Wall Street mostly loses ground under pressure from rising oil prices

NEW YORK — Stocks slipped on Wall Street Friday under increasing pressure from rising oil prices. The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent, 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 541 points, or 1 percent, as of 11:12 a.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2 percent, bolstered by gains for several big tech stocks that also helped ease losses elsewhere. Rising oil prices weighed heavily on the broader 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 2.4 percent to $115.86. 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 percent and Microsoft rose 0.8 percent and helped ease the impact on major indexes from a broad drop for most stocks. Even a relatively small 0.3 percent gain from Nvidia went a long way to help offset losses elsewhere in the market. The tech sector's influence is also c