2023-05-19 23:44:41
Leek Chuck Mikolajczak
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended the week lower on Friday, with early gains dissipating after U.S. debt ceiling talks in Washington stalled, dampening optimism over the… possibility of an agreement being reached in the coming days to avoid a default.
Stocks rallied in the past two sessions on rising confidence that a deal to raise the $31.4 trillion debt limit could be reached in the coming days, with the benchmark S&P 500 index at a higher high of more than 2 %.
But an early advance on Friday was reversed after news of a pause in talks on the US debt ceiling while Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke at a policy panel.
The Dow Jones fell 0.33% to 33,426.63 points. The S&P 500 lost 0.14% to 4,191.98 points. The Nasdaq technology index fell 0.24% to 12,657.90 points.
For the week, the Dow gained 0.38%, the S&P 500 gained 1.65% and the Nasdaq gained 3.04%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their biggest weekly percentage gains since the last week of March.
The interest rate outlook remained uncertain. Powell said it was still unclear whether further rate hikes were needed as the central bank weighed the impact of past hikes amid evidence of recent troubles in the banking sector.
Shares in regional banks, which were the first in the sector to feel the impact of the Fed’s tightening policy, fell, with the KBW regional banking index down nearly 2.17% for the session. Still, the index rose 6.2% for the week, snapping a three-week low streak as investors view the sector’s troubles as largely contained for the time being.
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