The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to keep its head above water, rising 0.56%, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq tumbled 2.05% and the broad-based S&P 500 notched a sixth straight loss, falling 0.88%.

The S&P 500, the market's broadest measure, fell below the 4,000-point level for the first time since March.

Geopolitical worries about the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, the prospect of delayed interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve and concerns about a batch of upcoming corporate earnings reports kept investors on edge and forced them to take a cautious approach.

"The geopolitical uncertainty component remains very much in play, as does the uncertainty around the path of rate hikes," said Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com.

The analyst noted that one of the central bank's policymakers, Neel Kashkari, the president of the Fed's Minneapolis branch who is not a voting member of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this year, "suggested the Fed could wait until 2025 to cut" its benchmark interest rate.

The Dow managed to stay in positive territory because investors had already priced in a limited Israeli retaliation against Iran, according to Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.

Several explosions were reported early Friday in central Iran, with U.S. officials quoted in the press as saying that Israel was behind the strikes, which were in response to drone and missile attacks on Israel over the weekend.

Bank and financial stocks helped the blue-chip index stay positive.

In the Nasdaq, technology stocks sank, led by a disappointing earnings report from Netflix.

Overall, the so-called "Magnificent Seven" -- Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Tesla -- have lost a combined $900 billion in market capitalization on Wall Street this week.

Netflix had reported strong earnings after the closing bell Thursday, adding 9 million subscribers to reach 221.6 million.

But its shares, which had doubled in value over the past year, sank 9.09%.

The group, which earned $2.3 billion in the first quarter, warned that subscriber growth would slow, and that's what investors latched onto. Netflix also said it would stop reporting subscriber numbers each quarter.

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