NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are drifting around their records Friday as hopes hold that the economy can pull off the rare feat of getting painfully high inflation under control without a recession .
The S&P 500 fell 0.1% in afternoon trading a day after setting an all-time high for the 42nd time this year . The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 186 points, or 0.
4%, and on track to set its own record. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.4% as of 1:27 p.
m. Eastern time. Treasury yields eased in the bond market after a report showed inflation slowed in August by a touch more than economists expected.
It echoed similar numbers reported earlier in the month about inflation in August, but Friday’s report has resonance because it’s the measure of inflation that officials at the Federal Reserve prefer to use. The Fed had long been keeping its main interest rate at a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the economy enough to stifle inflation. Now that inflation has eased substantially from its peak two summers ago , it’s begun cutting rates to ease the brakes off a slowing job market and prevent a recession.
If the Fed can pull off a perfect landing for the economy where it chokes off high inflation without suffocating the economy, all while lowering interest rates, it would be a form of nirvana for financial markets. And it’s a large reason why U.S.
stocks have rallied to records. Of course, that path is not certain. U.
S. employers have slowed their hiring , and the inflati.
