Nasdaq Composite Index: +0.73% or +113.45 points to 15,631.82
The S&P 500 closed at a fresh record on Friday as market benchmarks moved higher throughout the session despite inflation reaching a multi-decade high.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both completed their best week since February rising 3.8% and 3.6%, respectively, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its best week since March, climbing by 4%.
Here's how the market settled to close out the week:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
New York issues statewide mask mandate:
New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Friday issued a new statewide mask mandate for all indoor public places unless the businesses already have a vaccine requirement in place.
The new mandate will go into effect Monday through Jan. 15, 2022. Noncompliant businesses could be subject to both civil and criminal penalties with a maximum fine of $1,000 per violation, with local health departments enforcing the mandate.
"The temporary measures I am taking today will help accomplish this through the holiday season," Hochul said in a statement. "We shouldn't have reached the point where we are confronted with a winter surge, especially with the vaccine at our disposal, and I share many New Yorkers' frustration that we are not past this pandemic yet.
December consumer sentiment rises from November's low:
The University of Michigan's December Surveys of Consumers sentiment reading posted a bigger-than-expected increase after slumping to a decade-low in November.
Headline sentiment rose to 70.4 in the firm's preliminary survey for December, rising from November's print of 67.4.
"Sentiment posted a small overall gain in early December (+4.5%), although it was still nearly identical to the average reading in the prior four months (70.6)," said Richard Curtin, chief economist for the Surveys of Consumers, in a press statement. "The more interesting result was the large disparity between monthly gain among households with incomes in the lowest third (+23.6%) of the income distribution compared with the modest losses among households in the middle (-3.8%) and top third (-4.3%)."
"The core of the renewed optimism among the bottom third was the expectation of income increase of 2.9% during the year ahead; the last time a higher gain for this group was expected was in 1981," he added. "This suggests an emerging wage-price spiral that could propel inflation higher in the years ahead."
Curtin also noted that more than two-thirds of consumers selected "inflation" as "the most serious problem facing the nation," when given the choice between inflation and unemployment.
November CPI shows fastest annual inflation increase in four decades:
The Labor Department's Consumer Price Index (CPI) published Friday showed the largest annual increase in inflation since 1982, with the broadest measure of CPI growing at 6.8% year-over-year in November.
November's rate accelerated from the prior month's 6.2% annual rise. On a month-over-month basis, November's CPI rose 0.8%, coming above the 0.7% monthly rate consensus economists were expecting.
Here's how market benchmarks started trading soon after open:
S&P 500 Index: +0.66% or +30.78 points to 4,698.23
Dow Jones Industrial Average: +0.48% or +171.58 points to 35,886.82
