U.S. stocks cling to gains, end week up

S&P 500 closes out final day of May trading with a monthly gain of 0.5% following a bumpy few weeks

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 tugof-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.

Inflation remains a key concern for investors, particularly if the global economic recovery is hampered if governments and central banks have to withdraw stimulus to combat rising prices. It’s partly why stocks fell two out of the past three weeks. Still, analysts expect any rise in inflation to be tied to the growing economy and will likely be more moderate.

Investors did not react harshly to the latest hotter-than-expected inflation data. The Commerce Department said Friday that personal