Stocks bounced back at the end of a chaotic week in financial markets, with a little help from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s reassurance that bigger rate hikes would be off the table for now even after the hot inflation readings of the past few days.The S&P 500 advanced after flirting with bear-market territory — defined by a 20% plunge from a recent record. But it still headed toward its sixth straight week of declines — the longest losing streak since June 2011. Tech stocks outperformed amid gains in giants like Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc. Meanwhile, Elon Musk caused chaos over his takeover offer for Twitter Inc, first claiming his bid was “temporarily on hold” and then maintaining he is “still committed” to the deal — sending the social media giant into a tailspin. Tesla Inc. pushed higher. Treasuries fell.Powell reaffirmed that the central bank is likely to raise interest rates by a half percentage point at each of its next two meetings, while leaving open the possibility it could do more. In a interview with the Marketplace public radio program on Thursday, he made clear his determination to fight inflation, but conceded that the Fed’s ability to do that without triggering a recession may depend on factors outside its control.
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