Stocks turned a day of minor early losses into tiny gains as the indexes closed the week higher.
However, some leading tech issues still fell sharply for the week, including a pair of semiconductor plays in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) (down 6% on Friday but still above the 50-day moving average) and Nvidia (NVDA).
Nvidia's RS Rating is still a sterling 98, but this IBD gauge looks at 12-month relative price performance. Its Accumulation/Distribution of D- underscores recent heavy institutional selling. The stock appears to be in basing mode and should be watched, not bought.
At the same time, a further drop below the 50-day moving average means that holders should also book some profits.
The Nasdaq composite turned a 0.3% decline into a gain of nearly 0.2%. At 5870, the tech-rich index knocked out a sixth weekly gain in a row.
The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average also eked out tiny gains of less than 0.1%. The Russell 2000 edged 0.1% lower, finishing the week virtually flat.
Thursday IPO Snap (SNAP) jumped more than 10% to 27.09 and reached as high as 29.44, up 73% past its initial public offering at 17 a share. Volume surged again, coming in Friday at 148 million shares vs. its float of 218 million.
The Street expects the Snapchat social network operator to lose 44 cents a share this year and lose 26 cents a share in 2018. Watch to see if those numbers get revised upward. The best performing tech IPOs tend to already have a strong record of profit growth, not net losses.
Strong gains by stocks in the fiber optic, hospital, gold mining, airline and machinery industry groups offset broad weakness across the retail sector, hurt by a 4% gap down in heavy volume by Costco Wholesale (COST).
The pioneer in warehouse-style retailing reported a 6% drop in fiscal second-quarter earnings to $1.17 a share, snapping a three-quarter run of modest EPS gains. Sales rose 6% to $29.8 billion, accelerating from gains of 2% to 3% in the prior four quarters.
Costco remains above a 165.05 cup-with-handle buy point.
Supernus has a market cap of less than $1.5 billion and is prone to large price swings. However, it's also part of the biotech group, which is now ranked No. 15 out of IBD's 197 industry groups for six-month performance.
Not all medical leaders showed healthy action.
Glaukos (GKOS), one day after a wild reversal on Thursday, slumped more than 7% to 44.71 in triple average trading. The innovative maker of a micro-stent used in glaucoma patients has gained as much as 45% since clearing a 36.10 cup-with-handle entry on Jan. 6.
Thursday's volume was the heaviest since that breakout, and so given the negative reversal the price-volume action serves as a signal to take at least some profits.
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