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* Disney falls after strong race until results
* PayPal increases increase as brokers optimistic after investor day
* Energy stocks fall with falling oil prices due to fears of demand
* Indices: Dow stable, S&P up 0.17%, Nasdaq up 0.16% (add quote, details; update prices)
February 12 (Reuters) – The S&P 500 rose on Friday, recovering from its initial weakness, with financial and material stocks gaining ground as investors waited for signs of progress on the next batch of fiscal aid.
Value stocks outperformed large-cap growth stocks, as investors preferred names that would likely benefit from a reopened economy.
The main stock indices opened lower, pressured by the heavyweights of Apple Inc, Tesla Inc and Amazon.com Inc. The main averages are still moving towards their second consecutive weekly gain.
Lipper’s data on Thursday night showed that US equity funds attracted $ 22.9 billion in the week through Wednesday, the biggest weekly flow since March 2008.
The United States stock markets will be closed on Monday because of the Presidents’ Day holiday.
“Most of these sales proved to be just a profit making just to see the market recover from any short-term liquidation,” said Rick Meckler, a partner at Cherry Lane Investments, a family investment office in New Vernon, New Jersey.
“Low interest rate, stimulus and improvement in front of viruses providing greater confidence for investors to stay in the market and buy more.”
A sharp drop in new cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations in recent weeks has also pushed markets to historic highs. However, many analysts have warned of a short-term reduction amid the risks of new variants of the coronavirus and potential bumps in the vaccine’s distribution.
The latest data showed that US consumer sentiment dropped unexpectedly in early February, as households remained concerned about the economy, despite expectations of further fiscal stimulus.
A Reuters survey showed that the U.S. economy is expected to reach pre-COVID-19 levels within a year, as the proposed $ 1.9 trillion tax package helps boost economic activity, but is likely to take more a year for unemployment to fall to early 2020 levels.
US President Joe Biden will meet with a bipartisan group of mayors and governors on Friday, while he continues to push for approval of the heavy aid plan.
The shares of banks linked to the economy jumped about 1.3%, while those of energy, materials and industrials also advanced between 0.7% and 0.8%.
The small cap index is expected to rise for the fifth week in six full weeks this year.
At 11:55 am ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5.54 points, or 0.02%, to 31,425.16, the S&P 500 gained 6.81 points, or 0.17%, to 3,923.19 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 22.48 points, or 0.16%, for 14,048.25.
PayPal Holdings Inc was up about 3.8% as several brokers raised their share price targets a day after the payment company’s investor called.
Walt Disney Co reported an astonishing quarterly profit. However, its shares fell 1.5% from a record high, after more than 13% in its results in the past two weeks.
Dating app operator Bumble Inc gained 13%, the day after a stellar debut made its shares rise more than 75%.
Tilray Inc and Aphria Inc gained 4% and 6% after almost halving the value in the previous session.
The increase in emissions outperformed the decliners by 1.3 to 1 on the NYSE and 1.4 to 1 on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 recorded 47 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 307 new highs and 22 new lows. (Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)