After a blistering Thursday that saw the S&P 500 close with its best session in nearly two years — up 2.3% — Wall Street's price action turned sluggish on a Friday lacking market-moving economic events.

By midday in New York, major indices were slightly positive or hovering around the flat line, signaling a slowdown in the bullish sentiment compared to the previous session.

Since the beginning of the week, the S&P 500 is down 0.5%, with a few hours of trading left to determine whether the U.S. stock market can avoid closing in the red for the fourth consecutive week.

Meanwhile...