On Friday, the stock market had mixed results as investors tried to figure out what to make of signs of rising inflation and hints of falling inflation in July reports, which both affect the way interest rates will move in the future.
At about 1 p.m. Eastern Time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) started going up, with a 0.2% increase. On the other hand, the S&P 500 (GSPC) had a small drop of about 0.2%. The Nasdaq Composite (IXIC), which is mostly made up of technology companies, fell by nearly 0.7%, which is a bigger drop.
The measures went up a little bit at the end of the day, but not as much as they did earlier in the day. But the losses on Friday made it likely that the Nasdaq and S&P 500 would go down for the week.
New information about producer prices gave the story of inflation and the possibility that the Federal Reserve might change interest rates more depth. The government said that producer prices went up by 0.3% in July, which was more than expected. Still, the overall rate of inflation was much lower than it had been in the past.
Even though the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released on Thursday showed that inflation was going up again after a 13-month break, there are signs that price pressures are easing. This could make it more likely that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates at their next meeting.
But in an interview with Yahoo Finance, Mary Daly, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, said that the Federal Reserve needs to do more to help reduce the effects of rising prices. Most people thought that the inflation data was good, but these more cautious comments made some people doubtful about it.
