Friday's stock market advance was driven by oil companies' shares, including Exxon Mobil Corp, hitting lifetime highs as crude oil futures prices climbed closer to $52 a barrel.
The boom in commodities prices pushed the Reuters CRB index of 17 commodity futures above 300 on Friday for the first time in 24 years. In the coming week, two closely watched US economic reports will serve as bookends. On Monday, the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago will release its closely watched reading on the Midwestern region's economy for February. On Friday, the Labour Department's report on February US non-farm payrolls will come out. If the numbers exceed expectations, that should give the stock market more fuel to run higher, analysts said.
Although the market didn't react much, it got some welcome news early on Friday when the Commerce Department said growth in US gross domestic product, which measures total output of goods and services within US borders, was stronger in the fourth quarter than previously thought.
For the week, the Dow rose 0.52 percent, the S&P 500 advanced 0.81 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 0.33 percent. On Friday, the February employment report will give investors a sense of the labour market's strength.
January's data showed US employers added just 146,000 jobs during the month. That reading was weaker than expected. But stocks rose because the softer data eased some investors' concerns that the Federal Reserve might shifts its pace of gradual interest-rate hikes to a more aggressive mode.
Friday's economic headlines will include a final reading for February from the University of Michigan on consumer sentiment. Economists see the Michigan consumer sentiment index slipping to 94.5 from 95.5. The forecast for Monday's report on the Chicago purchasing managers' index calls for a drop to 60.2 for February from 62.4 previously, a Reuters poll of economists showed. Among other reports that investors will watch in the week ahead are: on Monday, personal income and spending data, plus new home sales; on Tuesday, the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing data, plus domestic car and truck sales, and on Thursday, the ISM's non-manufacturing, or services, index.
The earnings calendar calls for results from ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co and Tiffany & Co, the luxury jewellery retailer known for its robin's egg blue boxes, both on Monday; insurance brokerage Marsh & McLennan Cos on Tuesday, followed by apparel maker and retailer Liz Claiborne Inc and wholesale club operator Costco Wholesale Corp, both on Wednesday.
As the earnings season winds down, S&P 500 companies are showing fourth-quarter profit growth of about 20 percent and more than 60 percent of companies are beating expectations, according to Reuters Estimates.
Late on Friday in New York, the euro was up 0.3 percent at $1.3243. The dollar dipped 0.06 percent to 105.24 yen.