archiveStandard & Poor’s 500-Stock Index

The stock market is now higher than before President Trump’s broad and steep tariffs sent share prices into a tailspin. The 10-year government bond yield is now largely in line with where it started the year. On Tuesday, a widely watched measure of inflation nudged lower.Judging from a snapshot of today’s financial markets, it would be easy to conclude that very little had happened over the last four and a half months.As the administration has dialed down its trade offensive, delaying the worst of the tariffs announced on April 2...

The stock market has fallen fast over the past month. Business and consumer sentiment is souring, and investors are afraid that economic data will soon start to show deeper cracks.The question on Wednesday: Will the Federal Reserve also express concern about the path ahead?So far, Fed officials have largely avoided commenting on an uncertain outlook while current economic data remain solid. A healthy labor market has allowed the central bank to continue to point to economic resilience as it holds interest rates high in response to stubborn inflation.But in addition...

Investors watching the S&P 500’s plunge this week are processing a mix of signals. Will the threat of tariffs push the economy into a recession or is this simply a retrenchment from the highly valued technology companies that some analysts and investors argued were due for a pullback?There is a different stock index that is flashing a clearer warning sign.The Russell 2000 includes smaller companies that are more sensitive to the whims of the economy. These companies tend to run thinner profit margins that can be more easily eroded in...

The stock market has plunged since President Trump took office for a second time, a stark contrast to the early days of his first presidency. The S&P 500 index has fallen sharply since hitting a record high on Feb. 19.The index fell into a so-called correction on Thursday. Corrections, a Wall Street term referring to a 10 percent decline from an index’s last peak, are relatively rare yet symbolically worrisome milestones for the markets. Other major indexes, including the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000, had already slid into correction territory...