Stocks had a relatively calm day to finish the week. All the major indexes fell, but nothing on the scale of Thursday's rout. The Dow dropped 98 points to 32,899, the S&P 500 fell 23 points to 4,123, and the Nasdaq fell 173 points to 12,144. Only the Nasdaq's loss exceeded 1%. Still, the market's dips reflect concerns among investors that more strong jobs numbers out Friday will keep the Fed on track for sharp and steady increases in interest rates to corral inflation, analysts said. Earlier in the day, the S&P 500 had flipped to a modest gain after an early burst for Treasury yields cooled and as economists pointed to some mixed signals on where inflation's heading.
The swings were even wilder earlier this week, as all kinds of markets, from bonds to cryptocurrencies, grapple with a new market order where the Federal Reserve is aggressively moving to yank supports for the economy put in place through the pandemic. The Fed is hoping to raise rates and slow the economy enough to snuff out the highest inflation in four decades, but it risks choking off growth if it goes too far or too quickly. The Fed raised its key short-term interest rate this week by a half a percentage point, the largest such increase since 2000. It also said more increases that size are likely on the way.
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