Stocks staged an afternoon rally to erase most of their earlier declines Thursday after new data suggested inflation might not be cooling quite as quickly as some investors hoped.

The S&P 500 fell roughly 0.1%, after ending Wednesday just 0.3% below its record closing high set just over two years ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ticked up around 15 points, or less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite was essentially flat. All three indexes were still on track to post weekly gains after dropping in the first week of the year.