Dow rises while Nasdaq slips as chip stocks pull Wall Street toward a weekly loss

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 280 points, or 0.5%, in early trading on Friday, while the Nasdaq $NDAQ Composite slipped 0.6% and the S&P 500 was little changed, according to CNBC.

Declines in chip and artificial intelligence-related stocks have left the S&P 500 down 0.9% for the week and the Nasdaq down 2.4%.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF dropped over 1% on Friday, with Micron $MU Technology, Advanced Micro Devices and Sandisk leading the slide. The fund entered the session down close to 9% for the week. Chip stocks have been under pressure all week as concern grows over competition from China, according to CNBC.

CoreWeave stock fell 5.7% to $65.72. The Nvidia $NVDA-backed compute provider sits at the heart of the tech-stock selloff this week, with investors uneasy that rising financing costs will squeeze the most heavily indebted firms in the race to build data centers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Tesla $TSLA stock rose 1% after the company unveiled its next-generation roadster, which will not enter production until 2028.

Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh addressed an IMF event in Bangkok ahead of the U.S. open but gave no indication of whether the central bank would lift borrowing costs by the end of the year. Traders read that as a signal that the Fed will leave policy unchanged at its Oct. 27-28 meeting, according to CNBC. The CME $CME Group's FedWatch tool shows an 85% chance of no change in the Fed's overnight rate.

Investors have scaled back wagers on a Fed rate increase this month, according to The Wall Street Journal. The U.S. dollar index fell 0.3%.

Inflation data has added to investor concerns. Wholesale inflation climbed by the most since 2022 this week, and recent readings have surprised to the upside, according to CNBC. Consumer inflation is still above the Fed's 2% target, and energy prices remain elevated in the wake of the U.S.-Iran war. Brent crude traded near $106 a barrel.

Benchmark 10-year Treasurys are headed toward their strongest weekly performance since February, according to The Wall Street Journal.