US market indices ended their declines on Friday, but even so suffered their biggest weekly percentage decline in months, as investors grappled with the growing likelihood of a recession induced by central banks trying to end the inflation.
Persistent inflation has unsettled investors this year. The Federal Reserve The US government and most major central banks have begun to move from expansionary monetary policies to tightening measures, which will slow the economy, which could trigger a recession and reduce corporate profits.
The three main indices of wall street fell for the third week in a row. benchmark index S&P 500 suffered its biggest weekly percentage drop since January, while the dow jones recorded its worst week in percentage terms since October 2020.
“You’re going to see a lot of volatility right now and it’s mainly due to the fact that the Fed is going to bring all these rate hikes forward as they’re trying to gauge the inflation picture, which is very cloudy right now,” said Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capital Advisors.
“You just have to wait for the volatility, it’s here to stay, it’s going to be here until we get a little more clarity on whether we really have peaked inflation,” he added.
The reference index S&P 500, made up of the shares of the 500 strongest firms, rose 0.22% on the day to 3,674.84 points, but lost -5.79% for the week. The dow jones it fell -0.13% to 29,888.78 units and in the week, -4.80 percent. The nasdaq it rose 1.43% to 10,798.35 points and in the week -4.78 percent.