S&P 500
Nov. 13Nov. 14Nov. 155,8505,9005,9506,000

Data delayed at least 15 minutes

Source: Fact Set By The New York Times

By Danielle Kaye
Nov. 15, 2024

The stock market’s euphoria in the immediate aftermath of Donald J. Trump’s win in the presidential election has waned, with investors pondering mixed signs of what could come next for the U.S. economy.

The S&P 500 fell 1.3 percent on Friday, dragging the index down 2 percent for the week. It is still higher compared with Election Day.

The drop is a reversal from the index’s 4.7 percent gain last week, its biggest weekly rise in over a year. That relief rally was fueled by the certainty of the election result, investors’ expectations of business-friendly policies under the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates by a quarter point.

But the post-election and post-rate cut enthusiasm has lost steam. Investors are weighing the economic implications of Mr. Trump’s proposed policies and his initial cabinet picks, on top of comments from the Fed’s chair indicating that the central bank may not be in a hurry to keep cutting interest rates.

Here’s what else to know about market movement during the week after the election:

The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 3.4 percent for the week. The Russell 2000, an index of smaller companies more closely tied to the ebb and flow of the economy, ended the week 4 percent lower.

Cryptocurrencies are still rising on expectations that the Trump administration will be a boost to the industry through softer regulations, with Bitcoin crossing the $90,000 price threshold for the first time this week.

Yields on government bonds ticked up on Friday after the Census Bureau reported that U.S. retail sales rose in October, beating expectations and indicating continued momentum in consumer spending. Overall, the 10-year Treasury yield, which underpins borrowing costs, such as mortgage rates, ended the week at 4.4 percent, slightly higher than where it had started.

The dollar, which started to rise in value as prediction markets placed bets on Mr. Trump’s return to the White House, continued to rise this week, hitting a new high for the year on Wednesday. Sharp moves in the value of the dollar threaten to destabilize the global economy.

Investors are paying close attention to indications of the path forward for the Fed’s rate-cutting cycle. Inflation fears tied to Mr. Trump’s proposed policies have left them with less clarity. Economic data this week also showed that inflation ticked up slightly on an annual basis in October; the central bank cut interest rates last week for the second time this year, but expectations of another rate cut in December have fallen. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, said during a speech on Thursday that the Fed was not in a “hurry” to lower rates.

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Danielle Kaye is a business reporter and a 2024 David Carr Fellow, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Danielle Kaye

See more on: Federal Reserve (The Fed), U.S. Politics, Donald Trump