Stocks rose on Friday, with the S&P 500 snapping a three-week losing streak, as investors further weighed the Federal Reserve's latest commitment to bringing down red-hot inflation at the potential risk of sparking a recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied over 800 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both climbed over 3%.
Wall Street has had a volatile week, but benchmarks are ultimately tradied higher as investors digested remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell over the economic impact of the central bank's crusade against inflation. The S&P 500 was up nearly 6.5% for the week, while the Nasdaq gained 7.5% and the Dow was 5.4% higher.
Earlier this week, Powell said that a recession is "certainly a possibility" as the Fed's soft landing for the economy is proving to be harder than previously anticipated as the central bank continues to hike interest rates. Moreover, the central bank's "unconditional" commitment to bring down inflation also suggests the Fed will not stop rising rates even if there are signs of an economic slowdown.
Here's how the market settled to close out the week:
S&P 500 Index
Dow Jones Industrial Average
Nasdaq Composite Index
Consumer sentiment falls to record low in June:
Consumer sentiment dropped to a record low in June as Americans continue to grapple with rising prices for gas, food and other goods and services.
The University of Michigan's Surveys of Consumers headline consumer sentiment index ticked lower to 50.0 in June's final reading, marking the lowest reading on record for the survey. In the month's preliminary reading, the index stood at 50.2.
Inflation, which increased at the fastest pace in over 40 years in May, remained the primary concern for most consumers regardless of age, income, education, geographic region, political affiliation, stockholding and homeownership status, according to Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu.
"About 79% of consumers expected bad times in the year ahead for business conditions, the highest since 2009," Hsu said in a press statement. "Inflation continued to be of paramount concern to consumers; 47% of consumer blamed inflation for eroding their living standard, just one point shy of the all-time high last reached during the Great Recession."
