U.S. stocks eked out modest gains on Friday and all three indexes posted another weekly advance as investors parsed comments from Federal Reserve officials and looked ahead to crucial inflation data next week. The TSX ended slightly lower, largely due to declines in the energy and tech sectors, as Statistics Canada reported surprisingly strong April jobs growth.

The S&P 500 and the Dow were modestly higher and the Nasdaq ended essentially unchanged. All three indexes were up for the week with the blue-chip Dow nabbing its largest Friday-to-Friday percentage advance since mid-December. The TSX was up 1.7% over the past five days, its biggest weekly advance in nearly five months.

The University of Michigan’s preliminary take on May Consumer Sentiment on Friday showed the mood of the American consumer has taken its biggest monthly plunge since August 2021, while near- and long-term inflation expectations heated up.