Stocks ended Friday in a stalemate for the third-straight session as the Dow capped off its first down week in a month with slight losses but the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1%.

Today's Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 15.87 points, or 0.19%, to 8539.73, the Standard & Poor's 500 added 2.86 points, or 0.31%, to 921.23 and the Nasdaq Composite picked up 19.75 points, or 1.09%, to 1827.47. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 climbed 2.47 points, or 0.36%, to 679.43.

In fitting finish for this directionless week, the markets once again took their cues from the oil markets as there were no economic reports due out Friday. Stocks had been higher across the board before oil took a $2 tumble, dragging down the influential energy sector and taking the wind out of the markets. 

“Crude has really been driving markets the entire week,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co. 

Hurt by a 3.5% slide for crude this week, Wall Street's four-day win streak ended on Friday. The bulls lost some momentum this week as the Dow lost more than 250 points despite a lack of any new groundbreaking developments. Instead, the bears have said the markets have climbed too high, too quickly as the Dow climbed almost 33% in just 14 weeks -- its best such stretch since 1975. 

“The market is sort of struggling here. We’re at the upper end of this trading range. I think the market is more or less groping for some solid ground to continue its positive bias. It’s a big question mark whether or not that’s going to happen,” NSYE trader Ted Weisberg of Seaport Securities told FOX Business.

Joe Saluzzi, co-head of trading at Themis Trading, said it won't and predicted the markets will even retest their March lows.

“This could be the start of a new move to the downside. I think the economics don’t support any further moves to the upside,” said Saluzzi. “Certainly, the bias is to the downside. There’s no evidence of the economy picking up.”

The Dow was led lower Friday by 1% declines for blue-chip stocks like Kraft (KFT) and Coca-Cola (KO). On the other hand, the biggest winners on the index were Microsoft (MSFT) and Bank of America (BAC), which added 2% a piece. 

The Nasdaq Composite significantly outperformed the broader markets as tech stocks like Dell (DELL) and Yahoo! (YHOO) rose sharply even after BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM) issued a cautious quarterly outlook late Thursday. 

Trading volume vastly exceeded that of a typical summer Friday as the session was considered a quadruple witching session, which means contracts on stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures all expired. Still, the 2.1 billion shares that changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange Friday was shy of the 3 billion in volume that the exchange can see during these once-a-quarter days.

“It’s certainly going to distort the volume and perhaps distort today’s performance one way or the other because it always creates aberrations when we have these options expirations,” said Weisberg    .

Energy stocks like ExxonMobil (XOM) and Schlumberger (SLB) turned negative Friday afternoon as crude sold off amid tumbling natural gas prices. After trading as high as $72.30 per barrel, crude settled at $69.55, down $1.82, or 2.55%, on the day. Gold rose $1.60 per ounce, or 0.17%, to $935.60.

Traders are also beginning to turn their attention to next week’s record bond auction as the Treasury Department said it plans to sell $104 billion in notes, including $40 billion of 2-year notes on Tuesday. Depending upon demand for the government debt, the auctions could reignite fears about interest rates and inflation that have cooled in recent days.

Corporate Movers

General Motors (GM) is aiming to emerge from bankruptcy court with a new company as early as mid-July, which would exceed current estimates for a 60 to 90-day bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported. However, to get it done by July 15 is “kind of presumptuous” as the judge would need to handle all objections and approve the sale by July 1, a source told the paper.

Carmax (KMX) surged nearly 17% after beating the Street with an adjusted-profit of 22 cents per share, topping estimates for a 4-cent-per-share profit.

Apple (AAPL) saw its shares rise as the tech giant’s latest iPhone hit the shelves on Friday in the U.S. and seven other countries. The latest version of the hit gadget, the 3GS, has a faster processor and sells for as low as $199.

E*Trade Financial (ETFC) tumbled 10% after the online brokerage priced its share offering at $1.10 per share. The company also saw its credit rating downgraded by Standard & Poor’s.

Microsoft (MSFT) was added to Goldman’s conviction buy list on its revenue drivers, expense management and cash flexibility. Goldman upped its price target on the software titan to $29 from $25.

Global Markets

London's FTSE 100 index jumped 1.52% to 4345.93, France's CAC 40 gained 0.85% to 3221.27 and Germany's DAX climbed 0.04% to 4839.46. 

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.85% to 9786.26 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 0.81% to 17920.93 and China's Shanghai Composite advanced 0.93% to 2880.49.