S&P 500 notches best week of the year
The soft landing lives, and investors are rejoicing.
Not too shabby. The S&P 500 ticked up by just 0.2% Friday, in a subdued end to the best week the index has seen this year.
In fact, you’ve got to look back to last November to find a better weekly stretch than this week’s 3.9% increase.
The 5.9% gain for the week that ended Nov. 3, 2023 came because the economy showed signs of being able to pull off the so-called soft landing that would, potentially, open the door to lower interest rates from the Federal Reserve.
Better than expected initial jobless claims and retail sales figures have calmed concerns (set off by the July jobs report) that the economy was slowing down rapidly. Couple that with a slightly softer reading of the core Consumer Price Index on Wednesday, and we have a situation where investors can take heart that the Fed will be able to deliver rate cuts from a position of economic resilience, rather the responding belatedly to economic weakness.
In other words, the soft-landing lives. And the market loves it.
