-- The S&P 500 retreated Friday following a seven-day advance ahead of upcoming talks between the US and Iran, while Wall Street notched its second consecutive weekly gain.
The index slipped 0.1% to 6,816.9, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.6% to 47,916.6. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4% to 22,902.9, its eight consecutive day of gains.
Most sectors ended in the red, led by consumer staples, while tech paced the gainers.
This week, the Nasdaq rallied 4.7%, the S&P 500 advanced 3.6%, and the Dow climbed 3%.
"In another week of high drama, markets ended in a calmer fashion, awaiting this weekend's direct talks between the US and Iran in Islamabad around the 14-day ceasefire," said Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO, said in a report.
The focus shifts to Pakistan, where officials from Washington and Tehran are expected to meet on Saturday. The truce, which Pakistan helped broker, appeared to be holding so far, though there's uncertainty around the outcome of these talks.
Fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah continued in Lebanon, CNN reported Friday. Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said talks will begin only if there is a ceasefire in Lebanon and blocked Iranian assets are released.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 2.3% to $95.63 a barrel in Friday late-afternoon trade.
In economic news, US consumer inflation accelerated to its highest monthly reading in nearly four years in March as the Middle East conflict sent energy prices sharply higher, official data showed.
"The fallout of the US/Israel-Iran war was evident in the March consumer price index," Oxford Economics said in a note.
US consumer sentiment hit the lowest on record this month, reflecting heightened worries about higher prices and the overall economic fallout from the Middle East conflict, a survey by the University of Michigan showed.
US Treasury yields were higher, with the 10-year rate last up 4.3 basis points at 4.32% and the two-year rate rising 4.1 basis points to 3.81%.
In company news, ServiceNow (NOW) shares slumped 7.6%, among the worst performers on the S&P 500.
The enterprise software company's competitive advantage may have been eroded amid growing evidence that workflow automation tasks can be automated by harnessing artificial intelligence models, UBS Securities said in a note. The brokerage downgraded its rating on the stock to neutral from buy and slashed its price target to $100 from $170.
CoreWeave (CRWV) shares jumped nearly 11% after the AI cloud computing company struck a deal to support the development and deployment of Anthropic's Claude AI models.
Major tech names advanced, with Nvidia (NVDA) up 2.6%, the biggest gainer on the Dow, while Super Micro Computer (SMCI) jumped 8.8%, the best performer on the S&P 500. Broadcom (AVGO), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Amazon.com (AMZN) also notched gains.
Cloudflare (NET) shares tumbled nearly 14% amid an extended sell-off. The slump offers a buying opportunity, while concerns around Project Glasswing are "overblown" as the cloud-services company is seen benefitting from projected exponential growth in agentic artificial intelligence applications, Oppenheimer said Friday.
Project Glasswing is a cross-industry coalition formed to "secure the world's most critical software," Anthropic said in a statement. The alliance, which will be using Anthropic's unreleased Claude Mythos frontier model, includes several big tech names including Amazon Web Services, Broadcom and Nvidia.
Gold was down 0.6% at $4,790 per troy ounce, while silver rose 0.1% to $76.48 per ounce.