Stocks post small losses; investors look to Fed

Stocks ended a choppy week of trading with modest losses Friday as investors look forward to getting more clues about the direction of interest rates.

Technology shares drove the declines, and energy stocks also fell a day after leading the market. Some late-day gains in banks and insurers helped temper the market’s losses.

Investors dealt with fresh concerns about the impact on businesses of the U.S. trade dispute with China. The chipmaker Broadcom warned that demand for chips has slowed because of U.S. restrictions on sales to Chinese technology firms and hesitation among customers to place new orders. It shaved $2 billion from its annual revenue forecast.

Trading this week was uneven as investors swung between safe-play holdings and riskier bets. Stocks rose Monday but then seesawed as investors saw signs that the U.S. and China won’t settle their differences on trade anytime soon. There is concern that a protracted dispute could further hurt global economic growth and corporate profits. A suspected attack on two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz added more uncertainty.

The S&P 500 index fell 4.66 points, or 0.2 percent, to

2,886.98 Friday and ended the week with a slim gain of 0.5 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 17.16 points, or 0.1 percent, to

26,089.61. The Nasdaq composite slid 40.47 points, or 0.5 percent, to 7,796.66. The Russell 2000 index of small company stocks dropped 13.31 points, or 0.9 percent, to 1,522.49.

The major indexes are still showing strong gains for June — the Dow is up 5.1 percent and the S&P 500 is up 4.9 percent. Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell set off a market rally after he signaled that the central bank is willing to cut interest rates to help stabilize the economy if the trade war between Washington and Beijing starts to slow economic growth.