Stock market today: Wall Street closes its best week of the year with some more gains

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks drifted higher as Wall Street coasted to the close of its best week since November. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% Friday, extending its winning streak to a seventh day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.2%. Treasury yields eased a bit following a couple mixed reports on the U.S. economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.88%.

But a report later in the morning suggested U.S. consumers are feeling better about the economy than expected. That's a big deal for Wall Street because their spending makes up the bulk of the economy. Even though confidence rose in the economy's strength following this week's series of reports, it is still likely slowing under the weight of high interest rates. That’s by design. The Federal Reserve’s goal has been trying to cool what was a hot job market by making it more expensive for companies and households to borrow and spend. The Fed did that that to remove upward pressure on inflation, which peaked at more than 9% two summers ago.

Because the Fed has said its upcoming moves will depend in large part on what data reports at the time say, “it will be difficult for Powell to pre-commit to a particular trajectory at Jackson Hole,” say economists at Deutsche Bank led by Matthew Luzzetti. That debate is still ongoing. Within just an hour on Friday morning, Nvidia went from being the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500 to the strongest force lifting the index. It flipped from an early 1.4% drop to a later rise of 1.3%.

The forced and sudden selling that ensued hit markets worldwide, but it calmed after a top Bank of Japan official said it won't raise rates further as long as markets are unstable. Analysts, though, say more potential selling may still be left to uncoil in the system.

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