Stocks rose on Friday after a government report showed that inflation was tame in September, which will leave consumers with more money to spend if the trend holds up.
The modest gains came in spite of declines in most markets around the world. Stocks were still headed for their biggest weekly loss since early June.
A half-hour after trading began on Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 42 points at 13,368. The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up two points to 1,435 and the Nasdaq composite was up almost four points to 3,053.
The Labor Department said Friday that wholesale prices rose 1.1 percent in September. But most of the gain was from higher gasoline prices. Core prices, which don't count food and energy, were unchanged.
The S&P is headed for a weekly loss of nearly 1.7 percent following three down days this week. This week saw mixed results from U.S. corporations like Alcoa, Safeway and Yum Brands.
Strong earnings from banks weren't enough to help financial stocks on Friday. The nation's largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, posted record quarterly profit and blew away Wall Street expectations. Wells Fargo just edged out profit expectations revenue fell short of Wall Street's forecasts.
Wells Fargo was down $1.39, or 3.9 percent, to $33.83, and JPMorgan edged up 5 cents to $42.15. Bank of America fell 15 cents to $9.19. US Bancorp lost 50 cents to $33.89.
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. dropped 27 cents, or 8.4 percent, to $2.93, after the chipmaker said third-quarter revenue will fall about 10 percent from the second quarter because of weak demand for its products.
Wal-Mart Stores was the second-biggest gainer in the Dow following an analyst upgrade, up 78 cents at $75.79.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares, the German DAX, and the CAC-40 in France all fell 0.4 percent.
Trading was steady in other markets too. The euro edged up 0.3 percent to $1.2970 and the benchmark oil price was 30 cents higher at $92.37 per barrel in New York trading.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note edged down to 1.66 percent from 1.67 percent late Thursday.
Asian markets closed mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 index ended a bad week with another 0.2 percent decline. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.7 percent and South Korea's Kospi was flat.