Stocks fell on Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in his Jackson Hole speech that the central bank plans to continue its aggressive monetary policy to combat inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled over 1,000 points, while the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq Composite dropped about 3% and 4%, respectively.
Here's how the market settled to close out the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): -3.37% or -141.46 points to 4,057.66
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): -3.03% or -1,008.38 points to 32,283.40
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): -3.94% or -497.55 points to 12,141.71
Friday's decline solidified a second week of declines for Wall Street. The Dow fell 4.2%, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost about 4% and 4.4%, respectively.
In his speech on Friday, Powell reiterated the Fed's stance against inflation, leading market participants to weigh the potential impacts of higher interest rates for an extended period of time.
"Restoring price stability will likely require maintaining a restrictive policy stance for some time," Powell said in his remarks in Wyoming. "The historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy."
On the economic front, data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) showed consumer prices slipped last month. Headline personal consumption expenditures (PCE) fell 0.1% month-to-month for July. On an annual basis, PCE rose 6.3% last month.
Core PCE, which excludes more volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.1% month-to-month in July and 4.6% from a year ago--marking the lowest annual increase since October 2021.
The monthly PCE report is one of the Fed's preferred inflation measure.
Elsewhere, consumer sentiment data from the University of Michigan ticked upward for August's final print. Headline consumer sentiment rose to 58.2 from 51.2 in July. Moreover, year-end inflation expectations fell to 4.8% from 5.2% in July, marking the lowest reading in eight months.
For stocks, Affirm dropped over 20% after the consumer lending company reported a larger-than-expected loss last quarter and issued a disappointing outlook. Shares of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) rose on Friday after multiple news outlets reported that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) was planning to announce a bid for the video game publisher.