-- US benchmark equity indexes were mixed intraday as traders awaited upcoming talks between Washington and Iran and parsed the latest inflation data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.6% at 47,922.5 after midday Friday, while the S&P 500 fell 0.1% to 6,815.3. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.2% to 22,870.8. Among sectors, consumer staples saw the biggest decline, while technology paced the gainers.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.5% at $98.32 a barrel intraday.
Officials from the US and Iran are expected to meet Saturday in Pakistan, which helped broker a recent two-week truce between the two countries.
The US is ready to renew and increase strikes on Iran if the parties are unable to reach a peace deal in the upcoming talks, CNN reported Friday, citing President Donald Trump. Negotiations can't start until the US agrees to a ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of blocked Iranian assets, the news outlet reported, citing Iran's parliament speaker.
US Treasury yields were higher intraday, with the 10-year rate up four basis points at 4.32% and the two-year rate rising 3.9 basis points to 3.81%.
In economic news, US consumer inflation accelerated to its highest monthly reading in nearly four years in March as the Middle East conflict sent energy prices sharply higher, official data showed.
"The fallout of the US/Israel-Iran war was evident in the March consumer price index," Oxford Economics said in a note.
US consumer sentiment hit the lowest on record this month, reflecting heightened worries about higher prices and the overall economic fallout from the Middle East conflict, a survey by the University of Michigan showed.
"Demographic groups across age, income, and political party all posted setbacks in sentiment, as did every component of the index, reflecting the widespread nature of this month's fall," Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu said. "Economic expectations will likely improve after consumers gain confidence that the supply disruptions stemming from the Iran conflict have ended and gas prices have moderated."
In company news, ServiceNow (NOW) shares were down 8.6% intraday, among the worst performers on the S&P 500.
The enterprise software company's competitive advantage may have eroded amid growing evidence that workflow automation tasks can be automated by harnessing artificial intelligence models, UBS Securities said in a note. The brokerage downgraded its rating on the stock to neutral from buy and lowered its price target to $100 from $170.
CoreWeave (CRWV) shares jumped 11% after the AI cloud computing company struck a deal to support the development and deployment of Anthropic's Claude AI models.
Other major tech names were also advancing intraday, with Nvidia (NVDA) up 2.4%, the biggest gainer on the Dow, while Super Micro Computer (SMCI) jumped 9.2%, the best performer on the S&P 500. Broadcom (AVGO), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Amazon.com (AMZN) were also firmly in the green.
Gold was down 0.6% at $4,790 per troy ounce, while silver rose 0.1% to $76.48 per ounce.