Thursday's early afternoon trade: Wall Street drops again, but tech bounce helps limit losses

Wall Street dropped on Thursday as investors continued to shun risky investments, but the decline was less severe than the brutal sell-off in the previous session as a bounce in some high-growth technology stocks helped limit losses. Energy stocks, pressured by a drop in oil prices, and financials, with insurers hit by worries over impact of Hurricane Michael, led the losses.
But the technology sector, which led the sell-off on Wednesday, gained 0.46 percent. Microsoft rose 1.4 percent, while chipmakers such as Micron and AMD led the gainers among tech stocks. "The environment is still risk-off, tech stocks seem to have stabilized but haven't quite bounced back yet," said Lamar Villere, portfolio manager at Villere Balanced Fund in New Orleans.
"Investors are still nervous, but things seem to have calmed a bit. This certainly doesn't seem as bad as yesterday." The communication services sector rose 0.49 percent, as Facebook and Alphabet both rose 1.4 percent. The indexes fell below key technical levels, the S&P and the Nasdaq dropped below their 200-day moving average prices and the Dow slipped below its 100-day moving average, before the slide eased.
At 1:25 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 114.81 points, or 0.45 percent, at 25,483.93, the S&P 500 was down 14.95 points, or 0.54 percent, at 2,770.73 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 14.73 points, or 0.20 percent, at 7,436.78.