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New York - Wall Street stocks climbed on Friday, absorbing comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen that implied interest rates could be lifted soon.
Yellen, speaking at Harvard University, said a rate hike "probably" would be justified "in the coming months" if economic data continued to strengthen.
Stocks briefly cut their gains following the remarks, but later recovered.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3% to 17 873.22.
The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.4% to 2 099.06, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.7% to 4 933.50.
The gains show the market views a rate hike as confirmation US growth is on track. But Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank, noted stocks tumbled in January after initially taking a benign view of the Fed's December rate hike.
"The market is giving permission to the Fed to raise rates," Ablin said. "We'll see what actually happens when they do."
Financial stocks advanced, with Bank of America rising 1.2% and JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs both up 0.6%.
US-listed Chinese stocks were another strong category, with Alibaba rising 3.3%, Baidu 4.1% and JD.com 4.7%.
Google parent Alphabet climbed 1.2% after a jury ruled in a retrial that Google did not unfairly use parts of Oracle's Java programming language in its Android smartphone operating system. The retrial stemmed from a 2012 case in which Google also had prevailed.
Oracle, which sought $9bn in damages, said there were grounds for an appeal. Oracle rose 0.3%.
FEI Company, which manufacturers high-tech microscopes, surged 14.3% following an announcement that it agreed to be acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific for about $4.2bn. Thermo Fisher rose 0.6%.
Ulta Beauty leaped 9.1% after first-quarter net income shot up 37.3% to $92m and the cosmetics company pointed to "healthy" consumer demand for beauty products.
