Wall Street mostly loses ground under pressure from rising oil prices

Stocks slipped on Wall Street Friday under increasing pressure from rising oil prices.The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, adding to its decline from a day before. The index is on track for a second-straight week of losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 591 points, or 1.1%, as of 1:52 p.m.

Eastern time.The Nasdaq composite was down 0.1% after giving up a modest gain.Rising oil prices weighed heavily on the market, where three out of every four stocks within the benchmark S&P 500 index fell. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil rose 2.8% to $111.69. It has surged from less than $97 at the start of October and is now at its highest level since March.Several AI-related companies made big moves.

Micron Technology jumped 3.4% and Microsoft rose 0.7%, helping ease the impact on major indexes from a drop for most stocks. Advanced Micro Devices jumped 1.9%.The tech sector's influence is also capable of quickly switching over to a heavy weight. Stocks that have benefited from the frenzy over AI have been swinging over rising worries about their path ahead.

Investors are worried about whether their high prices are justified. Many of those companies have been borrowing to fund investments in AI technology and high interest rates are making those loans more expensive.“Investors appear increasingly focused on the economics of AI, particularly the substantial upfront costs required to build AI infrastructure and the uncertainty around the timing of returns on those investments,” said Angelo Kourkafas, senior global strategist at Edward Jones, in a research note.The latest round of corporate earnings are being closely watched to help get a better sense of whether those investments are paying off, or might pay off. Several influential AI-related companies report their latest financial results next week, including Google's parent, Alphabet, along with Microsoft and Amazon.Industrial companies had some of the biggest losses.

Caterpillar fell 2.4%.American Express slumped 3.7%, joining a pullback in other financial companies, despite r eporting profits for its most recent quarter that beat analysts' forecasts. The company did announce its first major job cuts in roughly a decade.JPMorgan Chase fell 1.5%, Citigroup dropped 1.4% and Capital One Financial was 1.7% lower.Rising oil prices that weighed down much of the market helped boost energy companies. NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks slipped on Wall Street Friday under increasing pressure from rising oil prices.The S&P 500 fell 0.3%, adding to its decline from a day before.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 541 points, or 1%, as of 12:33 p.m. Eastern time.The Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%, bolstered by gains for several big tech stocks that also helped ease losses elsewhere.Rising oil prices weighed heavily on the market, where three out of every four stocks within the benchmark S&P 500 index fell. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil rose 3.6% to $117.20.