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 closed out a volatile week with a partial rebound Friday, but couldn't claw back Thursday's brutal, AI-valuation-driven selloff that erased the midterm rally — the S&P 500 finished the week down 2.7% at 7,376.86, the Nasdaq Composite fell 3.4% to 24,579.42, and the Dow Jones held up best, off 0.9% at 51,285.73. Friday's October jobs report crushed expectations with 165,000 payrolls added and unemployment falling to 4.1%, sending Treasury yields higher and lifting December rate-hike odds, which capped the rebound in rate-sensitive corners of the market. Communication Services (+5.25%) and Consumer Discretionary (+2.36%) led sector performance for the week, while Energy sank 12.32% as hopes for an end to the Iran conflict kept WTI crude pinned near $87, and Technology dropped 6.71% on renewed scrutiny of AI-related spending. The VIX settled near 25.6 — still well above last week's lows — and the Fear & Greed Index slid to 24, in Extreme Fear territory. Gold eased to roughly $4,015 as the hotter jobs data lifted the dollar and pushed the 10-Year Treasury yield to about 4.98%. Next week brings the delayed October CPI report on Tuesday plus earnings from Cisco, Disney, and Applied Materials.