Stocks capped a listless day of trading on Wall Street with modest gains Friday and the S&P 500′s first weekly gain in three weeks.
Gains in technology and health care companies outweighed a slide in communications stocks, retailers and elsewhere in the market. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% and notched a 1.2% gain for the week.
The benchmark index closed out the final day of trading in May with a monthly gain of 0.5%. That’s the index’s fourth straight monthly increase and follows a bumpy few weeks in the markets as investors moved past a stellar corporate earnings season and focused on the tug-of-war between the economic recovery and rising inflation.
Wall Street largely shrugged off a report indicating consumer spending increased last month, the latest economic snapshot to show inflation accelerating in the U.S. economy. Treasury yields fell, including the yield for the benchmark 10-year Treasury. Typically, worries about rising inflation fuel expectations of higher interest rates, which can cause bond yields to rise.
“It’s an indication that inflation is going to be transitory,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments. “Today was just generally an up day, plus the volumes in the market have been pretty light lately, especially this week.”
The S&P 500 rose 3.23 points to 4,204.11, its third straight gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 64.81 points, or 0.2%, to 34,529.45. The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 12.46 points, or 0.1%, to 13,748.74.
Smaller company stocks, which have outperformed the broader market this year, fell. The Russell 2000 index lost 4.10 points, or 0.2%, to 2,268.97.
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