Wall Street ticked modestly higher early today, but not enough to erase a week of losses driven by the potential for an era of consistently higher interest rates, the Associated Press reports.
Futures for the S&P 500 edged 0.2% higher, while the Dow Jones industrials rose just 0.1%.
Markets are poised to finish the week with significant losses after the Federal Reserve left its benchmark borrowing rate alone Wednesday, with officials at the central bank signaling that they may cut rates next year by only half a percentage point. Investors had been hoping for bigger, faster cuts to interest rates.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite has tumbled almost 6% this week, twice the decline of the S&P in the same period. The Dow has given back 1.6%.
There was good news for a couple big tech companies Friday, however.
British competition regulators gave preliminary approval to Microsoft’s restructured $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard, likely clearing the way for one of the largest tech deals in history. Activision rose nearly 2% before the bell Friday and Microsoft rose slightly.
In other trading today, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 91 cents to $90.54 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It lost 3 cents on Thursday. Brent crude oil, the pricing basis for international trading, picked up 76 cents to $94.06 per barrel.
The U.S. dollar rose to 148.25 Japanese yen from 147.58 yen.
