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Stocks south of the border closed higher Friday, posting a solid week of gains, after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said that an interest rate hike in the next few months would probably be appropriate.
The Dow Jones Industrials gained 44.93 points to 17,873.22. Goldman Sachs and UnitedHealth boosted the Dow the most Friday.
The S&P 500 strengthened 8.88 points to 2,098.98. Telecoms and financials led S&P 500 advancers in afternoon trade, while energy lagged.
The NASDAQ Composite added 31.74 points to 4,933.50, helped by gains in shares of Alphabet, Microsoft and Comcast. Apple traded slightly lower.
Shortly before the closing bell, the Dow and S&P were within 2% of their 52-week intraday highs and tracking for weekly gains of more than 2%, their best week since March. The NASDAQ was about 6% below that 52-week intraday high and on pace for a weekly gain of more than 3%, its best week since February.
Markets in the U.S. will be shuttered Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.
Yellen was in conversation with Harvard professor Gregory Mankiw as early afternoon trade went on, as she received the university's Radcliffe Medal.
In economic news, the University of Michigan said consumer sentiment was 94.7 in May, below expectations but up from 89 in April.
Elsewhere, the second revision to U.S. first-quarter Gross Domestic Product came in at 0.8%, a touch below expectations although up from the advance read.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury settled, raising yields to 1.85% from Thursday’s 1.83%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices subsided eight cents a barrel to $49.40 U.S.
Gold prices were off $9.60 to $1,210.20 U.S. an ounce.
