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* Oracle hits record high after results beat
* Materials the only S&P sector poised to end the week
higher
* Indexes: Dow up 0.35%, S&P dips 0.08%, Nasdaq falls 0.81%
(Updates to early afternoon)
By Medha Singh and Devik Jain
Sept 11 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 was largely flat in
afternoon trading on Friday towards the end of another volatile
week as investors weighed Oracle's strong results against data
that suggested a long and wobbly economic revival from a
coronavirus-led downturn.
Oracle's shares ORCL.N edged higher after hitting a record
high earlier in the session as the cloud services company's
earnings beat estimates and it signaled a recovery in client
spending due to higher remote working-led demand. Trading in so-called "stay-at-home winners" — Apple Inc
AAPL.O , Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and
Netflix Inc NFLX.O — were mixed but the mega-caps were set to
fall between 5% and 8% for the week, extending losses from last
Friday that brought Wall Street's rally to a screeching halt.
The S&P 500 was headed for the first back-to-back weekly
decline since March as concerns about the massive build-up in
call options tied to tech names exacerbated the selloff.
"We are seeing some rotation from the previous leaders into
some of the laggards and it's a potentially encouraging sign
that we're not just having a 'sell everything' moment like in
March," said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL
Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Industrials .SPLRCI and financial .SPSY stocks provided
the biggest boost to the benchmark index. Material .SPLRCM was
the only S&P sector poised to end higher on the week.
"The upward trajectory is in play but it's just going to be
much more of a volatile give-and-take relationship and it might
cause some investors some pain on those pullbacks," Detrick
said.
Many investors view the slump as a healthy consolidation
after a stunning five-month rally in the S&P 500 that was
powered by a narrow group of heavyweight tech names and scores
of fiscal and monetary stimulus.
Meanwhile, latest data showed U.S. consumer prices increased
solidly in August, but the labor market's slack is likely to
keep a lid on inflation as the economy recovers from the
COVID-19 recession. At 12:45 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI
was up 96.22 points, or 0.35%, at 27,630.80 and the S&P 500
.SPX was down 2.59 points, or 0.08%, at 3,336.60. The Nasdaq
Composite .IXIC was down 88.99 points, or 0.81%, at 10,830.60.
Exercise bike maker Peloton Interactive Inc PTON.O climbed
1% as it reported forecast-beating quarterly revenue due to a
surge in subscribers and increased demand for its fitness
products during the pandemic. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.28-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a
1.05-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded five new 52-week highs and one new
low, while the Nasdaq recorded 21 new highs and 20 new lows.