U.S. stocks rise amid Yellen speech

U.S. stocks ended higher after wavering between small gains and losses Friday, as Wall Street digested remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 2.74 points, or 0.01 percent, to 21,005.71. The S&P 500 added 1.20 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,383.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 9.53 points, or 0.16 percent, to 5,870.75.

Yellen on Friday signaled that an interest rate hike in this month's monetary policy will likely be appropriate, if the economy progresses in line with officials' expectation.

"At our meeting later this month, the (Federal Open Market) Committee will evaluate whether employment and inflation are continuing to evolve in line with our expectations, in which case a further adjustment of the federal funds rate would likely be appropriate," said Yellen in a speech at the Executives' Club of Chicago.

The Fed is scheduled to hold its next monetary policy meeting on March 14 and 15.

Concerns about a March rate hike are rising in recent weeks after several Fed officials made some hawkish comments on rate hikes.

Market expectations for a March rate hike were around 80 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool.

On the economic front, the Non-Manufacturing Index, which measures activity in the U.S. service sector, registered 57.6 percent in February, beating market expectations of 56.5, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in its monthly survey Friday.

For the week, all three major indices witnessed sizable gains, with the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq moving up 0.9 percent, 0.7 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively. Endit