Wall Street stocks edged lower on Friday, extending a losing streak as markets continued to anticipate a period of persistently elevated interest rates.

Major indices flirted with positive territory throughout the day, but kept retreating before finally finishing lower for a fourth straight day.

The S&P 500 finished at 4,320, down 0.2 percent for the day and 2.9 percent for the week.

The Dow Jones dropped 0.3 percent to 33,963, while the Nasdaq lost 0.1 percent at 13,211.

Stocks have been playing defence since the Federal Reserve's Wednesday policy decision.

While the US central bank kept interest rates unchanged, Fed officials signalled they could hike interest rates again in 2023.

"The big takeaway from this week is that Wall Street is anticipating that higher-for-longer is not going away anytime soon," said Oanda's Edward Moya. "Stocks are going to struggle with this backdrop of higher rates, a weakening global outlook, and potential risk of US$100 oil."

Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers said investor efforts to rally were "understandable" after two straight days of big declines.

"Traders are conditioned to try to buy dips, and I think that's what they tried to do this morning," said Sosnick. "But there was really no follow through."

Ford gained 1.9 percent after the United Auto Workers reported progress in talks on reaching a new labour contract with the company.

But the UAW expanded a strike against the other two Detroit automakers, General Motors and Stellantis. GM fell 0.4 percent while Stellantis added 0.1 percent. (AFP)