Dow, S&P 500 gain, while Nasdaq eases with big tech names

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Dow and S&P 500 rose on Friday as interest rate-cut expectations held firm, while the Nasdaq eased, with big tech-related shares leading the way lower. Shares of Applied Materials were down 2.8%. The chip-equipment maker late Thursday forecast a $600 million hit to fiscal 2026 revenue after the U.S. expanded its restricted export list in a blow to certain sectors, including semiconductors. Among mega-cap names, shares of Nvidia were down 1.6%, while shares of Tesla were down 3.3%. The S&P 500 utilities gained more than 1%. The U.S. government shutdown dragged on for a third day. Investors were still able to digest a survey by the Institute for Supply Management, which showed the services employment index contracted for the fourth consecutive month. The news underscored the case for more interest rate cuts from the Fed. The market has historically been mostly unaffected by shutdowns but some strategists said that a longer shutdown could create more uncertainty for investors and for Federal Reserve policy makers. "The market generally looks past government shutdowns because they don't usually last long and they don't have a longer-term negative impact on the economy," said Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial in Troy, Michigan. "But the longer it goes… it means the data collection for really important reports could get delayed, or it could cloud some of the data that we will eventually get because the data collection wasn't happening over an extended period." The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 352.67 points, or 0.76%, to 46,873.59, the S&P 500 gained 11.39 points, or 0.17%, to 6,726.74 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 52.64 points, or 0.23%, to 22,791.41. Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said he was hesitant to commit to a series of rate cuts with inflation still running above the target.  Shares of USA Rare Earth hit a record high and were last up 13.3% after CEO Barbara Humpton told CNBC the company was "in close communication" with the White House. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.89-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 596 new highs and 45 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, 2,820 stocks rose and 1,764 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.6-to-1 ratio. (Additional reporting by Niket Nishant and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Pooja Desai and Aurora Ellis)

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