Wall Street heads timidly into the weekend

Friday's close was a mixed bag on Wall Street, with the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC and the S&P 500 .SPX rising modestly, while the Dow industrials .DJI dipped slightly, as U.S. Treasury yields rose and oil prices fell.

For the week, the S&P 500 fell 0.09%, the Nasdaq rose 0.72%, and the Dow fell 1.7%. It was the Dow's biggest weekly drop since March and the S&P's second weekly loss in a row. The Russell 2000 Small-Cap index .RUT fell 1.59%, which was also its second straight weekly loss.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields rose as investors looked ahead to potential further interest rate hikes after the Federal Reserve hiked rates earlier in the week. Traders were pricing in a 55.4% probability that the U.S. central bank will follow September's rate hike with another 25 basis-point increase, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.

Among the S&P 500's 11 major industry sectors, only four advanced on the day. The weakest sector was utilities .SPLRCU, which finished down 1.4%, followed by a 1.1% loss in materials .SPLRCM.

The strongest sector was technology .SPLRCT, which climbed 0.8%. But under the hood tech was mixed, with the PHLX semiconductor index .SOX adding 2.8% while the S&P 500 software & services index .SPLRCIS fell 1.3%.