(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)
* Financial, material, energy, industrial sectors gain
* Uber falls after losing UK case on worker rights
* Indexes up: Dow 0.33%, S&P 0.27%, Nasdaq 0.47%
(Updates to open)
By Devik Jain and Shreyashi Sanyal
Feb 19 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks gained on Friday, helped by a
rise in economy-sensitive cyclical sectors, with the major Wall
Street indexes on track to end the week on a dull note as
investors rotated out of technology-related companies.
The S&P 500 technology .SPLRCT and communication services
.SPLRCL sectors, housing high-value growth stocks, were among
the smallest gainers in early trading, while financials .SPSY ,
industrials .SPLRCI , energy .SPNY and materials .SPLRCM
rose more than 1%.
Microsoft Corp MSFT.O , Facebook Inc FB.O and Netflix Inc
NFLX.O fell between 0.5% and 1.0%, sticking to a trend seen
for most parts of the week.
"What we saw (this week) represents a market that is tired
and may not do very much. So we are headed for some sort of a
pullback, but I don't think we're there just yet," said Peter
Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities
in New York.
"Investors are not really pulling out of the market, but
they are becoming more cautious. It already has factored in
another good positive earnings season."
The benchmark S&P 500 .SPX and the tech-heavy Nasdaq
.IXIC were tracking their first weekly declines this month, as
concerns over higher stock market valuations and a potential
snag in inoculation efforts have led to fears of a short-term
pullback in equities.
BofA expects a more than 10% pullback in stocks, which are
trading at more than 22 times 12-month forward earnings, the
most expensive since the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s.
Strong earnings, progress in vaccination roll-outs and hopes
of a $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package helped U.S. stock
indexes hit record highs at the start of the week.
Meanwhile, data showed IHS Markit's flash U.S. manufacturing
PMI dropped to 58.5 in the first half of this month, hurt by a
global semiconductor chip shortage and extreme weather in large
parts of the United States. Applied Materials Inc AMAT.O rose 8.3%, and was among the
top boosts to the Nasdaq, after it forecast second-quarter
revenue above market expectations, as demand for its
semiconductor manufacturing tools picked up during a global
shortage of semiconductors. At 10:11 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI was
up 102.89 points, or 0.33%, at 31,596.23, the S&P 500 .SPX was
up 10.59 points, or 0.27%, at 3,924.56, and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 65.79 points, or 0.47%, at 13,931.15.
Under Armour Inc UAA.N rose 2.8% after Oppenheimer
upgraded the athleisure apparel maker's stock to "outperform".
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners for a 2.88-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and a 3.01-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 29 new 52-week highs and no new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 94 new highs and two new lows.