• After their best trading day since November 2022, US stocks fell slightly on Friday.
• The S&P 500 fell half a percentage point this week amid growing concerns about an economic slowdown.
• Investors are awaiting key inflation data to be released next week.

U.S. stocks fell slightly on Friday, a day after shares had their best trading day since November 2022.

The strongest earnings day in nearly two years came just two days after stocks had their worst trading day since September 2022.

Despite the volatility that has plagued markets this week, the S&P 500 lost just half a percentage point as investors sought guidance and weighed the prospect of imminent rate cuts against a possible economic downturn.

“Over the past few days, we have been reminded that risk-off moves can happen quickly and seemingly come out of nowhere,” said Matt Dyer, investment analyst at Penn Mutual.

The volatility was triggered by a confluence of several risk factors, most notably the unwinding of the yen carry trade and concerns about a misstep by the US Federal Reserve following the rise in the unemployment rate in July.

But as stock prices recovered some of Monday’s big losses, volatility calmed down. The stock market’s fear indicator, the VIX, fell from an intraday high of 65 on Monday to just under 24 on Thursday.

Looking ahead to next week, investors are awaiting key inflation reports, including the Producer Price Index on Tuesday, followed by the Consumer Price Index on Wednesday.

Wall Street analysts expect consumer inflation to rise somewhat, but not so much that it jeopardizes the prospect of a Fed rate cut next month.

“We forecast headline CPI to rise 0.3% m/m in July, driven primarily by a rise in core services inflation and energy prices. This would leave the annual rate unchanged at 3.0%. Meanwhile, we expect core CPI to rise 0.2% m/m,” Bank of America analysts wrote on Friday, adding that markets will price in fewer rate cuts if the data matches their forecasts.

Here you can see the situation of the US indices shortly after trading began at 9:30 a.m. on Friday:

Here’s what else is happening today:

For commodities, bonds and cryptocurrencies:

• West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 0.32% to $76.43 a barrel. Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, rose 0.25% to $79.36 a barrel.
• Gold prices rose 0.22% to $2,468.70 per ounce.
• The yield on 10-year government bonds fell 7 basis points to 3.92%.
• Bitcoin fell 2.34% to $60,261.