US stocks show little conviction out of the starting gate

Wall Street stocks are mixed and short on enthusiasm in early trading on Friday as investors stagger toward the finish line of a midsummer week fraught with mixed earnings, looming AI uncertainties, escalating hostilities in the Middle East, revived inflation fears and a rising likelihood of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

All three major U.S. stock indexes are struggling to find their footing in the wake of Thursday's steep selloff.

Even so, they are all on track for weekly losses after big tech earnings failed to shine as brightly as last week's bank results, feeding skepticism over when or whether the massive outlays of the AI hyperscaling phenomenon will prove to be money well-spent.

But Intel INTC.O results, released late Thursday, after the chipmaker's bullish forecasts suggested AI was powering its turnaround. Still, despite pre-session gains, its shares are off more than 2%.