NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended in mixed order on Friday after suffering a sharp correction this week amid fears of recession and interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve and other major banks power stations.
With inflation showing no signs of abating, Wall Street is on a third consecutive week of declines as investors adjust to the end of the era of nearly free money.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.13 percent, or 38.29 points, to 29,888.78 points. It fell 4.8% over the week, its biggest weekly drop since October 2020.
The broader S&P-500, on the other hand, gained 8.07 points on Friday, or 0.22%, to 3,674.84 points, but it remains down 5.8% over the week.
The Nasdaq Composite rose more sharply by 152.25 points (1.43%) to 10,798.35 points, ending a difficult week on a good note (-4.8%).
“There’s a lot of volatility right now, mostly due to Fed rate hikes and the difficulty of gauging inflation,” commented Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capital Advisors in Hunt Valley, Maryland. .
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday again stressed the central bank’s desire to bring inflation back to its 2% target.
The Fed’s monetary tightening is fueling fears of recession, illustrated by the more marked than expected slowdown in industrial production in the United States (+0.2% in May after 1.2% in April).
In this context, the energy sector continued to fall on Friday in the wake of oil prices (-5.6% for Brent to around 113 dollars per barrel, a four-week low), also weighed down by the strengthening of the dollar.
Wall Street will remain closed on Monday due to National Emancipation Day (Juneteenth) in the United States.
(Chuck Mikolajczak report, French version Tangi Salaün)