment remained fragile over worries about rising coronavirus
cases and a patchy economic recovery.
Wall Street's three main indexes bounced earlier this week
as investors bet on a loose monetary policy by the Federal
Reserve, but gains petered out in the absence of firm details on
the central bank's stimulus plan.
The S&P 500 .SPX and the Nasdaq .IXIC have also come
under pressure from investors rotating out of high-flying
tech-related stocks and into industrial and transportation
firms.
But early gains on Friday were led by Netflix NFLX.O ,
Facebook FB.O and Tesla Inc TSLA.O , which have together
dominated Wall Street's recovery from the coronavirus-led slump
in March.
"The market's in a vacuum right now," said Thomas Hayes,
managing member at Great Hill Capital LLC in New York.
"Anytime you have news or perception that things are going
to be delayed or (you have a) slow growth economy, those
(technology-related) stocks get bid. You'll get these technical
bounce days when coronavirus cases spike up and money will move
back into tech."
Volatility is likely to be higher on Friday related to a
quarterly expiration of U.S. stock options, stock index futures
and index option contracts, known as "quadruple witching".
At 10:04 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
down 76.54 points, or 0.27%, at 27,825.44, the S&P 500 .SPX
was down 2.01 points, or 0.06%, at 3,355.00 and the Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was up 28.63 points, or 0.26%, at 10,938.90.
Tesla rose 5.4% as two analysts raised their price targets
on the electric carmaker's shares ahead of its highly
anticipated "Battery Day" event next week. Oracle Corp ORCL.N fell 0.3% after Reuters reported the
U.S. Commerce Department plans to issue an order on Friday that
will bar people in the United States from downloading
Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok
starting on Sept. 20. Power provider PG&E Corp PCG.N shed 0.1% as Chief
Financial Officer Jason Wells resigned to join CenterPoint
Energy Inc CNP.N as its finance chief. Of the 11 major S&P indexes, industrials .SPLRCI ,
materials .SPLRCM and energy .SPNY have gained more than 2%
so far this week, while communication services .SPLRCL and
consumer discretionary .SPLRCD have posted the biggest
declines.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.10-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a
1.60-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded seven new 52-week highs and no new
low, while the Nasdaq recorded 39 new highs and four new lows.