Stock Market Today: Wall Street limps toward its longest weekly losing streak since September

NEW YORK — Wall Street's latest losing week appears to end relatively calmly on Friday.

U.S. stocks are drifting in mixed trading after oil prices briefly jumped overnight on concerns about fighting in the Middle East.

THE&The P 500 was down 0.5% in afternoon trading and on track for its third straight week of decline. It would be the longest such streak since September, before it turned into a record-breaking battle.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 207 points, or 0.6%, as of 2:01 p.m. Eastern Time, and the Nasdaq composite was down 1.6%.

On the oil market, a barrel of Brent returned to $87.50, up 0.5%, after briefly exceeding $90 overnight. Iranian troops fired air defenses at a major air base and nuclear site in an apparent Israeli drone attack, sparking market concerns. But crude prices pared big gains as traders wondered how Iran would respond.

On Wall Street, Netflix fell 8.6% despite posting higher-than-expected profits for the latest quarter. Analysts called the performance strong, but the streaming giant disappointed some investors by announcing it would stop providing updates on its subscriber numbers every three months starting next year.

Technology stocks were the main drag on the market. Server technology company Super Micro Computer fell 20% and chipmaker Nvidia fell 6.2%.

Procter & Gamble also weighed on the market after the consumer products giant reported lower revenue for its latest quarter than analysts expected. Sales trends for its baby care products weakened following their price hikes and fell for its super-premium skin care brand SK-II, diluting gains elsewhere.

The company behind Pampers, Oral-B and other brands reported higher profit for its fiscal third quarter than analysts expected and raised its profit forecast for the year. But it did not increase its sales forecast. Its stock slipped 0.1%

American Express helped limit market losses, up 5.3%. It announced a profit for the last quarter that was higher than analysts expected. Fifth Third Bancorp rose 5.6% after also beating expectations.

The pressure is even greater than usual on companies to meet their quarterly earnings forecasts. Indeed, it seems unlikely that the other lever that helps set stock prices, namely interest rates, will be of much help in the short term.

Senior Fed officials said recently that they could keep interest rates at their high levels for some time. It's a disappointment for traders after the Fed signaled earlier that three interest rate cuts could be possible this year.

A cut in interest rates would boost the economy and financial markets, and it appeared to be on the horizon after last year's sharp slowdown in inflation. But a series of reports this year showing that inflation remained higher than expected has raised concerns that progress may be stalled.

Fed officials insist they want more evidence that inflation is heading toward their 2% target before lowering the Fed's main interest rate, which is at its highest level since 2001. High rates hurt investment prices and increase the risk of recession. .

Traders now largely expect only one or two rate cuts this year, according to CME Group data, compared with six or more expected at the start of the year. A growing number of people expect zero reduction this year.

But Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, expects inflation to moderate as U.S. households, which have become hypersensitive to corporate price hikes, begin to slow their spending.

The giant noise of (escaping) optimism from the market is due to the Fed's lack of foresight and its irrational focus on the development of inflation rather than its direction, he said.

In the bond market, the yield on 10-year Treasury bills fell to 4.63% from 4.64% Thursday evening, reducing its gain for the week. It had fallen much further overnight as concerns grew about a possible extension of the war into the Middle East, but it reduced its losses as the day progressed.

In foreign markets, stock indices fell slightly in Europe after falling more sharply in Asia.

The Japanese Nikkei 225 lost 2.7%. A report says the country's inflation rate slowed in March and investors await the Bank of Japan's next move after it raised its benchmark interest rate last month for the first time in 17 years.

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AP writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.