S&P 500 Index starts last day of week in green above 4,200

• Wall Street's main indexes trade in the positive territory on Friday.
• Defensive sectors push higher after the opening bell.
• S&P 500 Financials Index is edging lower after US inflation data.

Major equity indexes in the US opened modestly higher following the last batch of US macroeconomic data. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3% at 34,565, the S&P 500 was rising 0.28% at 4,212 and the Nasdaq Composite was gaining 0.57% at 13,736.

Among the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the Healthcare Index is up 0.86% as the best performer ahead of the Utilities Index, which was rising 0.75%. On the other hand, the Financials Index is losing 0.5% pressured by the modest decline seen in the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield.

Earlier in the day, the data from the US revealed that the Core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index climbed to 3.1% on a yearly basis from 1.9% in March. This reading came in higher than the market expectation of 2.9%. Additionally, the publication showed that Personal Income decreased by 13.1% while Personal Spending rose by 0.5%.

S&P 500 chart (daily)