By Medha Singh
(Reuters) - The S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were slightly lower on Friday as a steep drop in oil prices pressured energy stocks.
Crude oil prices declined more than 2.5 percent, or about $2 per barrel, after Saudi Arabia and Russia said they were ready to ease supply curbs that have pushed prices to their highest since 2014.
The S&P energy index slid 2.8 percent, on track for its biggest one-day percentage decline since Feb. 8. All the 31 components of the index were in the red.
Shares of Exxon and Chevron both fell more than 2 percent, while service firms Schlumberger, Halliburton and producers Occidental Petroleum and ConocoPhillips were down between 3 percent and 4.2 percent.
"With the long weekend ahead low volume should be expected, paving the way for a range-bound trading session," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities in New York.
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Markets are closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.
The main indexes ended only slightly lower on Thursday after recovering from what market participants said was a knee-jerk reaction to President Donald Trump cancelling a meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong Un.
However, Trump on Friday raised the possibility that the summit could still take place on June 12 as originally planned.
At 9:52 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 72.70 points, or 0.29 percent, at 24,739.06, the S&P 500 was down 7.82 points, or 0.29 percent, at 2,719.94 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 6.15 points, or 0.08 percent, at 7,430.58.
Six of the 11 major S&P sectors were down.
A surge in shares of Foot Locker boosted the consumer discretionary index. Foot Locker jumped 9.9 percent following a better-than-expected quarterly profit, lifting shares in Nike which has a partnership with the footwear retailer.
Among decliners, apparel retailer Gap plunged 11.2percent after quarterly same-store sales missed estimates.
Autodesk fell 3.4 percent after the AutoCAD owner forecast second-quarter profit below expectations.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.52-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and for a 1.09-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded nine new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 42 new highs and 11 new lows.
(Reporting by Medha Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham and Sriraj Kalluvila)