Stocks fell on Friday, setting major benchmarks on track for a losing week as the recent market rally begins to lose steam with the prospect of more interest rate hikes ahead this year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 200 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite declined more than 0.7% and 1%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled on to close out the week:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
All three major market averages snapped multi-week winning streaks, with the Dow, S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq each down more than 1% for the week. The S&P 500 ended five consecutive weeks of gains, while the Nasdaq snapped an eight-week streak and the Dow broke a three-week positive streak.
Those losses come as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified before Congress this week, signaling that more rate increases will be needed to stabilize prices. Powell noted that a "strong majority" of the Federal Open Market Committee believes it will be appropriate to raise rates "once or twice" more this year. That stance echoed other hawkish rate hikes from global central banks, hampering outlooks for the health of the global economy.
On the economic front, U.S. manufacturing activity slowed by a more-than-expected rate in June to its lowest level in six months, according to the S&P's flash PMI reading on Friday. With a reading of 46.2, June's reading represents contraction and fell from May's level of 48.4.
Meanwhile, the S&P's flash services PMI came in at a reading of 54.1 for June, marking a two month low and ticking lower than May's reading of 54.9.
"The question remains as to how resilient service sector growth can be in the face of the manufacturing decline and the lagged effect of prior rate hikes," said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, in a statement. "Any further rate hikes will of course have a further dampening effect on this sector which is especially susceptible to changes in borrowing costs."
Elsewhere, 3M
"This is an important step forward for 3M, which builds on our actions that include our announced exit of PFOA and PFOS manufacturing more than 20 years ago, our more recent investments in state-of-the-art water filtration technology in our chemical manufacturing operations, and our announcement that we will exit all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025," CEO Mike Roman said in a release.
Looking ahead, market participants will trade cautiously ahead of more remarks from Fed Chair Powell and inflation data for May next week as investors look for clues on the central bank's next moves for its July policy meeting.
