With traders expressing continued concerns about the global economic outlook, stocks have moved sharply lower over the course of morning trading on Friday. The major averages have fallen firmly into negative territory, more than offsetting the gains posted in the previous session.
News of a narrower than expected trade surplus in China has contributed to the weakness on Wall Street, with the Chinese Customs Office reporting a trade surplus of $13.05 billion for May, well below the $19.8 billion surplus forecast by economists.
Semiconductor stocks have shown a substantial move to the downside on the day, dragging the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index down by 2.1 percent to a six-month intraday low. MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) is leading the sector following a downgrade by Stifel Nicolaus.
Considerable weakness is also visible among gold, wireless, and networking stocks, with gold stocks moving lower along with the price of the precious metal. Most of the other major sectors have also come under pressure.
The major averages are currently posting steep losses, near their lows for the session. The Dow is down 138.62 points or 1.1 percent at 11,985.74, the Nasdaq is down 31.52 points or 1.2 percent at 2,653.35 and the S&P 500 is down 14.89 points or 1.2 percent at 1,274.11.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.