Tech stocks pull Wall Street away from record highs

By Tanya Agrawal

REUTERS - A drop in technology stocks on Friday dragged Wall Street away from the record highs it hit earlier in the session, helped by gains in bank stocks.

Still, all three major indexes are on track to end the week higher, with focus turning to the Federal Reserve's meeting next week, when the central bank is near certain to raise interest rates.

The Dow got a boost from Goldman Sachs' 1.8 percent gain, while a more than 2 percent rise in JPMorgan and Bank of America helped lift the S&P 500.

The financial index's 1.7 percent rise topped the gainers among the 11 S&P 500 sectors, followed by a 1.6 percent gain in energy on the back of higher oil prices.

The technology sector was off 1.5 percent, led by declines in Microsoft and Apple. The index is on track to fall for the first time in three days.

At 12:49 p.m. ET (1649 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 81.28 points, or 0.38 percent, at 21,263.81, the S&P 500 was up 4.45 points, or 0.18 percent, at 2,438.24 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 44.28 points, or 0.7 percent, at 6,277.48.

U.S. stocks started the session strong after former FBI Director James Comey's testimony on Thursday was not seen as damaging enough to Donald Trump's presidency.

Comey said Trump fired him to undermine an investigation into Russian meddling into last November's U.S. election and while he had no doubt that Russia interfered with the election, he was confident that no votes had been altered.

"The market was concerned about the information that Comey will bring and the President has, to a degree, come away clean enough that he will not end up in any sort of impeachment issue," said Phil Blancato, CEO of Ladenberg Thalmann Asset Management in New York.

The market's was concerned that the testimony could derail the Trump administration's push to fulfill its agenda of lower taxes and looser regulations - promises that were partly behind a post-election rally that drove U.S. stocks to record highs.

Investors also looked past the UK election, where British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority.

Chipmaker Nvidia hit a new record high, before reversing course to trade down 4.5 percent at $152.80 after Citron Research said the stock could trade back to $130.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by 1,918 to 898. On the Nasdaq, 1,716 issues rose and 1,089 fell.

The S&P 500 index showed 28 new 52-week highs and 11 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 82 new highs and 70 new lows.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Savio D'Souza)