Insights

Last week was marked by volatility as investors moved cautiously ahead of this week's Federal Reserve meeting.

The U.S. stock market endured quite a bit of volatility last week.

Wall Street responded to mixed economic data by closing higher last week. The Dow reached a record high, ending the week well above the 49,000 milestone, surpassing that mark for the first time in its history.

Wall Street began 2026 in rather lackluster style, with each of the major benchmark indexes listed here closing the week lower, with the exception of the Global Dow. A brief tech rally last Friday wasn't enough to prevent stocks from closing the week in the red.

The stock market declined for most of last week, only to rally last Thursday and Friday. The last two weeks have been "catch-up" periods for the economy with the release of a large influx of economic data following the 43-day government shutdown.

Wall Street experienced a mixed week highlighted by the Federal Reserve's policy decision (see below) and a retreat from technology shares. Illustrative of the week's volatility, the Dow and the S&P 500 reached record highs mid-week following the Fed's latest rate cut, before retreating at the end of the week.

The stock market was largely driven by mixed labor data and optimism over a possible interest rate cut following the Federal Reserve's meeting next week.

Wall Street experienced a strong Thanksgiving week, largely erasing losses from the preceding volatile period. Increasing hopes of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve next month helped fuel the rally. After a shaky few weeks, tech stocks surged last week, driving the NASDAQ to its largest weekly gain in quite some time.