A Wild Week
Submitted by Little & Associates Wealth Management on May 9th, 2022With the Fed in focus, the markets experienced wide price swings over the course of last week, as technology companies led the market lower.
With the Fed in focus, the markets experienced wide price swings over the course of last week, as technology companies led the market lower.
On Friday, a sharp sell-off sent major stock market indices into negative territory for the week, capping a volatile close to April.
Hawkish comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell overshadowed many largely positive earnings results, sending stocks lower for the week.
Stocks posted losses in a holiday-shortened trading week as the first-quarter earnings season kicked off and investors digested new inflation data.
Stock prices fell last week in response to the Fed’s plan to combat inflation, which staked out a more aggressive stance than investors had anticipated.
Stocks spent last week digesting the sharp gains of previous weeks as investors assessed a tightening yield curve, the war in Ukraine, and an uncertain outlook for economic growth and inflation.
With growing confidence in the economy’s resilience, stocks posted another week of solid gains.
With the Fed embarking on a new course of monetary tightening amid continued fighting in Ukraine, stocks staged a powerful, broad-based rally last week.
Intensifying hostilities in Ukraine continued to unsettle markets, as investors grappled with the war’s impact on the global economies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1.99%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 dropped 2.88%. The Nasdaq Composite index fell 3.53% for the week. The MSCI EAFE index, which tracks developed overseas stock markets, gained 0.90%.1,2,3
War in Ukraine weighed on stocks as investors assessed the economic impact of continued hostilities, expanding economic sanctions, and potentially higher inflation due to rising oil prices and new stresses on the global supply chain.