Wall Street ended a listless week on a sour note Friday, though losses were trimmed to modest ones in late trading. Disappointing consumer sentiment contributed to the generally downbeat day.
- The Dow slipped 8 points to 33,300.
- The benchmark S&P 500 fell 6 points to 4,124 for its second straight losing week.
- The Nasdaq fell 43 points to 12,284.
Despite the S&P 500 notching a sixth straight week when it moved less than 1%, big swings have swirled underneath amid worries about a possible recession, high inflation, and the US government inching toward what could be a catastrophic default on its debt, per the AP. One potential wild card arrived in Friday's report on consumer sentiment. It suggested US households are girding for 3.2% inflation over the long run. That's higher than last month's reading of 3% and the highest level since 2011.
News Corp. rose 7.3% Friday after it reported a milder drop in profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. That’s been the trend for most of this earnings reporting season. First Solar soared 25.2% after announcing it's purchasing Evolar AB, a European company. On the losing end of Wall Street was Gen Digital, which fell 6% despite reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. Big Tech stocks were also weak. They and other high-growth stocks are seen as some of the hardest hit by high interest rates. Apple fell 1%, and Amazon dropped 2.1% to act as the two heaviest weights on the S&P 500 after being up in early trading.
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