US STOCKS-Dow ends higher but Wall Street posts 2nd straight weekly drop on tech slide

* Oracle erases gains after hitting intraday record
* Materials only S&P sector to end week higher
* Dow up 0.48%, S&P 500 up 0.05%, Nasdaq down 0.60%

(Adds details after market close)
By Chuck Mikolajczak and Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Sept 11 (Reuters) - The Nasdaq slid and the S&P
500 closed little changed on Friday as early gains in technology
and growth names faded, with each of the three major Wall Street
averages posting their second straight weekly decline.
After hitting a record high of $61.86, shares of Oracle Corp
ORCL.N turned lower along with the rest of the technology
sector .SPLRCT , which closed down 0.75%. The cloud services
company's earnings beat estimates as it signaled a recovery in
client spending due to higher demand led by the work-at-home
trend. The tech sector posted its fifth decline in six days and
biggest weekly percentage decline since March as investors sold
companies such as Apple Inc AAPL.O that have spearheaded the
dramatic rally from coronavirus-driven lows in March. Apple
shares slid 1.31%.
The path of least resistance for stocks is volatile and
probably a bit lower from here, said Art Hogan, chief market
strategist at National Securities in New York.
"Just because we shaved 10 or 11 percent off the Nasdaq in
three days doesn't mean that is the end of the nervousness and
that is kind of where we are right now," Hogan said.
Growth stocks .IGX , which include many tech names along
with others that have benefited from government-imposed
lockdowns such as Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O , fell 0.26% while
value names .IVX edged up 0.54%. Amazon fell 1.86%.
About once a month the market experiences several days or a
bit more of investors dropping growth for value, said Tim
Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in
New York.
"While growth isn't cheap, it is growth and a lot of these
companies are doing well during the pandemic so I wouldn't be
surprised to see money coming back to them," Ghriskey said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI closed up 131.06
points, or 0.48%, to 27,665.64. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 1.78
points, or 0.05%, to 3,340.97 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
dropped 66.05 points, or 0.6%, to 10,853.55.
For the week, the Dow fell 1.66%, the S&P lost 2.51% and the
Nasdaq dropped 4.06%.
Industrials .SPLRCI and financial stocks .SPSY , up 1.39%
and 0.76% respectively on Friday, provided the biggest boost to
the benchmark index. Material .SPLRCM was the only S&P sector
to end higher on the week.
Gains in Home Depot Inc HD.N and Caterpillar Inc CAT.N ,
up 1.33% and 2.65% respectively, led the Dow industrials to
close up.
Many investors view the recent slump as a healthy
consolidation after a stunning five-month rally in the S&P 500
that was powered by a narrow group of heavyweight tech companies
and massive amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus.
Meanwhile, the latest data showed U.S. consumer prices
increased solidly in August, but the labor market's slack is
likely to keep a lid on inflation as the economy recovers from
the COVID-19 recession. Another beneficiary of coronavirus lockdowns, exercise bike
maker Peloton Interactive Inc PTON.O , gave up early gains and
closed down 4.23%, even as it reported forecast-beating
quarterly revenue due to a surge in subscribers and increased
demand for its fitness products during the pandemic.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 8.91 billion shares.
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a
1.05-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.41-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 5 new 52-week highs and 1 new low; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 25 new highs and 37 new lows.