This Week on Wall Street
Your weekly cheat sheet — what's moving markets, what's coming up, and what it means for your portfolio. No jargon, just clarity.
This Week in Markets
Wall Street closes out a whipsaw week lower even after a Friday rebound. Volatility centered on the bond market: the 30-year Treasury yield spiked to its highest level in nearly two decades early in the week, and Wednesday's Dow tumbled roughly 700 points after Treasury Secretary Bessent's plan to calm yields with bigger long-bond buybacks initially failed to reassure investors — a worry compounded by Wednesday's FOMC minutes showing three officials dissented in favor of a rate hike at the July meeting. Retail earnings split the tape: Home Depot beat and reaffirmed guidance Tuesday, but Walmart crashed 9.6% Thursday after U.S. comparable sales grew just 2.6%, its first miss on that metric in five years, dragging Costco, Amazon and Consumer Staples down with it. WTI crude climbed over 4% on the week to $86.30 as the U.S.-Iran standoff kept supply risk elevated, yet Energy still finished as the week's worst sector. Stocks clawed back ground Friday as bonds stabilized on Bessent's doubled buyback operations and Bitcoin surged toward $77,000, lifting Technology and Communication Services, but it wasn't enough to erase the week's losses — the Nasdaq is down about 2.3% WTD versus roughly 1.1% for the Dow. Attention now turns to Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's Jackson Hole address next Thursday and Nvidia's earnings the following week.