Stocks climbed a little higher Friday to finish positive for the week, as optimism over the post-pandemic U.S. economic recovery drove the investment narrative heading into the Memorial Day weekend. Stocks moved up despite a 0.7% increase in the core personal consumption price gauge for April that was the biggest monthly gain since October 2001.

U.S. equities slid lower for a second straight week as investors assessed the potential for the Federal Reserve to begin scaling back accommodative policy at upcoming meetings amid continued robust U.S. economic data and rising prices.

The three major U.S. stock averages rallied in the last two sessions of the week as inflation fears eased from prior hand wringing, but it wasn’t enough to offset the drop from earlier in the week. On Friday, the Nasdaq rose 2.3%, the S&P 500 was up 1.5%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 1.1%.

Despite an underwhelming employment report on Friday, U.S. equities edged higher last week driven by continued focus on reopening momentum and rising corporate earnings expectations amid strong first quarter results. For the week, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones gained 1.3% and 2.7% respectively, but the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite fell -1.5% as the rotation out of expensive, high-growth stocks into cyclical stocks leveraged to the economic reopening gained traction

U.S. equity markets broadly moved sideways last week but closed out the month of April with the highest monthly gain since November amid a streak of strong earnings reports and continued signs of a robust U.S. economic recovery powered by stimulus and the vaccine rollout. The S&P 500 gained 5.3% for the month of April, bringing its year-to-date performance to 11.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones advanced 5.4% and 2.8% for the month, respectively, with tech stocks retaking the lead on strong earnings results.