Wall Street closed mixed on Friday as several tech stocks including Nvidia fell from the previous session.
In terms of market performance, the Dow Jones index rose 0.55% to 49,266.11 points, the S&P 500 added 0.01% to 6,921.45 points and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.44% to 23,480.02 points.
Nvidia shares fell 2.2%, Broadcom plunged 3.2% and Microsoft fell 1.1%. The S&P 500 technology index fell 1.5%, recording a decline of about 1% so far this year.
The fall came as investors became increasingly wary of artificial intelligence (AI) stocks after their valuations soared due to big gains in recent years.
However, Alphabet shares rose 1.1% after the Google parent company overtook Apple in terms of market capitalization for the first time since 2025, making it the second most valuable company in the United States (US).
At the same time, defense stocks rose following President Donald Trump's proposal to increase the military budget to $1.5 trillion by 2027, a drastic jump from the $901 billion appropriation approved by Congress in 2026.
Lockheed Martin shares rose 4.3%, Northrop Grumman jumped 2.4%, while Kratos Defense gained 13.8%.
Several defense stocks had fallen in the previous session after Trump proposed to block defense contractors from paying dividends or buying back shares until they speed up weapons production.
Market attention is now on the release of December NFP jobs data at 9:30 pm Malaysia time.
It will be the first significant economic data after the end of the longest government shutdown in history.
