Yahoo Finance

Stock market news live updates: S&P 500 rallies to close out January, but still logs worst month since March 2020

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Mon, January 31, 2022, 4:21 PM · 7 min read

Stocks gained Monday as traders shook off a months' worth of equity market volatility and looked ahead to another packed week of corporate earnings results and economic data.

The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq each extended gains into the close. The S&P 500 added nearly 2%, building on Friday's advances. The Nasdaq also jumped by more than 3% a back-to-back session, and posted its best single-day gain of 2022 yet. Treasury yields edged slightly higher on the long end of the curve, with the benchmark 10-year yield hovering 1.8%. U.S. crude oil prices also added to recent gains after rising for a sixth straight week.

January marked a volatile month of trading for U.S. stocks, as investors in risk assets considered the implications of the Federal Reserve's signals to unleash more aggressive policies to help bring down soaring inflation. Goldman Sachs economists said over the weekend they now expect the Fed will raise rates by a quarter-point five times this year, versus the four hikes the firm saw previously. The prediction echoes the path seen by other major banks including Bank of America, which now sees seven rate hikes, and JPMorgan, which expects five.

Whether the Fed is able to raise interest rates and otherwise adjust its policies to bring down inflation without negatively impacting economic growth and corporate profits remains a key question, however. ... "No central bank wants to kill the economy in order to bring inflation down," Kathy Jones, Charles Schwab chief fixed income strategist, told Yahoo Finance Live on Friday. Jones said she still expects three interest rate hikes this year, matching the Fed's signaling from December. "Right now, I think there is a risk that they move too far too fast and overestimate the strength of the economy and the run in inflation that we're seeing. I think that's probably a greater risk than they move too slowly and allow inflation to get even further ahead of them."

{snip}