U.S. stocks climbed on Friday as major averages headed for a winning week amid growing optimism over the U.S. economic recovery.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 150 points. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded up 0.4%.
The S&P 500 is up more than 1% week to date and sits less than 1% from a record. The blue-chip Dow is also more than 1% higher over the same time period, while the Nasdaq has gained 2.3%.
Salesforceshares rose about 4% in premarket trading after the software company'sfirst-quarter earningsbeat Wall Street expectations on its top and bottom lines.HPshares dropped 5% despite the company's better-than-expected second-quarter results.
Ford was higher once again, up 1% in premarket trading Friday. The stock is up 11% this week so far after unveiling a new electric vehicle strategy.
A key inflation indicator — the core personal consumption expenditures index —rose 3.1% in April,faster than expectations of a 2.9% increase but not as hot as many on Wall Street had feared. Meanwhile, the savings rate remained elevated at 14.9% last month, while consumer spending rose 0.5%, in line with estimates.
Meme stocksfueled by traders in Reddit's WallStreetBets forum surged on Thursday, withAMCshooting up as much as 47%. Shares of the movie-theater chain closed 35.6% higher while another meme stock, GameStop, gained 4.8%.
AMC was up another 10% in premarket trading Friday.
The moves higher this week come as investors monitor the back-and-forth in Washington over a comprehensive infrastructure package that could further boost the economic recovery. Senate Republicans unveiled a$928 billion infrastructure counterofferto President Joe Biden on Thursday. However, that's well below Biden's most recent proposal of $1.7 trillion.
For the month of May, the S&P 500 is essentially flat, while the Dow is up 1.7%. The Nasdaq is off by about 1.6%.
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