Of course it helps when there are no surprises. Inflation may have ticked higher in October but the consumer price index was in line with economists’ expectations. That was enough to prevent the rally from stumbling.

Wall Street was headed for more losses before the opening bell on Friday and is on track to log its third losing week out of the last four. Futures for the S&P 500 were 0.5% lower before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.