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Stocks were little changed on Friday, notched a gain for the week, as Wall Street digested the latest batch of consumer data and earnings.
The Dow Jones Industrials staggered 25.23 points into the long weekend to 29,398.08
The S&P 500 inched up 6.22 points to 3,380.16.
The NASDAQ gained 19.21 points to 9,731.18, hitting an all-time high.
Stocks came off their lows of the day, after a report that the White House is considering tax incentives for people in the U.S. to buy stocks.
Despite Friday’s muted trading moves, stocks posted back-to-back weekly gains. The S&P 500 grabbed 1.6%, and Dow rose 1%, this week.
The NASDAQ gained 2.2%, advances that came even as investors grappled with a rising number of reported coronavirus cases.
Markets will be closed Monday for the Presidents’ Day holiday.
This week, Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet all climbed more than 2%. Apple, meanwhile, ended the week 1.5% higher.
In the economic docket, the U.S. Commerce Department reported core retail sales, which exclude autos, gas, building materials and food services, were unchanged last month. The department added clothing-store sales had their biggest one-month decline since 2009.
The data outweighed the release of strong corporate earnings releases from companies such as Nvidia and Expedia.
Nvidia shares rose 7% after its quarterly results beat analyst expectations. Expedia got an 11% boost from its earnings while Newell Brands climbed 3%.
More than 77% of S&P 500 companies have reported earnings thus far, with roughly 72% of them beating analyst expectations.
China’s National Health Commission on Friday reported an additional 121 deaths nationwide, with 5,090 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
The flu-like virus was found to have killed a total of 1,380 people in mainland China as of Thursday evening after the health commission said it had removed 108 deaths from the total figure due to a double-count in Hubei province — the epicenter of the global coronavirus outbreak.
Prices for the 10-Year U.S. Treasury gained a bit of ground, lowering yields to 1.59% from Thursday’s 1.62%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices gained 64 cents to $52.06 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices took on seven dollars to $1,585.80 U.S. an ounce.
