Stocks closed Friday’s session with weekly losses, as Wall Street’s August struggles continue.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 25.83 points, and was roughly 0.07% higher to close at 34,500.66. The S&P 500 was lower by 0.01%, finishing at 4,369.71. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2%, ending the session at 13,290.78.
Keysight Technologies shares lost nearly 14% on the back of a disappointing earnings report. Deere and Estee Lauder also fell about 5.3% and 3.3%, respectively, after announcing their earnings. Shares of major tech companies, including Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet continued their decline for the week.
The Dow ended the week lower by 2.2%, its worst since March. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 fell 2.1% and registered a third straight week of losses, a streak that hasn’t happened since February. The Nasdaq Composite shed about 2.6%, tumbling for a third consecutive losing week — a first since December.
“I feel like the markets are rethinking their optimism from July, where we had the soft landing narrative,” said Michelle Cluver, senior portfolio strategist at Global X ETFs.
“Now it’s still seeing economic growth, but [there are] question marks coming up on how much higher interest rates need to go, and so the narrative this month has been on longer duration yields,” Cluver added.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield on Thursday rose to its highest level since October 2022. The upward movement came a day following the release of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting minutes, which suggested further interest rate hikes could be ahead as inflation concerns remain.
However, yields eased from their highs on Friday, with the rate on the 10-year Treasury roughly 5 basis points lower at 4.25%.
Investors have key developments looming in the approaching week, including commentary from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the central bank’s Jackson Hole annual symposium. Traders will also have an eye on chip powerhouse Nvidia as it issues earnings.
