NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks ended mixed Friday, with tech shares higher and blue-chips lower, at the end of a choppy session driven mostly by fluctuating oil prices.

The Nasdaq composite (up 3.18 to 2,140.29, Charts) gained a few points. The Dow Jones industrial average (down 20.41 to 11,284.05, Charts) lost 0.2 percent and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 (down 0.97 to 1,295.09, Charts) index ended just below unchanged.

All three major gauges swung back and forth across the unchanged line repeatedly throughout the lightly-traded session.

The choppiness was fairly typical of late summer, when attendance on Wall Street is lighter than usual and stocks are more vulnerable to broad swings.

"It's been quiet this week with no follow through on last week's run," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co.

"Last week we had inflation-friendly reports and lower energy prices, but this week we've had higher energy prices and housing numbers that have sparked worries about a slowdown," Hogan added.

Morning comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke Friday did not address such concerns, instead focusing on the impact of globalization. The Fed chair was speaking at the annual Kansas City Fed symposium for global central bankers in Wyoming.

But next week could prove more helpful, with reads due on personal income and spending, manufacturing, gross domestic product growth and employment in August.

U.S. light crude oil for October delivery added 15 cents to settle at $72.51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price of oil had surged through the early afternoon as a storm in the Caribbean revved up, threatening to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast as soon as next week.

Blue chips saw modest declines. Dow losers included General Motors (down $0.55 to $29.33, Charts), McDonald's (down $0.65 to $35.23, Charts), Boeing (down $1.31 to $73.93, Charts) and United Technologies (down $0.32 to $60.67, Charts).

But tempering that was strength in components Intel (up $0.34 to $18.90, Charts), Alcoa (up $0.26 to $28.93, Charts) and Merck (up $0.38 to $40.44, Charts).

Ford Motor (up $0.24 to $8.00, Charts) rose 3 percent on news that a private equity group may be looking to buy the automaker's luxury brands.

Separately, the company said that former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, a member of the Office of the Chairman of Citigroup (down $0.08 to $48.64, Charts), has quit Ford's board to avoid any questions of a conflict of interest. Ford is undergoing a strategic review and Citigroup has a broad relationship with the automaker.

Gains in select tech and telecom shares kept the Nasdaq positive. Big cap gainers included Ciena (up $0.10 to $4.14, Charts), Oracle (up $0.03 to $15.41, Charts), Apple (up $0.94 to $68.75, Charts) and SanDisk (up $1.60 to $54.61, Charts).

Market breadth was positive and trading volume was light. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners beat losers by a small margin on volume of 1.06 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers narrowly topped decliners as 1.30 billion shares changed hands.

Treasury prices inched higher, lowering the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.78 percent from around 4.80 percent late Thursday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

COMEX gold for December delivery rose $2.30 to settle at $630.80 an ounce.

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