MW Stocks are selling off Friday. Is it fatigue, or something else?

By Joy Wiltermuth

The S&P 500 is now in danger of a weekly loss

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened in record territory on Friday, but stocks were slipping in afternoon trade.

U.S. stocks were getting hit by selling on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average giving back all its early gains - plus some - after it opened in fresh record territory.

After falling to fresh session lows around midday, the blue-chip Dow DJIA was down about 160 points, or 0.3%, at around 48,500 at last check, according to FactSet data. It still was poised for a 1.2% weekly gain.

Market jitters reared back up Thursday around artificial-intelligence plays, while a long-awaited rotation that's been bubbling under the surface for weeks also gathered more steam, leading to a round of record highs across a broad landscape of U.S. stocks.

But by Friday afternoon, it wasn't only the tech-centric S&P 500 SPX that was down a day after closing at a new record. The Russell 2000 index RUT of small-cap stocks also was lower after finishing at a record on Thursday, as were the iShares Micro-Cap ETF IWC and the S&P MidCap 400 index MID.

So, what gives? Are traders just feeling fatigued Friday?

"It's because we are in such a news-driven cycle," said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at the Carson Group. While traders might be growing more accustomed to surprises from the Trump administration since its April "liberation day" tariff shock, the White House still tends to drive headlines.

"This year, Mondays have been really strong," Detrick said. "There's good news on the Sunday morning talk shows, then a good pop early in the week," he said. "That's not normally what you see in a bull market."

Yet another theme this year has been weakness kicking in on Thursdays in stocks and intensifying on Fridays, with traders likely more nervous about adding risk ahead of the weekend amid the unusually uncertain backdrop of this year, Detrick said.

Still, the S&P 500 is up a robust 16% in 2025 so far. In that regard, it isn't surprising that the large-cap index has managed to book more positive weeks this year than negative ones, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Yet it hasn't been a blowout at the end of the week: There have been 27 positive Fridays recorded so far in 2025, or 55% of the total, compared with Fridays being lower 22 times, or 45%.

"Clearly we are getting Friday jitters today," Detrick said - noting that even without any obvious headlines to rattle investors, some areas of the market were giving back gains "after a really nice rally the last couple of weeks."

The Nasdaq Composite COMP down about 1.3%, heading for a 1.2% weekly loss, while the S&P 500 was on pace to shed 0.4%

-Joy Wiltermuth

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 12, 2025 13:56 ET (18:56 GMT)

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