U.S. stocks closed another record-setting week with a muted performance Friday, as hope built on Wall Street that the U.S. economy can manage the rare feat of suppressing high inflation without causing a recession.

Premarket trading on Wall Street was relatively listless Friday ahead of the government's latest inflation report. Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were essentially unchanged less than two hours before the opening bell,

Shares rolled higher in Asia on Thursday after U.S. stocks edged back from their records. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index gained more than 2% and U.S. futures and oil prices also advanced. The rally in Asia followed an announcement that the Chinese government plans to give cash handouts or discount vouchers to the poor ahead of next week's National Day holidays.