Wall Street closed out its most punishing week since the 2020 coronavirus crash with a meandering day of trading Friday that left it a bit higher.
The S&P 500 rose 8.07 points, or 0.2%, to 3,674.84 after waffling between modest losses and gains for most of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 38.29, or 0.1%, to 29,888.78, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 152.25, or 1.4%, to 10,798.35.
The relatively quiet trading capped a brutal, tumultuous week for Wall Street. The S&P 500 lost 5.8% for its tenth drop in the last 11 weeks. That’s its worst week since March 2020, when stocks were in free-fall as the global economy suddenly shut down at the onset of the pandemic.
Markets around the world have been shuddering as investors adjust to the bitter medicine of higher interest rates that the Federal Reserve and other central banks are increasingly doling out. Higher rates can bring down inflation, but they also risk a recession by slowing the economy and push down on prices for stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies and other investments.
