Stock market today: Wall Street hits record high following a 2-year round trip scarred by inflation
Source: Associated Press
BY STAN CHOE
Updated 1:04 PM PST, January 19, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street returned to record heights Friday to cap a punishing, two-year round trip dogged by high inflation and worries about a recession that seemed inevitable but hasn’t arrived.
The S&P 500, which is the main measure that professional investors use to gauge Wall Street’s health, rallied 1.2% to 4,839.81. It erased the last of its losses since setting its prior record of 4,796.56 at the start of 2022. During that time, it dropped as much as 25% as inflation soared to levels unseen since Thelonious Monk and Ingrid Bergman were still alive in 1981.
Even more than high inflation itself, Wall Street’s fear was focused on the medicine the Federal Reserve traditionally uses to treat it. That’s high interest rates, which press the brakes on the economy by making borrowing more expensive and hurting prices for stocks and other investments. And the Fed rapidly hiked its main interest rate from virtually zero to its highest level since 2001, in a range between 5.25% and 5.50%.
Through many cycles in history, the Federal Reserve has helped induce recessions through such increases to interest rates. Coming into last year, the widespread expectation on Wall Street was that it would happen again.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/stock-market-today-japan-inflation-9b9c6061fb04c2ec97ec03e947ce19fb
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street returned to record heights and capped a punishing, two-year round trip dogged by high inflation and worries about a possible recession. The S&P 500 rallied 1.2% to surpass its prior all-time high set at the start of 2022. It had dropped as much as 25% from that record on worries about much higher interest rates. But inflation has since cooled, the economy has remained out of a recession and the expectation is now for rates to ease. Tech stocks again helped lead the market, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.7%. The Dow, which set its own record last month, rose 1.1%.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is rising Friday and may break past its all-time high set two years ago, before the highest inflation and interest rates in decades sent financial markets tanking worldwide.
The S&P 500 was up 1.2% at 4,835 in afternoon trading, on pace to surpass its record closing level of 4,796.56. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 429 points, or 1.1%, as of 2:41 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.5% higher.
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I don't know about the rest of you DUers, but I like the economy during Biden, Obama, and Clinton a lot better than during Trump or both Bushes.
