The Dow turned higher Friday afternoon, while the S&P 500 and Nasdsaq Composite lagged behind.
Consumer staples, health care, and utilities were the only sectors working as traders flipped into risk-off mode on Friday.
The S&P 500’s consumer staples sector was up 0.9%, while utilities were up 0.5%. Health care was up 0.2%. The other eight major sectors were down on the day.
Energy, down 1.3%, technology, down 1.2%, and consumer discretionary, down 0.7%, were the biggest laggards.
That could explain why the Dow was up 16 points while the S&P was down 0.3% and the Nasdaq was down 0.8%: Some of the Dow’s bigger stocks are in healthcare. The index is also less exposed to tech stocks, so it was able to weather today’s struggles a touch better.
The Invesco S&P 500 High Beta ETF, which offers exposure to the S&P 500’s riskiest stocks, was down 1.2%, while the Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF was up 0.5%