Markets, tech leaders kick off Friday in the red

US stocks (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC) open lower Friday morning, dipping into the red to start the trading session.

Yahoo Finance Live anchors Seana Smith and Brad Smith report on the market and sector action following the opening bell, including Nasdaq 100 (^NDX) tech leaders.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: And here is the opening bell on Wall Street as we get ready to ring and start the final trading day of the week. And look at that, lots of excitement playing out on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. The New York Stock Exchange, you got Madison Square Garden ringing the opening bell in honor of and to celebrate the Big East Tournament that is happening this weekend at MSG.

Take a look at the mascots up there on the podium. And then you have Jameson on the floor, ringing the opening bell at the NASDAQ. And can you guys-- so they head back to the podium shot. That was St. John's mascot that was up there and UConn.

JARED BLIKRE: The Huskies.

SEANA SMITH: Villanova Wildcats are out of the tournament. All right, Brad Smith is at the interactive. A closer look at some of this movement that we're seeing, Brad.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, I wanted to get tickets to that Big East Tournament. They were too expensive. MSG, yeah, that was a hefty price there. But, fortunately, the Ides of March is a free ticket, just very saucy.

All right, take a look at the Dow Jones Industrial Average right now out of the gate. It's down by about a 1/4 of a percent. The NASDAQ composite, you're seeing that move to the downside by about 1/2 a percent.

Let's get some charts on the screen. I heard you like charts so we're gonna load up some charts for you. We'll put this on a five-day move for you just to give you a look at what's transpired over the course of this week here.

Over the past five days, eh, yeah, net lower by about 3/10 of a percent. There you can see this week's trading activity. And so we'll see exactly where we end out today's trading session for the NASDAQ Composite.

The S&P 500, past five days, by the hair of its chinny chin, chin, we're going out to the thousands of the percentile there. Two thousandths of a percent higher over the past five days. Here today, down 1/2 a percent.

And taking a look at the heatmap. We heard you like heat, so here's some Street heat for you. Taking a look at the NASDAQ 100. A lot of red on the screen here. It's taking a look at the mega-cap tech stocks, some of those blue chip companies.

Microsoft down a percent. Amazon out the gate down by about 9/10 of a percent, 8/10 of a percent. Google, Alphabet, whatever you're calling them at home, call them in the red. They're lower by about 4/10 of a percent. Meta Platforms, Nvidia, Apple, the list goes on.

You do have some spots of green. Tesla, oh, my gosh, catching a breather for a day. Sound off the alarm, shoot off the confetti cannons. It's up by about 1.1% here.

Let's take a look at those sector activities for you. And we're gonna dive into retail in just a quick moment here. We've got more laggards than gainers here. Energy leading the pack. Bringing up the caboose, you've got technology. All right, blinding me with science.

And then just lastly here, taking a look at some of those retail names, as I promised. We're gonna get some reads on the consumer just a little bit later on at the top of the 10, with the Consumer Sentiment Index that's gonna be dropping. And here it is, retail.

Let's take a look at it just very quickly here. Amazon, Walmart in the red. Yeah, all right, cool, Home Depot is in the green here. It's up by about 1/10 of a percent. You also got retail sales that were higher for the month of February. Yesterday, 6/10 of a percent.