US stocks wavered in morning trading Friday, as Wall Street looked to end a volatile week on a high note. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) sank 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slumped 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) edged lower by 0.2%.
Markets are nearing the end of the most volatile week of the 2024 campaign. Monday saw the worst rout of the year, and Wall Street’s “fear gauge” — the CBOE Volatility Index (^VIX) — soared to its highest levels since the throes of the pandemic.
By Thursday, a reassuring look at the labor market — in the form of the normally routine report on weekly jobless claims — had given investors reason to buy back in. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both rallied over 2%, with the S&P posting its best day since late 2022 — a remarkable feat, considering the breadth of 2024’s rally overall.
In the end, with a modest rally on Friday, the major indices could end the week near where they started it. After Thursday’s session, the benchmark S&P 500 was down about 0.5% from last Friday’s close. All the more reason, as many strategists told Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman in the Morning Brief newsletter, to stay calm amid the chaos.
Friday is a quiet day, with no notable economic releases or earnings on the docket. In individual movers, Nvidia (NVDA) will again be in focus after wild swings of its own this week. Its stock rose slightly in pre-market trading. Meanwhile, Paramount (PARA) stock jumped over 5% after it announced its first-ever streaming profit and said it planned layoffs over the coming year.
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Donald Trump wants a ‘say’ in setting interest rates
Former President Donald Trump said he would like a “say” in setting interest rates if he is reelected, further raising the prospect that the Republican nominee could seek to reduce the independence of the Federal Reserve if he wins in November.
“I feel the president should have at least say in there, yeah, I feel that strongly,” the presidential candidate said Thursday in response to a question about the US central bank interest rate policy and the prospects of a soft landing for the US economy.
Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul reports that Trump’s comments were the strongest indication yet that Trump does, in fact, want some direct involvement with the central bank operations if he were to reach the Oval Office again.
The remarks came after allies of the former president have floated a series of ideas in recent months that could undercut an independent Federal Reserve, ranging from firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to a plan first reported in the Wall Street Journal that has the president himself playing a role in setting interest rates.
Wall Street was poised to end the week in the red after opening trades on Friday sent stocks slightly lower, capping a series of sessions that suffered through the worst rout of the year, and when Wall Street’s “fear gauge” — the CBOE Volatility Index (^VIX) — soared to its highest levels since the throes of the pandemic. US stocks wavered at the opening bell Friday, as Wall Street looked to end a volatile week on a high note.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) sank 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) slumped 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) edged lower by 0.2%.
