US stocks post worst day of month as tech titans, Nike fall

The S&P 500 ended June on a sour note with a 0.4% loss, its worst session of the month to leave the benchmark US index with a fractional weekly decline. 

This brings to a close a quarter that was defined by the outperformance of the few versus the many and poor breadth. The S&P 500 was up about 4% while the S&P 500 equal weight index was down roughly 3%, its third-largest quarterly outperformance on record (back to 1989). It’s the first time ever the market cap index was up at least 2% in a quarter while the equal-weight index fell at least 2%. 

But Friday was the opposite of that: the top five biggest weights in the S&P 500 declined, with Amazon and Meta each off more than 2%, Microsoft and Apple falling more than 1%, and Nvidia also in the red.

Real estate, energy, and financials were the best-performing S&P sector ETFs, while consumer discretionary and communications services were the worst, off 1.1% and 0.9%, respectively.

Nike’s trademark upward swoosh was the opposite of its stock price move today. Shares plummeted 20%, its worst day on record, after the company released poor quarterly results and guidance.

The fingerprints of Thursday night’s US presidential debate were also all over the US stock market on Friday. After digesting the proceedings, investors rendered their verdict that a victory by Donald Trump and Republican sweep of Congress is now more likely.

A basket of stocks selected by Goldman Sachs as likely to benefit from Republican policies trounced its Democratic counterpart by 3.3%, the biggest outperformance this year.

GSEs like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, private prisons, and coal companies performed well, while solar firms and health insurance companies were crushed.