Dog Day: Wall Street slips while volume tumbles

Main U.S. indexes ended modestly red, with the Nasdaq off the most, as Friday trading volume tumbled to 9.61 billion versus the 20-day moving average of 17.01 billion, according to LSEG data.

Dog days or not, the three main U.S. equity indexes fell after weak retail sales and consumer sentiment reports ahead of a big week for retailer earnings reports. But moves were modest, with the Nasdaq .IXIC leading losses on a drop of just 0.3%.

Oil prices settled up more than 1% on the day on tanker attacks and a lack of progress on a peace agreement between the Trump administration and Iran's leadership. Oil rallies tend to support the energy sector .SPNY, whose 1.4% rally was the biggest advance among the S&P 500's .SPX 11 major industry sectors.

The biggest sector loser was healthcare .SPXHC, which finished down 0.6%, followed by technology's .SPLRCT 0.4% dip. Technology managed a small weekly gain of 0.2%. However, the S&P 500 industrials index .SPLRCI quietly managed a record closing high with its middle-of-the-pack gain of 0.4%.

Still the S&P 500 value index .IVX celebrated its sixth record close in a row with a tiny 0.07% gain that outperformed growth's .IGX 0.4% loss on the day after a record finish on Thursday.

The S&P 400 mid-cap index .MID, up 0.3%, and the Russell 2000 small-cap index .RUT, up 0.5%, both marked record closes for the second day in a row.

Here is your closing snapshot.

For the week, the S&P 500 added 0.4%, while Nasdaq rose 0.1%, for their third weekly advance in a row. The Dow .DJI fell 0.6% for the week.