Trader Richard Cohen, left, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, June 9.Richard Drew/The Associated Press
A sell-off in technology shares spoiled an otherwise buoyant day in the U.S. stock market as companies from Apple Inc. to Nvidia Corp. tumbled. The British pound dropped as the U.K.'s ruling Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority, plunging the country into uncertainty just days before Brexit negotiations were due to start.
Sterling dropped the most in eight months as the election intended to strengthen Prime Minister Theresa May's hand in negotiations with the European Union instead left her battling to survive. The currency's retreat gave British stocks a boost, as the FTSE 100 Index gained along with most major global equity gauges. U.K. bonds rose.
Outside of Britain, investors turned their attention to the sinking technology stocks following early enthusiasm that had pushed U.S. equity indexes to new intraday highs. The move lower began when Robert Boroujerdi, global chief investment officer at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., warned that low volatility in Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Apple, Microsoft Corp. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. may be blinding investors to risks such as cyclicality and regulation. The S&P 500 technology index plunged almost 3 per cent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 89.44 points, or 0.42 per cent, to 21,271.97, the S&P 500 lost 2.02 points, or 0.08 per cent, to 2,431.77 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 113.85 points, or 1.8 per cent, to 6,207.92.
Canada's benchmark stock index rose on Friday, led by financial and energy shares as oil prices rose and a stronger-than-expected domestic jobs gain added to the case for interest rate hikes from the Bank of Canada.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index unofficially closed up 50.12 points, or 0.32 per cent, at 15,473.21. Just three of the index's 10 main industry groups ended higher.
The FTSE 100 climbed 1 per cent. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index added 0.3 per cent
Editor's picks: Investment diary advice, Amazon at $1,000 means nothing, and why you need to prepare for the downturn now;
The week's most oversold and overbought stocks on the TSX;
Friday's analyst upgrades and downgrades.
The U.K. vote capped a series of major events this week -- including former FBI Director James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday -- that passed with relatively little fuss. Attention will now turn to the week ahead, when the Fed is expected to raise interest rates and the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank also meet.
"For now, the results of the U.K. elections do not appear to be threatening the global growth story," Mark Haefele, global chief investment officer at UBS Group AG, said in a note to clients. But for Britain,"political uncertainty is likely to more than offset any benefit from a marginally weaker pound," he said.
French voters go to the polls over the weekend, this time as part of a two-step process for parliamentary elections. The outcome will decide how much control new President Emmanuel Macron will have to enact his legislative agenda.
Federal Reserve policy makers are forecast to raise their benchmark interest rate for the second time this year at the conclusion of a two-day meeting next week. Central banks in Japan and Britain are also scheduled to weigh in with policy decisions.
Canada's main stock index rose on Friday, boosted by sharp gains for big banks as employment and industrial data pointed to renewed health in the domestic economy.
But department store operator Hudson's Bay Co slumped 10.5 per cent to $8.61 after the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue detailed a major restructuring plan that will cut 2,000 jobs after it reported a loss that was wider than expected and bigger than the previous quarter's.
The financial sector, which accounts for a third of the index's weight, gained 1.1 per cent. It also rose sharply on Thursday.
Job growth accelerated in May at its fastest pace in eight months, while industrial capacity rose to its highest level since 2007 in the first quarter, separate reports from Statistics Canada showed on Friday.
Royal Bank of Canada rose 1.4 per cent to $95.28, Toronto-Dominion Bank advanced 1 per cent to $65.59 and Bank of Nova Scotia gained 0.9 per cent to $78.57.
Alternative lender Home Capital Group jumped 7.8 per cent to $11.74 after a Globe and Mail report that it has attracted private equity bids.
The broader energy group climbed 1.95 per cent, as oil prices steadied just off a one-month low.
West Texas crude rose 0.4 per cent to $45.84 a barrel, after two days of losses. Oil has slumped this week as an unexpected increase in U.S. stockpiles cast doubt on OPEC's ability to rebalance world crude markets.
Gold fell 0.6 per cent to $1,271.30 an ounce, declining a third day.
With files from Reuters