NEW YORK, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Wall Street's major averages advanced in the week featuring a slew of key economic data and corporate earnings reports.

For the week ending Friday, the Dow rose 1.2 percent, the S&P 500 gained 1.4 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.1 percent.

The 30-stock gauge and S&P 500 booked their fourth straight positive week, while the Nasdaq rose for three weeks in a row.

The S&P U.S. Listed China 50 index, which is designed to track the performance of the 50 largest Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges by total market cap, logged a weekly decline of 1.1 percent.

A batch of data released this week indicated the U.S. economic recovery is gaining momentum.

U.S. privately-owned housing starts surged 19.4 percent in March to a 1.74 million annualized rate, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey called for a 1.61 million pace.

U.S. retail sales surged 9.8 percent in March, the Department of Commerce reported on Thursday. Economists polled by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 6.1-percent increase.

Meanwhile, a separate report showed the number of Americans filing first-time jobless claims fell to the lowest level since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough way to measure layoffs, registered 576,000 in the week ending April 10, a decrease of 193,000 from the prior week's revised level, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had forecast new claims would total 710,000 for last week.

U.S. consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.6 percent in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Tuesday. Economists polled by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 0.5-percent increase in the CPI.

The all items index rose 2.6 percent for the 12 months ending March, a much larger increase than the 1.7-percent reported for the period ending in February, showed the report.

The data came as inflation fears have intensified on Wall Street in recent weeks.

"The narratives currently surrounding inflation are painting it as an inevitable killer of economic growth and the bull market, which I think is overdone," Mitch Zacks, CEO at Zacks Investment Management, said in a note on Saturday.

"I recommend focusing on key data points and economic indicators that could positively impact your investments in the future," he said.

The markets also garnered some support from stronger-than-anticipated earnings. Earnings season kicked off this week with a rousing start.

After seeing big beats from financial giants Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan Chase on Wednesday, investors also saw better-than-expected first-quarter profit and revenue from Morgan Stanley on Friday. Enditem

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