Tech shares boost Nasdaq; energy stocks rebound

By Sinead Carew

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Friday, with the Nasdaq set to post its first weekly gain in three weeks, helped by strength in technology stocks, while energy shares rebounded as oil prices rose.

But bank stocks fell even after they passed their annual stress test as some results were weaker than expected and investors focused on a flattening yield curve.

Investors were expecting heavy trading around the market close due to FTSE Russell's completion of the annual refresh of its benchmarks.

"The effect is going to be focused on small-caps but there's an echo of that in large caps," said Don Townswick, Director of Equity Strategy at Conning & Co in Hartford, Connecticut.

While most of the rebalance-related trading comes at the close "there's jockeying all through the day from people who want to get ahead" said Townswick.

Oil prices edged up after hitting their lowest point since August earlier in the week, but remained on course for a roughly 20 percent decline for the year-to-date as production cuts have failed to reduce oversupply.

While the S&P 500 energy index <.SPNY> was up 0.4 percent on the day, it was on track to post its worst weekly decline since February 2016. Oil prices have added to concerns about the inflation outlook, which, along with a flattening yield curve, could pose a challenge to the Federal Reserve's rate hike plans.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 10 points, or 0.05 percent, to 21,387.29, the S&P 500 gained 3.16 points, or 0.13 percent, to 2,437.66 and the Nasdaq Composite added 23.93 points, or 0.38 percent, to 6,260.62.

Big technology stocks, including Apple , Facebook and Microsoft , were the S&P 500's biggest boosts on the day and sent up the tech sector <.SPLRCT> 0.6 percent.

The laggards included the healthcare index <.SPXHC> which was down 0.4 percent on the day after a strong week.

The healthcare rally faded on Friday as investors sought to understand whether a Senate Republican bill to replace Obamacare, released Thursday, would gain enough support to pass. Healthcare stocks had rallied ahead of the bill and were still on track for a weekly gain.

The S&P financial index <.SPSY>, fell 0.44 percent with pressure from banking stocks after the stress test results and ahead of the second part of their test due on Wednesday.

"It is a sell on the news effect," said R.J. Grant, head of trading at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in New York. "It might get people back to focusing on things like the yield curve."

Instead, investors favoured growth sectors such as tech.

"People are making bets that rates will stay lower for longer and the economy will kind of muddle along and have very tepid growth," said Grant.

BlackBerry's U.S.-listed shares were down 11.6 percent after quarterly revenue missed estimates.

Bed Bath & Beyond was down 12.7 percent following a bigger-than-expected drop in same-store sales.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.96-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.49-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Nick Zieminski)