US 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 figures next week.

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.

Commentary from several Fed officials helped set expectations as market participants looked toward next week's inflation data.

"Nobody really wants to take a big position prior to next week," said Chuck Carlson, chief executive officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana. "And we’re getting into a time of year where people seem to slip out early on Fridays."

"The biggest story is the decline in Consumer Sentiment, but outside of that there isn't much to hang your hat on," Carlson added.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic acknowledged recent clues the economy is slowing, but added the timing of rate cuts remains uncertain.

Striking a more hawkish tone, Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said it was unclear whether monetary policy was tight enough to bring inflation down to the central bank's 2 percent target.

Hints of progress toward that target will come next week when the Labour Department releases its Consumer and Producer price indexes (CPI and PPI).

Analysts expect the crucial CPI report to show underlying "core" price of 3.6 percent year-on-year, which would be the coolest reading in over three years.

"The Fed is geared not to raise rates but cut them, so 'higher for longer' is about as dire as it's going to unless things really fall off the table," said Paul Nolte, senior wealth advisor & market strategist at Murphy & Sylvest in Elmhurst, Illinois.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.32 percent, to 39,513, the S&P 500 gained 0.16 percent, to 5,223 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.03 percent, to 16,341.

Nvidia gained 1.3 percent after TSMC, the world's largest chipmaker and a major supplier to Nvidia, reported a near 60 percent jump in April sales.

Novavax shares surged 98.7 percent in the wake of the vaccine maker's licensing deal worth up to US$1.2 billion with Sanofi. SoundHound AI jumped 7.2 percent after beating first-quarter revenue estimates. (Reuters)