Wall Street drops, led by tech-related shares

STORY: Wall Street's main indexes fell on Friday, dragged down by megacap tech stocks, as investors await next week's policy meeting by the Federal Reserve.

The Dow lost half a percent, the S&P 500 shed more than six-tenths of a percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged nearly one percent.

Shares of Adobe spiraled more than 13% after it forecast second-quarter revenue below analysts' estimates.

Other major tech leaders all dropped, with Amazon down nearly 2.5%, Microsoft 2%, and Meta Platforms and Alphabet each losing a percent-and-a-half. Nvidia also dipped marginally.

While Wall Street's AI-driven rally has stalled, the S&P remains up about 7% for the year to date.

Investors now turn their interest to next week's Fed policy meeting, especially after this week's hotter-than-expected inflation data, says Mel Casey, Senior Portfolio Manager at FBB Capital Partners.

"I think the concern is that some of the recent data that we've had would surprise the Fed. It's one thing that surprised the market, but the hope is that it doesn't surprise the Fed and throw them off their strategy for this year."

In other company news, shares of Ulta Beauty fell more than 5% after forecasting full-year profit below Wall Street estimates.

Among data released on Friday, production at U.S. factories increased more than expected in February, but the January figure was revised sharply lower.

And the University of Michigan's preliminary reading on consumer sentiment came in slightly lower than the estimate.