The Dow and S&P 500 on Friday booked gains for the day, week and month ahead of Memorial Day weekend, with U.S. financial markets in the U.S. closed Monday. Jitters about inflation have been a key feature of trading sentiment in May and investors wrapped up the month with the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, affirming rising pricing pressures. The personal-consumption expenditure index approached its highest level in nearly 13 years at 3.6%, higher than the 2.9% that economists’ surveyed by Dow Jones had forecast. That marks the loftiest level since 2008. On a month-over-month basis, PCE inflation rose 0.6% in April, while the core rate up rose 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.19%
closed out the session up 0.2% at 34,429, and logged a weekly gain of 0.9% and a monthly advance of 1.9%. The S&P 500 index
SPX,
+0.08%
closed the session up less than 0.1% higher and notched a 1.2% weekly gain and a 0.6% gain in May. The Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP,
+0.09%,
meanwhile, closed less than 0.1% higher on Friday but clinched a weekly gain of 2.1%, while producing a monthly loss of 1.5%, representing its first monthly slide in seven months.
