Stocks rallied at the end of a chaotic week in financial markets, with a little help from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s reassurance that bigger rate hikes would be off the table for now even after the hot inflation readings of the past few days.
For a market plagued by fears that more aggressive monetary tightening could tip the economy into a recession, Powell’s remarks ended up soothing frayed nerves and sparking a rebound in beaten-down risk assets. Despite the strong gains on Friday, many traders aren’t yet convinced that equities have reached a bottom after a selloff that shaved $10 trillion from US stock values in 18 weeks. Instead, they say investors should still brace for volatility as the Fed’s ability to fight price pressures without causing a hard landing may depend on factors outside the central bank’s control.
After sinking almost 20% from a record and flirting with a bear market, the S&P 500 saw a broad-based rally Friday. It still posted a sixth straight week of declines — the longest losing streak since June 2011. The Nasdaq 100 outperformed amid a rally in giants like Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. Meanwhile, Elon Musk caused chaos over his takeover offer for Twitter Inc., first claiming his bid was “temporarily on hold” and then maintaining he’s “still committed” to the deal — sending the social-media giant into a tailspin. Tesla Inc. jumped. Treasuries fell with the dollar.
