U.S. stocks are hanging around their records as Wall Street heads toward the finish of another winning week.
— U.S. stocks are hanging around their record levels on Friday as Wall Street heads toward the finish of another winning week.
The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% from the all-time high it set the day before, but it’s still on track to close its fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 86 points, or 0.2%, as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern time, and flirting with its record set in December. The Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2%, hurt by losses for tech stocks.
The U.S. stock market set records this week as expectations built that the Federal Reserve will deliver a cut to interest rates at its next meeting in September. Lower rates can boost investment prices and the economy by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow to buy houses, cars or equipment, but they also risk worsening inflation.
A disappointing report about inflation at the U.S. wholesale level on Thursday made traders pare back bets for coming cuts to interest rates, but they’re still overwhelmingly expecting them. Such anticipation has sent Treasury yields notably lower in the bond market, and they held there following a mixed set of updates on the economy on Friday.
One said shoppers boosted their spending at U.S. retailers last month, as economists expected, while another said that manufacturing in New York state unexpectedly grew.
