Connor Smith

2 days ago | barrons.com | Connor Smith |Karishma Vanjani |George Glover |Bill Alpert

The Stock Market Isn't Out of the Woods Yet Surging stocks on Monday added an exclamation point to the market’s rally off its lows in April, but that doesn’t mean Wall Street is out of the woods yet. The S&P 500, up 3.1% on Monday, was still down 0.9% since the end of 2024, while the Dow, up 2.6% today, was down 0.5% on the year. The Nasdaq, which has surged more than 20% from its April lows and is up 4.2% today, is still down 3.3% on the year.

6 days ago | barrons.com | Connor Smith |Matt Grossman |George Glover |Giulia Petroni

Inflation Expectations Are Steady but Consumers Are More Worried

1 week ago | barrons.com | Connor Smith |Kirk Maltais |Paulo Trevisani |George Glover

The stock market pulled back shortly before the Federal Open Market Committee was set to announce its decision to keep interest rates steady. The move lower followed comments about trade talks with China from Trump in the Oval Office. Asked if he was open to pull back tariffs in order to get China to negotiate, Trump said "no." The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 48 points, or 0.1%. The S&P 500 was down 0.4%. The Nasdaq Composite was down 0.9%.

2 weeks ago | barrons.com | Connor Smith |Renae Dyer |Joshua Kirby |Brian Swint

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 662 points, or 1.6%, shortly after the market opened. The S&P 500 was down 2.1%. The Nasdaq Composite was down 2.7%. The S&P 500 and Dow have each risen six days in a row. First, ADP said private businesses in the U.S. added 62,000 jobs in April, which was well below expectations at 134,000. Stocks fell on that news, but turned even lower after first-quarter GDP fell more than expected while quarterly inflation rose more than expected.

2 weeks ago | barrons.com | Connor Smith |Sabrina Escobar |George Glover |Renae Dyer

Consumer sentiment improved slightly by the end of April, but remains muted as consumers fret about the economic impact of new tariffs. The final reading of the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index for April ticked up to 52.2 from its preliminary reading of 50.8. Economists were expecting the index to remain unchanged from the preliminary figure, according to FactSet. That said, the index still notched an 8% decline from March and has fallen for four consecutive months.