us stocks looked set to open mostly lower on friday with the dow and the sp 500 on track to book a second consecutive weekly gain as shifting expectations surrounding the pace of federal reserve rate hikes helped offset weak earnings from some of the largest technology companies in the us on thursday stocks finished mixed as the dow industrials rose 19417 points or 06 to finish at 3203328 the sp 500 index fell 2330 points or 06 to 380730 while the nasdaq composite tumbled 17832 points or 16 to 1079267 a string of earnings disappointments from megacap tech firms sank the nasdaq this week while dragging on several sp 500 sectors including the consumer discretionary information technology and communications services sectors but by and large equity investors this week remained fixated on expectations for the fed to down shift to smaller interest rate hikes brad conger deputy chief investment officer at hirtle callaghan  co said fridays data on inflation and wage growth didnt interfere with mounting expectations that the fed might soon pause its campaign of aggressive rate hikes basically the market is starting to price in a pause not a pivot but maybe a pause the end is in sight conger said the socalled core personal consumption expenditures price index  the feds preferred gauge of inflation pressures  came in roughly in line with economists expectations while a more modest 12 gain in private wages and salaries in the third quarter was interpreted as a sign that wage growth may have finally peaked according to andrew hunter senior us economist at capital economics seegdp looked great for the us economy but it really wasnt corporate earnings remained frontofmind for investors this week although disappointing numbers from some of americas largest tech companies helped to sully the overall quality of sp 500 earnings this quarter last night amazoncom amzn joined microsoft corp msft alphabet inc googl and meta platforms inc meta by publishing disappointing earnings for the quarter that ended sept 30 shares of amazon fell 11 in premarket trading after ecommerce giant which dominates the consumerdiscretionary sector predicted slower holiday sales and profit while also reporting slower growth in its key cloudcomputing business opinionthe cloud boom has hit its stormiest moment yet and it is costing investors billions peter garnry head of equity strategy at saxo bank said investors were unnerved by amazons guidance cut the outlook for q4 was what terrified investors with the retailer guidance operating income in the range 04 billion vs est 47 billion and revenue of 140148 billion vs est 1555 billion he said one notable exception to the downbeat earnings news this week was apple inc aapl  which proved a bright spot after the iphone makers revenue and earnings topped forecasts helped by record backtoschool sales of macs shares were up nearly 09 in premarket trading also on the economic data calendar the final reading of the university of michigan consumer sentiment index for october and fiveyear inflation expectations  also closely watched by the fed  are due at 10 am eastern alongside pending home sales for september higher treasury yields added to the headwinds facing stocks on friday with the 10year treasury note up 75 basis points to 4017 while the yield on the 2year treasury note rose 32 basis points to 4371 the ice us dollar index which measures the strength of the dollar against a basket of rivals was flat at 110