Stock market today: Wall Street closes its best week of the year with even more gains
Wall Street steamrolled even higher to add more gains to its best week in nearly a year
NEW YORK — Wall Street steamrolled even higher Friday as it closed out its best week in nearly a year.
The S&P 500 climbed 40.56 points, or 0.9%, to 4,358.34 and rose every day of the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 222.24, or 0.7%, to 34,061.32, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 184.09, or 1.4%, to 13,478.28.
Stocks surged through the week on rising hopes the Federal Reserve is finally done with its market-crunching hikes to interest rates, meant to get inflation under control. A report on Friday underscored that pressure is easing on inflation after it showed employers hired fewer workers last month than economists expected.
It's a stunning turnaround from just a week ago, when Wall Street was reeling after the S&P 500 had fallen 10% below its high point for the year. That sent Wall Street's main index into what investors call a “correction.”
Since then strong profit reports helped drive some stocks to towering gains. Generac, a maker of backup generators, soared nearly 28% for its best week since its stock began trading in 2010. At Expedia Group, another stronger-than-forecast report sent its stock nearly 22% higher for its best week since the market was surging out of the coronavirus crash in early 2020.
But it was interest rates, yields and inflation that were at the center of all the wild movements for financial markets around the world.
Before this week, stocks had been struggling under the weight of rapidly rising Treasury yields. Those yields were in turn catching up to the Fed’s main interest rate, which is above 5.25% and at its highest level since 2001.
Higher rates and yields slow the economy, hurt prices
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