Stocks inch to new records; S&P 500 up 4 straight weeks

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock indexes inched ahead to record highs Friday, barely, after a late-afternoon push erased losses from earlier in the day. It caps the fourth straight week of gains for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, its longest such streak since July.

Reports through the week showed that the economy is improving and corporate profits are growing more quickly than analysts expected. The encour...