Market Week: May 31, 2022
The Markets (as of market close May 27, 2022)
Stocks closed higher last week, ending a seven-week slide. More upbeat corporate news and favorable economic data helped quell investor angst, at least temporarily. The S&P 500 posted its best week since November 2020 and is headed for a positive month in May. A few factors may have helped increase investor confidence. Several large retailers released quarterly earnings results that largely exceeded Wall Street estimates. The personal consumption expenditures price index (the Fed’s preferred inflation indicator) rose 0.2% in April after increasing 0.9% in March, signaling that inflationary pressures may be subsiding. In addition to the S&P 500, the Dow, the Nasdaq, and the Russell 2000 gained more than 6.0% by week’s end. Nevertheless, to put the latest drought into perspective, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hadn’t suffered seven consecutive weekly declines since the dot.com bubble burst in early 2000. And the Dow’s eight-week slide was the longest since 1932.