Chip stocks and software stocks broke ranks with the rest of the technology sector on Friday, bouncing back amid a week long bloodbath for the broader U.S. stock market fueled by fear the COVID-19 epidemic may disrupt manufacturing supply lines.
Nvidia Corp. NVDA, +6.92% led gainers in the chip subsector Friday, closing up 6.9% at $270.07, as the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX, +2.21% rose 2.2%.
In comparison, the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.82% finished down 0.8% Friday, for a nearly 12% drop on the week, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.01% closed up less than 0.1%, for a nearly 11% weekly drop.
Nvidia shares finished down 8.2% for the week, but up more than 14% for the month, making Nvidia only one of two chip stocks on the S&P 500 with a February gain. The other was Applied Materials Inc. AMAT, +1.96%, with a 0.2% gain for February. The SOX index was down nearly 10% for the week and down 4.7% for February.
Read: Nvidia stock rockets past $300 to third straight record close as holdout analyst turns bullish
The only other tech stocks listed on the S&P 500 index showing February gains were Leidos Holdings Inc. LDOS, -2.34% , up 2.2%; Keysight Technologies Inc. KEYS, +2.55%, up 1.9%; and Jack Henry & Associates Inc. JKHY, -1.54%, up 1.5%.
The only tech stock on the S&P 500 to show a gain on the week also held the distinction of being a chip stock. Qorvo Inc. QRVO, +6.10% shares rose 6.1% to finish Friday at $100.58, for a 2.4% weekly gain. Shares, however, fell 5% in February.
On the whole, chip stocks fared best on Friday with 13 out of the 16 chip stocks on the S&P 500 closing higher, beating out every other tech subsector on the index.
Of the 14 stocks in the software subsector, nine finished higher on Friday with Autodesk Inc. ADSK, +5.66% up 5.7% and Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +2.42% up 2.4%. Oracle Corp. ORCL, -2.60% led decliners with shares down 2.6%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF IGV, +0.45% finished up 1% Friday, and declined 9.2% for the week and 5.7% for the month.
Two out of the eight stocks in the electronic equipment instruments and components subsector traded higher with IPG Photonics Corp. IPGP, +3.93% leading gainers up 3.9%, and FLIR Systems Inc. FLIR, -4.40% weighing on decliners down 4.4%
Eight out of the 21 IT services stocks on the S&P 500 finished higher Friday with Mastercard Inc. MA, +1.55% leading gainers to finish up 1.6%. Both Accenture PLC ACN, -3.14% and Akamai Technologies Inc. AKAM, -3.14% finished down 3.1%, while International Business Machines Corp. IBM, -2.22% weighed on the subsector with a 2.2% loss.
All five stocks in the communications equipment subsector finished lower, ranging from a less than 0.1% loss for Arista Networks Inc. ANET, -0.03% to a 2.3% decline in F5 Networks Inc. FFIV, -2.32%
Of the seven technology hardware storage and peripherals stocks on the S&P 500, only Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. HPE, +1.67% and Western Digital Corp. WDC, +0.71% finished higher with 1.7% and 0.7% gains, respectively. Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.06% shares declined less than 0.1%, while shares of HP Inc. HPQ, -4.98% and Xerox Holdings Corp. XRX, -4.82% both closed down nearly 5%.
Outside of the S&P 500, the clear winner in tech from COVID-19 fears has been videoconferencing stock Zoom Video Communications Inc. ZM, -7.53% While shares declined 7.5% on Friday, the stock is up 3.2% for the week and nearly 38% for the month.
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