us stocks ended sharply higher friday with the technologyheavy nasdaq composite leading the way up as hopes rose for a debtceiling deal in congress the nasdaq and sp 500 also closed at their highest levels since august 2022 for the week the dow fell 1 while the sp 500 edged up 03 and the nasdaq advanced 25 the techheavy nasdaq booked a fifth straight week of gains for its longest win streak since the stretch ending in early february according to dow jones market data stocks rose ahead of memorialday weekend as investors were encouraged by reports suggesting that congress was close to a deal to raise the us debt ceiling its a little bit of a relief rally on the debt ceiling said ryan belanger founder and managing principal at claro advisors in a phone interview friday while treasury secretary janet yellen says the us could run out of money as soon as june 1 if the debt ceiling is not raised other projections estimate the federal government may have until the middle of the month i think well all be able to exhale by midjune although it will likely be an increasingly volatile market environment between now and then said kristina hooper chief global market strategist at invesco once that drama recedes i think all eyes will be back on central banks belanger said that hes expecting the federal reserve may raise its benchmark interest rate by another quarter percentage point in june to battle high inflation the bureau of economic analysis said friday that the personalconsumptionexpendituresprice index showed core inflation which excludes food and energy rose 04 in april thats more than the 03 increase that economists had expected as core inflation rose 47 year over year from a rate of 46 in march rubeela farooqi chief us economist at high frequency economics said inflation appeared to be moving in the wrong direction at the start of the second quarter fedfundsfutures traders now see a 659 chance of the fed hiking its rate by a quarter percentage point in june and a 341 probability of a pause according to the cmes fedwatch tool at last check in the bond market twoyear treasury yields rose 79 basis points friday to 4587 according to dow jones market data pce data also showed consumer spending sprang back to life in april rising 08 the largest gain in three months to surpass expectations as americans bought more cars and spent more on services the consumer is hanging in there said victoria fernandez chief market strategist at crossmark global investments in a phone interview friday i dont think we want to underestimate the ability of the consumer to continue spending even if theyre spending a little bit less meanwhile the us census bureau said friday that orders for manufactured durable goods in the us jumped 11 in april the gain was largely driven by military spending but business investment rose sharply as well updated gdp data released earlier this week showed the us economy grew at annual pace of 13 during the first quarter above previous estimates for now debtceiling optimism and enthusiasm surrounding artificial intelligence are outweighing concerns about the potential for another fed rate hike according to fernandez i just dont think there is the demand destruction that the fed is looking for at this point in time she said as the unemployment rate remains low fernandez said she anticipates the fed could pause its interestrate hikes in june to asses the economy before potentially raising its policy rate again in july technology stocks have helped propel gains this week in the us equities markets with nvidias stock nvda surging thursday on optimism surrounding its aifueled outlook for sales in the second quarter the techheavy nasdaq composite has soared 24 this year through friday i would be taking profits on the nasdaq said belanger suggesting some stocks in the index have become frothy amid the ai buzz this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal