With a majority of S & P 500 companies having posted their quarterly results, investors’ focus will turn toward inflation and the consumer price index reading in the upcoming week. The three major indexes are on pace to end the week down, with the S & P 500 poised to post its worst performance since December. Despite the losing week, all three averages are still up for the year, underscoring the strength of January’s rally. Those weekly losses come despite a rally Tuesday that sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 250 points and the Nasdaq Composite 1.9% higher than where it started the session on the back of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s latest comments . The Nasdaq is slated for the largest weekly loss of the three benchmarks, down more than 2% as of Friday afternoon. Sharp declines for Alphabet , which is off by more than 9% this week, dragged the tech-heavy index. .IXIC .SPX,.DJI 5D mountain The three major indexes In a conversation at The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Powell said inflation had started coming down but there was still a long way to go. That echoed comments he made the week prior at a news conference that followed the announcement of the latest interest rate hike of 25 basis points. But Shana Sissel, founder of Banríon Capital Management, said the market took dips later in the week as investors repositioned while “digesting” the full extent of the interest rate hike, economic data and commentary from Fed speakers. She noted last Friday’s jobs data , which smashed expectations and pointed to continued strength in the labor market, as one of the crosscurrents investors had to weigh. Further, some said the market initially overlooked parts of Powell’s commentary in favor of the language around inflation starting to come down, which they said bodes well for those hoping to avoid a recession. “Investors are only hearing what you want to hear,” said Eric Sterner, chief investment officer at Apollon Wealth Management. “People were just taking … that Powell said ‘disinflationary’ and running with it. We’re not listening to the whole context.” Earnings season also continued playing over the course of the week, headlined by well-known consumer-focused companies such as Disney , Chipotle and PepsiCo . Disney was on pace to end the week down more than 2%. The decline occurred in spite of Disney’s latest quarterly report, which showed smaller-than-expected subscriber losses at its streaming service, along with…
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