New York (AFP)

Wall Street ended the week lower on Friday, dragged down by the poor form of several names in the tech sector and worried about the escalation of diplomacy between the United States and China.

Its flagship index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, fell 0.68% to 26,469.89 points.

The Nasdaq, with strong technological coloring, dropped 0.94% to 10,363.18 points.

The extended S&P 500 index lost 0.62% to 3,215.63 points.

After hitting stock market highs in recent weeks, many tech companies have struggled for several sessions.

"It is natural that investors start to reassess their expectations in times of results," comments Christopher Low of FHN Financial.

"This prompts them to look at the stock values" of some big names in the sector, explains Mr. Low, who considers "extraordinarily high" the capitalizations of giants like Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft or Apple.

The manufacturer of micro-processors Intel drank the cup Friday by tumbling 16.24%. Despite good quarterly results, the Californian group disappointed by announcing a further delay in the production of its latest generation processor, more efficient, pushing back the calendar by 6 months.

The actors of the New York market have also followed with a worried eye this week the rise in temperature between Washington and Beijing.

China on Friday ordered the closure of a US consulate in retaliation for an identical measure targeting its own diplomatic mission in Houston, where staff were busy evacuating the scene amid Cold War-style espionage charges.

Thursday, the head of the American diplomacy Mike Pompeo had called "the free world" to "triumph" of the "new tyranny" embodied according to him by Communist China.

Among the indicators, sales of new homes surged again in June in the United States, climbing 13.8% from May, and are well above expected level, according to data from the Commerce Department.

On the bond market, the 10-year rate on US debt rose to 0.5823% around 8:25 pm GMT against 0.5774% the day before at the close.

Among today's values, American Express fell 1.39%. The credit card issuer suffered a steep drop in second quarter net income as the group set aside $ 1.6 billion to deal with delinquencies.

Toymaker Mattel (-2.49%), affected by declining outlets due to pandemic, saw quarterly revenue decline and took a net loss, but limited breakage thanks to the good sales of its Barbie dolls.

The industrial group Honeywell (-2.80%) increased its sales of protective masks against Covid-19 and its automation solutions in the second quarter, but its other activities suffered from the pandemic and the drop in prices of oil.

© 2020 AFP