Wall Street ends mixed after tumultuous week

Wall Street has closed a volatile week on a muted note as benchmark US Treasury yields topped 5 per cent while crude prices reversed earlier gains but remained above $US100 per barrel, keeping inflation worries front and centre.

The session capped a week that was essentially split in two: first, restless anticipation in the days before the US Federal Reserve's widely expected interest rate hike followed by the aftermath of that decision.

A semiconductor rally boosted the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 but broader weakness pulled the Dow to a lower close.

The S&P 500 ended the session with a nominal weekly loss while the tech-laden Nasdaq closed higher than last Friday's finish.

The blue-chip Dow suffered its biggest weekly percentage decline since March.

"It's almost as if everybody got to the end of the week and got exhausted from all the activity this week and decided to just play it close to the vest here," said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer of Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.

"A lot of investors are trying to figure out not just the short-term implications but longer-term implications of what the Fed may be embarking on and how that's going to impact equities and fixed-income investments."

There is also a "reluctance to be positioned in any directional way going into the weekend in an environment where exogenous events could potentially set up some crazy trading patterns on Monday," Carlson added.

Inflation concerns remained prominent as crude prices settled above $US100 per barrel but they eased back from session highs after China, at the request of Saudi Arabia, asked Iran to limit attacks by Houthi rebels on Saudi oil infrastructure.

Soaring oil prices have sent diesel prices to record levels, which is likely to translate into broader inflationary pressures affecting farming and shipping costs.

"The market seems to be closely tied to movements in oil prices," Carlson said.

"So when they are trending higher for any short period of time, I think you get a little bit more of a respite in the market."

Central banks around the globe have embarked on a policy-tightening cycle to rein in inflation fuelled by the Iran war.

The Bank of Japan lifted interest rates to a 31-year high, following in the footsteps of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, in an effort to control global inflation.