NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. stocks closed little changed Friday, with the Dow managing modest gains on buying in General Motors, while profit-taking in technology and other sectors kept the rest of the market under some pressure.

Next week brings a number of economic reports, a likely bout of earnings pre-announcements as the quarter winds down, and a highly-anticipated Federal Reserve meeting.

"The rally that we've had for the last couple of weeks was basically concluded this week. You're seeing investors starting to discount positive news from companies and a Fed rate cut next week," said Peter Green, a market analyst at MKM Partners. "But the market's done a great job of gaining over these past weeks, with the right groups leading the way. I think it's fine if it trades sideways for the next few weeks," Green said.

While most economists predict that the central bank will opt to cut interest rates when it gathers for its policy-setting meeting next week, there has been a lack of consensus as to what the cut will be. Initially, the prediction was for a half-percentage point, but with recent economic data showing only mixed results, some economists have speculated that the central bank may only cut by a quarter-percentage point.

Regardless of what the Fed decides, "people are going to be paying as much attention to what Alan Greenspan has to say about the economy in the accompanying statement as they are to what the Fed decides to do," Green added.

Also of interest next week will be the large slew of economic reports due. Tuesday brings data on consumer confidence for June, expected to rise from last month. Wednesday brings data on durable goods orders for May -- expected to rise -- and new and existing home sales -- forecast to show mixed growth. Friday brings May reports on personal income and personal spending -- forecast to show improvement, as well as the final reading on the University of Michigan's June consumer confidence reading, forecast to rise from the initial read.

The week will be light on earnings. Among the names due to report: Walgreen (WAG: Research, Estimates), FedEx (FDX: Research, Estimates) and Goldman Sachs (GS: Research, Estimates).

The Dow Jones industrial average (up 21.22 to 9200.75, Charts) closed fractionally higher, giving up most of its gains from the morning. The S&P 500 index (up 0.99 to 995.69, Charts) closed just barely in the black. The Nasdaq composite (down 3.86 to 1644.78, Charts) closed a few points lower.

For the week, however, all three indexes closed higher. The Dow added 0.9 percent, the Nasdaq rose 1.1 percent, and the S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent. The Dow and the S&P closed higher for the fourth week in a row, while the Nasdaq closed up for the third week out of four.

Throughout the session, investors continued to take profits after the most recent stage of the three-month rally. However, investors were also spooked in the early afternoon by reports from the Pentagon that said that intelligence information suggests the potential for an imminent terrorist attack on U.S. interests in Africa.

The fact that Friday was a quadruple witching day added to the skittish trading. Such days happen when the expiration of contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, individual stock futures, and stock options all occur on the same day. This can lead to increased volume and volatility, especially near the closing bell.

Volume started off with a bang, but slowed down throughout the session, while decliners just edged advancers on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. On the NYSE, 1.68 billion shares changed hands, while on the Nasdaq, 1.72 billion shares traded.

With no economic reports to give investors direction, the focus fell on individual stocks. Dow component General Motors (GM: up $0.52 to $38.59, Research, Estimates) gained 1.4 percent after Prudential upgraded the stock to "buy" from "sell." The upgrade came a day after GM's CEO said overall 2003 U.S. auto sales are moving toward the higher end of earlier forecasts. Separately, the automaker said it would raise about $10 billion by selling debt and convertible securities.

Fellow Dow stock General Electric (GE: up $0.15 to $30.01, Research, Estimates) bounced a little after losing 3 percent Thursday because of some negative brokerage notes. At a meeting with analysts Friday, the company affirmed its earnings guidance of a profit of 37 to 39 cents per share in the current quarter and $1.55 to $1.70 per share for the full year. Shares of McDonald's (MCD: up $0.46 to $22.02, Research, Estimates) also added 2.1 percent.

As had been expected, PeopleSoft (PSFT: down $0.19 to $17.42, Research, Estimates)'s board rejected the beefed-up takeover offer from Oracle (ORCL: down $0.41 to $12.93, Research, Estimates) and said it would go ahead with its $1.8 billion purchase of another software provider, J.D. Edwards (JDEC: down $0.01 to $14.02, Research, Estimates). Oracle shares fell 3 percent, while shares of J.D. Edwards and PeopleSoft were barely changed.

A number of heavily-weighted Nasdaq stocks edged lower as well, including Cisco Systems (CSCO: down $0.63 to $17.93, Research, Estimates), which lost more than 3 percent.

Homebuilder stocks were lower across-the-board, despite KB Home (KBH: down $5.70 to $64.25, Research, Estimates) reporting solid earnings the day before, as worries about mortgage rates weighed on the sector.

Shares of electronic contract manufacturer Solectron (SLR: down $0.68 to $3.71, Research, Estimates) fell 15 percent and were among the NYSE's more actively traded issues after the firm reported a wider quarterly loss late Thursday that was worse than what analysts expected and said that current-quarter results would probably miss analysts' expectations.

Shares of Mirant (MIR: down $0.33 to $2.77, Research, Estimates) fell around 11 percent after the troubled energy firm said it asked its bank lenders to OK a pre-packaged bankruptcy plan in the event that it is unable to restructure its debt.

Bonds retreated too, with the 10-year Treasury losing 12/32 of a point in price and its yield rising to 3.38 percent. The dollar was slightly higher against both the euro and the yen.

Light sweet crude oil futures gained 97 cents to $29.48 a barrel in New York. Gold tumbled $5.10 to $356.70 an ounce.