Stocks extended their rallies into the long weekend, with Wall Street brushing off hot inflation data for April as optimism over a U.S. debt ceiling deal grew. The Dow added 328 points to snap a five-day losing streak but still registered a weekly loss.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq scored a fifth-straight week of gains to settle at its highest level since August. The S&P 500 did the same en route to weekly and daily wins. Elsewhere, the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) clocked its best week since May 5.

GOLD PRICES FALL FOR 3RD STRAIGHT WEEK

Oil price settled higher on Friday to score a 1% weekly gain. Though the future of crude output is unclear, knowledge the U.S. government often buys crude below $70 boosted the commodity, especially amid recent efforts to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. July-dated crude added 84 cents, or 1.2%, to close at $72.67 per barrel.

Gold prices also moved higher for the day, but marked a third-straight week in the red with a 1.4% dip. Evidence of persistently high inflation boosted the safe-haven asset today. For the session, June-dated gold rose 60 cents, or about 0.1%, to close at $1,943.70 an ounce.

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