US stocks finished Friday on a positive note, closing out a volatile week as a pullback in crude oil prices helped ease concerns over inflationary pressures just days before the Federal Reserve's next policy announcement. While money markets have all but priced in a September rate hike following the latest consumer price index data, equity buyers stepped in, snapping the S&P 500's four-day losing streak.

Longer-dated Treasury bonds outperformed their shorter-term counterparts, underscoring market bets that the central bank will act decisively to combat inflation and reinforce its credibility. The retreat in Brent crude from four-month highs also provided a broad lift to overall market sentiment.

At the closing bell, the S&P 500 advanced 0.9% to 7,656.98 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1% to 52,573.29. The Nasdaq Composite rose 1% to 26,333.04, the Nasdaq 100 gained 0.9% to 29,368.44, and the Russell 2000 added 0.5% to 2,903.944 points.

Key consumer price metrics revealed that inflation has made little headway toward the Fed's target, amid ongoing pressures from the Iran conflict, tariffs, and surging data center construction. However, Peter Williams of 22V Research noted that the market's reaction suggests the data was hot enough to prompt the Fed to tighten policy, which may be a positive development given concerns that overly loose policy could exacerbate inflation.

Florian Ielpo of Lombard Odier Investment Managers commented, "This is clearly not the kind of inflation report the market had been dreading, but neither is it one that can put inflation concerns to rest once and for all." He added that the data release prompted a reversal of some of the "negative price action" observed over the preceding sessions.

Chris Zaccarelli of Northlight Asset Management remarked, "There's no guarantee the Fed will raise rates next week, but it's hard to see how the central bank can justify continuing to hold rates steady."

In corporate developments, Oracle reported quarterly cloud revenue that surpassed Wall Street expectations, although the company's gross margins narrowed. Legal experts indicated that Apple's new continuous listening AI feature for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 could test wiretapping laws. Microsoft plans to more than triple its data center capacity, a move that could help alleviate the computing power shortages that have forced the company to abandon portions of its AI and cloud operations. Anthropic revealed that its AI model Claude has been misused in attempts to develop various military applications, including suicide drone swarms, missile navigation systems, and research related to potential biological weapons. Meanwhile, OpenAI is considering slowing down the development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence, with CEO Sam Altman hoping other companies will follow suit.