The toughest week for Wall Street in nearly two months came to a quiet end on Friday, as stock indexes drifted to a mixed finish. The S&P 500 rose 8.96 points, or 0.2%, to 4,090.46 but still ended the week with a drop of 1.1%, its worst since December, the AP reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 169 points, or 0.5%, to 4,090.46, while the Nasdaq composite fell 71.46, or 0.6%, to 11,718.12. Stocks have been struggling since rallying in January on hopes that the economy could avoid a severe recession and that cooling inflation could get the Federal Reserve to take it easier on interest rates.
Worries have worsened recently that a still-strong jobs market could push upward on inflation and keep rates at a higher-for-longer level, much as the Fed has been warning. Higher rates can drive down inflation, but they raise the risk of a recession and drag down investment prices. And central banks around the world are intent on tightening the screws by raising rates further, even if at a slower pace. "For most central banks the risk is that they have tightened too little, not too much," economists led by Ethan Harris wrote in a BofA Global Research report. "The ultimate gauge of success here is not avoiding a recession, but getting inflation on a path back to target."
Investors will get more updates on inflation next week when the government gives its latest monthly updates on prices at both the wholesale and consumer levels. Companies in recent weeks have been delivering a mixed set of earnings reports for the end of 2022. Lyft tumbled 36.4% following its latest report. News Corp. fell 9.4% after the owner of the Wall Street Journal and other media reported weaker quarterly results than expected. It also said it will cut 5% of its workforce in 2023. On the winning side of Wall Street were energy stocks, which rose with the price of crude oil. Valero Energy gained 6.1%, and Marathon Oil climbed 6.2%.
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