Investing.com – Wall Street saw choppy trade around the unchanged mark for most of Friday, though shares last registered slight gains, as investors looked ahead to appearances from several members of the Federal Reserve (Fed) and watched oil claw back some of this week’s losses.
At 10:52AM ET (14:52GMT), the Dow Jones edged forward 17 points, or 0.08%, the S&P 500 rose 5 points, or 0.22%, while the Nasdaq Composite traded up 16 points, or 0.25%.
Stocks seemed reluctant to move far across the unchanged mark as they wavered back and forth between slight gains and losses throughout Friday’s session and investors waited for remarks from several Fed officials as they looked to gauge the future path of U.S. monetary policy in an economy marked by tepid inflation.
St. Louis Fed chief James Bullard was scheduled to discuss the U.S. economy and policy at a conference at 11:15AM ET (15:15GMT).
Cleveland Fed president Loretta Mester will be the keynote speaker at a summit on housing, human capital and inequality at 12:40PM ET (16:40GMT).
Fed governor Jerome Powell will participate in a symposium organized by the Chicago Fed at 2:15PM ET (18:15GMT).
New York Fed president William Dudley will participate this coming weekend in a panel discussion organized by the Bank for International Settlements at 8:15AM ET (12:15GMT) on Sunday.
Markets remained skeptical that the U.S. central bank would manage to hike rates for a third time this year with Fed fund futures not putting the odds near the 50% threshold until March 2018, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Data released Friday gave mixed readings as business activity in both the manufacturing and services sectors unexpectedly slowed in June, although IHS Markit indicated that there was some room for optimism as new orders increased at their fastest pace in five months.
On the positive side, the number of new home sales rose to a better-than-expected 610,000 units in May.
Meanwhile, oil managed to edge higher on Friday but was still on track for weekly losses of close to 4%.
Crude looked to log its fifth straight weekly decline, under pressure from concerns the OPEC/non-OPEC agreement to cut production would be offset by increases from members exempt from the reduction as well as a continuous rise in output from U.S. shale.
The number of rigs drilling for oil in the U.S. has increased for 22 straight weeks with the latest figures due on Friday from oilfield services firm Baker Hughes as investors waited to see if recent price drops in crude will be enough to cause a re-think on drilling plans.
U.S. crude futures gained 0.75% to $43.06 by 10:54AM ET (14:54GMT), while Brent oil rose 0.82% to $45.59.
On the earnings front, shares in Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ:BBBY) tanked nearly 12% on Friday after reporting a 39% in quarterly profit after the prior days close.
U.S. shares of BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TO:BB) tumbled more than 12% after the Canadian firm reported first-quarter sales that missed analysts' forecasts due to an unexpected drop in its high-margin software and professional services sale.