U.S. stocks open higher, with the Dow on track for a weekly gain

U.S. stocks opened higher Friday, with all three major benchmarks heading for weekly gains, as investors weigh fresh remarks from New York Federal Reserve President John Williams. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.24%
was up 0.1% soon after the opening bell, while the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.34%
rose 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.16%
edged up 0.2%, according to FactSet data, at last check. New York Fed President Williams suggested in a speech Friday at a Fed research conference that the economy may one day return to the era of ultra-low interest rates seen before the COVID pandemic in early 2020. “There is no evidence that the era of very low natural rates of interest has ended,” Williams said. For the week, the Dow was on pace for a 0.8% gain, while the S&P 500 was on track to advance 2% and the Nasdaq was heading for a 3.5% weekly rise, FactSet data show, at last check.