Should You Stay Invested? Market Treads Water as Inflation Reach 3.3% Annually

The S&P 500 ended the week very slightly down as investors took a break following three weeks of gains. They were waiting for important inflation readings and profit reports that are expected this week, and a survey revealed that consumers were worried about inflation.

According to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York study issued on Monday, Americans anticipate inflation to reach 2.8% in three years, while they see inflation rising to 3.3% annually from March's 3%. This came after a University of Michigan study released on Friday, which revealed that household concerns about the cost of living caused U.S. consumer confidence to drop to a six-month low in May.

The S&P 500 (.SPX) dropped 1.26 points, or 0.02%, to 5,221.42, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) opened a new tab that fell 81.33 points, or 0.21%, to 39,431.51, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) opened a new tab that gained 47.37 points, or 0.29%, to 16,388.24.

The "marked deterioration in consumer sentiment and rising expectations around inflation" from the consumer sentiment surveys, according to Anthony Saglimbene, chief market strategist at Ameriprise, "puts even more weight on the upcoming inflation data."

Prior to this, on Monday, Fed Vice Chair Phillip Jefferson stated that he was in favor of holding interest rates constant until it was evident that price pressures were abating.

Just two of the 11 key industrial sectors that make up the S&P 500 had gains on Monday. The largest increase came from technology, and Apple was the company that contributed the most index points.

AI Advances and Meme Stock Surges

With Apple shares closing 1.8% higher on a rumor that it was closing in on a partnership with ChatGPT developer OpenAI to utilize the startup's technology on the iPhone, investors in the space were primarily focused on artificial intelligence technology.

Microsoft-backed OpenAI said that it would launch a new AI model that can interact with text and images and have realistic speech conversations.

At its developers' conference on Tuesday, Alphabet, which was anticipated to showcase its own new AI-related capabilities, was able to close up 0.3% after sliding as much as 2.7% during the session.

After a three-year absence, "Roaring Kitty," a former insurance company marketer who is credited with igniting the 2021 meme stock rally, returned to X.com, shares of gaming retailer GameStop surged 74%.

Other names from the 2021 meme rally that were severely shortened also ascended. Koss Corp increased by 36.7% while AMC Entertainment increased by 78%.

10.09 billion shares were traded on US exchanges in comparison to the moving average of 10.79 billion over the previous 20 sessions.

On the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), advances outweighed decliners by a ratio of 1.23 to 1, with 311 new highs and 40 new lows.

Advancers exceeded decliners on the Nasdaq by a ratio of 1.14 to 1. While the Nasdaq registered 145 new highs and 91 new lows, the S&P 500 recorded 34 new 52-week highs and no new lows.

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