Wall Street Flat With Nike The Big Loser

Athletic wear company Nike's shares fell 6.3 percent and were the biggest drag on the Dow and the S&P 500 after it delivered a downbeat sales forecast and warned of delays during the holiday shopping season, blaming a supply chain crunch.

Shares of footwear retailer Foot Locker also fell sharply.

On the flip side, Facebook climbed 2 percent and Tesla rose 2.7 percent.

Stocks bounced back from a sharp selloff at the start of the week tied in part to concerns over a default by China's Evergrande and its potential risk to global financial markets.

On Friday, Evergrande's electric car unit warned it faced an uncertain future unless it got a swift injection of cash, the clearest sign yet that the property developer's liquidity crisis is worsening in other parts of its business.

"You've had a good recovery from the lows" this week, said Rick Meckler, partner, Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey.

"With rates this low – even if they are going to move up slowly – and with the fiscal stimulus you'll probably see coming, I think investors still prefer stocks to any other asset class. Stocks remain in a weird way what investors see as the safe place."

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve said it would reduce its monthly bond purchases "soon" and half of the Fed's policymakers projected borrowing costs will need to rise in 2022.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 percent, to 34,798, the S&P 500 gained 0.15 percent, to 4,455 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.03 percent, to 15,048. (Reuters)