Stock market live Friday: Dow's first up day in 4, Nasdaq finishes in the red, Amazon sheds nearly 2%

• Dow closed up 0.39% for its first positive day in four
• Dow closed up 0.07% for its third straight positive week for the first time since July 17
• Dow is up 0.24% year to date, going positive once again in 2020
• Dow is 3.25% below its intraday all-time high of 29,568.57 from Feb. 12
• Nasdaq closed down 0.36% for its fourth straight negative day
• Nasdaq closed up 0.79% this week for its fourth straight weekly gain
• Nasdaq is up 30.08% this year
• S&P 500 closed up 0.01% for its first positive day in four
• S&P 500 closed up 0.19% for its third straight positive week
• Seven out of 11 sectors were positive Friday, led by utilities which gained 1.09%
• The most negative sector Friday was energy, which dropped 2.31% for its worst day since Oct. 1.

— Gina Francolla, Yun Li

Major averages suffered a late-day pullback as major technology stocks came under pressure. The Dow ended Friday up 112 points after rising as much as 348 points. The S&P 500 finished near the flat line, while the Nasdaq lost 0.4%, dragged down by Amazon, Apple and Netflix.— Yun Li

The Nasdaq Composite fell into negative territory with just 20 minutes left in the trading session, as Amazon dropped 1.2% after a negative note from Citi. The Dow is also off its session high and last traded up 150 points. — Yun Li

• WTI (NOV) settled down 0.20% at $40.88
• WTI closed up 0.69% this week for its second straight weekly gain
• WTI is down 33.05% this year, on pace for its worst year since 2014 when WTI lost 45.87%
• Brent (DEC) settled down 0.53% at $42.93
• Brent closed up 0.19% this week for its second straight weekly gain
• Brent is down 34.95% this year, on pace for its worst year since 2014 when Brent lost 48.26%
• Gold (DEC) settled down 0.13% at $1,906.4  
• Gold closed down 1.03% this week for its first negative week in three
• Gold is up 25.17% this year, on pace for its best year since 2010 when gold gained 29.67%.— Gina Francolla

The major averages were higher with roughly one hour left in the trading session, boosted by strong U.S. retail sales numbers. The Dow jumped 265 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 advanced 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.5%. Friday's gains would mark the first positive session in four days on Wall Street. —Fred Imbert

Amazon's pandemic-delayed Prime Day appears to have been more disappointing than previous years, Citi said Friday. The bank looked at web traffic information collected by market research firm SimilarWeb and found that Prime Day 2020 web traffic was basically flat year over year, compared to almost 8% growth in 2019. Amazon's publicity around Prime Day results was also more muted, Citi added.

Amazon said Prime Day, which ran from Tuesday to Wednesday, provided a boost to third-party sellers, generating more than $3.5 billion in sales for the small and medium-sized businesses on its marketplace. —Annie Palmer, Yun Li

The major averages were higher in midday trading on Friday, trying to snap a three-day losing streak, following the release of better-than-expected U.S. retail sales data. The Dow rose 266 points, or 0.9%. The S&P 500 gained 0.6% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4%. —Fred Imbert

Boeing — Shares of Boeing climbed more than 3% after Patrick Ky, the head of Europe's aviation regulator, said the company's beleaguered 737 Max jet is safe to fly again.

Caterpillar — The farming equipment maker rose 3% after Wells Fargo upgraded Caterpillar to overweight from equal weight. The bank believes revenue growth will begin to accelerate in key markets in 2021.

CIT Group – Shares of the bank jumped more than 22% after the company announced that it will merge with First Citizens in an all-stock deal. The combined company will be the 19th largest U.S. bank as measured by assets.

Navistar International — The truckmaker's stock surged 21% after CNBC's David Faber reported that Volkswagen's Traton unit was in talks to buy the rest of Navistar. 

Check out more stocks making the biggest moves in midday trading. — Yun Li

The preliminary consumer sentiment reading for October came in at 81.2, according to the University of Michigan, above the 80.5 expected by economists that Dow Jones surveyed. The index that measures how consumers feel about current economic conditions declined relative to September, however.

"Slowing employment growth, the resurgence in covid-19 infections, and the absence of additional federal relief payments prompted consumers to become more concerned about the current economic conditions. Those concerns were largely offset by continued small gains in economic prospects for the year ahead," Richard Curtin, the Survey of Consumers chief economist, said in a statement. — Jesse Pound

Tesla shares gained about 1% on Friday after Morgan Stanley lifted its target on the stock. Analyst Adam Jonas bumped his target to $333 from $272, while maintaining his equal-weight rating.

CNBC PRO subscribers can read more here. — Pippa Stevens

Michelle Meyer, U.S. economist at Bank of America, said in a note there is a high chance the public won't know the election results immediately after the Nov. 3 contest. She noted, however, there are three different scenarios for a "hung election" that could have "very different market and economic implications."

The first scenario is that of a "benign" results delay, in which there are counting backlogs due to a large number of absentee and mail-in ballots. Under this scenario, Meyer says results would be know "within days."

The second scenario is that of a "painful" delay. "If the count is close, it could result in a dispute about ballot validity and lead to a recount at the state level," Meyer said. The final one involves a "crisis" in which "either side refuses to accept the results, leading to a legislative battle and a high degree of government dysfunction."

Meyer said the market is currently leaning toward a benign election delay as "recent volatility measures have come off the highs." A painful delay or an election crisis could lead to an "uncertainty shock" in the economy, she said. —Fred Imbert

Shares of Chewy climbed more than 6% after Jefferies upgraded the online pet retailer to buy from hold. The Wall Street firm's recent survey suggested that 37% of pet owners cited Chewy as their top e-commerce platform for pet food and supplies. Jefferies also said Chewy's "moat" is "more defensible than previously perceived." The stock has soared more than 130% this year amid a surge in demand.— Yun Li

• Jefferies upgraded Chewy to buy from hold.
• JPMorgan downgraded Clorox to neutral from overweight.
• Wells Fargo upgraded Caterpillar to overweight from equal weight.
• Jefferies upgraded Costco to buy from hold.
• Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Tesla to $333 from $272.
• Bank of America raised its price target on Netflix to $670 from $575.
• Credit Suisse raised its price target on Chipotle to $1,500 from $1,250.
• Evercore ISI resumed T-Mobile as outperform.
• R5 Capital upgraded Campbell Soup to buy from hold.
• Jefferies downgraded Wynn to hold from buy.

Pro subscribers can read more here. — Michael Bloom

The U.S. market rose at the open on Friday on the heels of strong economic data and optimism about a Covid-19 vaccine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed roughly 100 points, or 0.4%, while the broader S&P 500 gained 0.3%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4%. — Jesse Pound

Shares of Netflix ticked up 1.6% in premarket trading on Friday after three Wall Street firms hiked their price targets on the streaming giant ahead of its earnings on Tuesday. Bank of America raised its 12-month price target on the stock to $670 per share, the highest on Wall Street tied with Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley, which has an overweight rating on Netflix, upped its target to $630 per share from $600 per share and Barclays hiked its target on buy-rated Netflix to $570 per share from $525 per share.

Friday's calls follow similar moves from Goldman Sachs, Cowen and MoffettNathanson on Wednesday.

"We continue to see short and long-term benefits to Netflix growth and earnings power due to the changes brought on by the pandemic," Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne told clients. "The virtuous cycle of leading global distribution scale and rising investments in film, unscripted, and local originals should create increasing and outsized returns."

Pro subscribers can read more about the calls here. — Maggie Fitzgerald

CNBC's David Faber tweeted that Navistar was nearing a deal in which Traton, a Volkswagen unit, would buy the rest of the truck company, sending Navistar shares up 20%. Faber reported, citing people close to the negotiations, that Traton would pay $44.50 per share to wholly own Navistar. Traton currently has a 16.7% stake in Navistar, according to FactSet. —Fred Imbert

September saw a 1.9% jump in retail sales, easily topping the 0.7% projected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The result also shows that sales are accelerating, as the metric rose by 0.6% in August. — Jesse Pound

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a letter the vaccine candidate his company is developing with BioNTech may be ready for an emergency use authorization application to the Food and Drug Administration by late November. Bourla said the company could no if the vaccine is effective by the end of October but would need to wait beyond that for safety monitoring before applying. Shares of Pfizer were up 2.2% in premarket trading. — Jesse Pound

Boeing shares were up 4% in the premarket Friday after Patrick Ky, executive director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, said the beleaguered 737 Max jet could fly again. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Ky said he's satisfied with the changes made to the aircraft and added it could fly in the region before year-end. —Fred Imbert, Sam Shead

U.S. stock futures rose slightly on Friday as Wall Street tried to recover from its longest losing streak in nearly a month. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 81 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively. The major benchmarks have fallen the last three days.

Sentiment got a boost after Pfizer said it would apply for emergency use of its coronavirus vaccine as soon as it reaches certain safety milestones. Meanwhile, Boeing shares rose 3.8% in the premarket after the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said the 737 Max jet was safe to fly again. Wall Street was coming off a three-day losing streak, its longest slide since September. —Fred Imbert