NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - U.S. stocks were set to retreat Friday as the price of oil climbed higher and investors continued to shudder at quarterly results and outlooks.

U.S. stock futures extended losses, indicating a weak opening for the major market indexes, after two Dow components, Citigroup (Research) and General Electric (Research) posted fourth quarter earnings.

Stocks finished higher Thursday, spurred on by upbeat outlook from Advanced Micro Devices and better-than-expected results from eBay.

Citigroup posted earnings from continuing operations of 98 cents a share, below Wall Street expectations of $1 a share, according to earnings tracker Thomson First Call. The company also raised its dividend to 49 cents a share from 44 cents.

GE' reported fourth quarter operating earnings of 55 cents a share, in line with Wall Street expectations, and raised the lower end of its 2006 guidance to between $1.94 and $2.02 a share. But revenue for the quarter was below forecasts.

Motorola (Research) added its share of dreary news for the tech sector. The world's second-largest mobile phone maker reported fourth quarter earnings up about 86 percent from last year but indicated that first quarter earnings and revenue will fall.

"Technology has been one of the leadership groups and that's why we're seeing the market react to tech news so much," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.

He added that rising energy prices, however, are also raising concerns in the market over whether the Federal Reserve will continue its rate hike campaign in March. It is widely expected that the FOMC will raise rates by another quarter percentage point when it meets later this month and Pado said the market is cautious about incoming Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's views on rates and the economy.

Oil prices jumped over $67 a barrel on concern over the latest audio tapes that surfaced Thursday warning of new al Qaeda attacks. And Nigerian oil unions said Friday they would withdraw from facilities in the oil-rich delta region if violence persisted, raising more fears of supply disruption.

The February light crude futures contract for NYMEX climbed 33 cents to $67.16 a barrel in electronic trading, while the March contract for Brent crude gained 55 cents to $65.78.

Treasury prices were higher, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 4.36 percent from 4.37 percent late Thursday. The yield on the 2-year note stood at 4.37 percent, indicating an inverted yield curve. The yield curve, which refers to the slope of rates in the Treasury market, briefly inverted in late December when the two-year note yield exceeded the 10-year yield, a rare occurrence that often bodes badly for the economy.

The dollar was virtually unchanged against the euro but gained some ground against the yen.

Asian markets were largely flat, with Tokyo's Nikkei closing virtually unchanged after a week of market slides due to the investigation into the high-flying Internet company Livedoor. European markets were largely higher, although Germany's Xetra Dax trailed the group.

In corporate news, General Electric and Japan's Hitachi Ltd (Research). may have joined forces to make a $3.5 billion bid for nuclear-technology company Westinghouse Electric Co., according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

Google (Research) is fighting a subpoena from the Justice Department asking the Internet giant to turn over search records in an effort to defend a child pornography law. The company cited user privacy and maintaining company secrets for not complying with the government.

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