A Live Look at the Markets Last Week

As you may have guessed from the image, last week’s market performance can be summed up in two words: not good.

📉 By the numbers…

• The Dow: Is in correction territory and finished the week down 3%, its eighth-consecutive week in decline. That’s good for the benchmark’s longest losing streak since 1923.
• S&P 500: A late Friday rally saved the index from officially closing in bear market territory, but it still fell for the seventh consecutive week. (Something that’s only occurred five times since 1928.)
• Nasdaq: The tech benchmark dropped ~4% last week; it’s now down more than 30% since last November.

🤔 What’s going on?... Put simply, investors think we’re headed towards a recession. In fact, every recession since 1968 has prompted a bear market like the one we’re currently in, according to data from CFRA Research.

📸 The big picture: Inflation is still near four-decade highs, the geopolitical turmoil caused by the conflict in Ukraine isn’t helping markets much, and neither is China’s slowing economy or recent virus lockdowns (which manifest themselves in supply-chain issues).

👀 Looking ahead… The Fed is expected to raise rates by half-a-point (0.5%) in both June and July.