Stocks left Friday's session with little changed, as investors weighed mixed economic data with pessimistic near-term outlooks towards an additional federal stimulus package as Congress enters recess until early September. Major benchmarks remained mostly flat as the S&P 500 failed to reach its all time. For the week, the Dow gained 1.81%, the S&P 500 climbed 0.64%, and the Nasdaq eked out a 0.08% gain after a volatile week.

Meanwhile, the University of Michigan's preliminary Surveys of Consumers for August climbed slightly higher. The survey's headline sentiment index rose to 72.8 for August for 72.5 in July, maintaining just 1 point above its April low.

"The overall confidence in economic policies fell to the lowest level since Trump first entered office. The policy gridlock has acted to increase uncertainty and heighten the need for precautionary funds to offset lapses in economic relief programs and to hedge against fears about the persistence and spread of the coronavirus as the school year gets underway," Richard Curtin, chief economist for the Surveys of Consumers, said in a statement.

"Bad economic times are anticipated to persist not only during the year ahead, but the majority of consumers expect no return to a period of uninterrupted growth over the next five year," he added.

Here's how the market settled on Friday:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): -0.02% or -0.54 points to 3,372.89

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.12% or +34.78 points to 27,931.50

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -0.21% or -23.2 points to 11,019.30

For Major Stock News, reopening trades had a better session on Friday, with retail stocks like Macy's (M  ), Kohl's (KSS  ), Nordstrom (JWN  ) rose higher as U.S. retail sales increase. Cruises also rose, Carnival (CCL  ), Norwegian (NCLH  ), Royal Caribbean (RCL  ).

For Sector Performance, industries closed out Friday's session mixed as investors traded with little direction. Those that had positive increases included Energy +0.94%, Industrials +0.42%, Financials +0.25%, Materials +0.15%, Real Estate +0.14%. The rest that ended the session in the negative included Utilities -0.91%, Health Care -0.22%, Communication Services -0.10%, Information Technology -0.10%, Consumer Discretionary -0.10%, and Consumer Staples -0.02%.

For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP  ) slipped on Friday, continuing its steady fall for eight consecutive weeks, as investors looked towards other currencies. The dollar was also harmed by the Congressional stalemate over additional economic stimulus. Gold (GLD  ) also declined, posting its first weekly loss after nine weeks of gains. Spot gold dipped 0.5% to $1,943.18 per ounce, while futures settled lower at $1,949.80 per ounce. Crude oil prices were also pressured on Friday, as major forecasters slashed their demand outlooks like week. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) fell to $44.86 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) settled lower at $43.01 per barrel.

For next week, investors will turn their attention to fresh quarterly earnings from company's like Alibaba (BABA  ), JD.com (JD  ), Target (TGT  ) and Walmart (WMT  ).