Dow falls for the fifth straight week

By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business

Even with the pandemic, the stock market enjoyed gains in 2020 and 2021. But is the party on Wall Street over?

The Dow fell 230 points, or 0.7%, Friday and ended the week with a 2% loss. The Dow has now lost ground for five straight weeks and is down more than 9% so far this year.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq — which were down 1.3% and 2.2% Friday and dropped about 3% this week — have fared even worse in 2022. The S&P 500 is down almost 12% this year while the Nasdaq is off nearly 18%.

There’s a lot for investors to worry about. Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, inflation concerns dominated headlines for months. Surging oil prices after the invasion have made the situation worse.

Meanwhile, traders are grappling with the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will start raising rates later this month. While rates should remain fairly low, rates have been at zero for the past two years — so any increase will lead to higher borrowing costs, which will make mortgages and more loans more expensive.

Investors fear the one-two punch of surging commodity prices and rising rates will lead to stagflation, the combination of slowing growth and runaway inflation.

Higher rates also will likely eat into profit growth. Strong earnings have helped boost the market, particularly for tech companies.

The so-called FAANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) led the market rally for the past few years. But shares of several top techs, most notably Facebook owner Meta Platforms, Netflix and Tesla, have plunged in 2022.

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