The split between Wall Street and most US households grew wider Friday as US stocks rose to the finish of their eighth straight winning week, the best such streak since 2023.
That’s even though a survey showed US consumers are feeling even worse about the economy.
The S&P 500 added 0.4% and pulled closer to its all-time high set in the middle of last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 294 points, or 0.6 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.2 per cent.
Ross Stores helped drive the market and rose 8.1 per cent after the off-price retailer reported profit and revenue for the latest quarter that easily cleared analysts’ expectations.
CEO Jim Conroy said it saw strong customer traffic through the three months, and the company may have benefited from households spending their tax refunds.
Estee Lauder jumped 11.9 per cent after saying it was no longer considering a possible merger with Puig, the Spanish fragrance and beauty products company.
Workday rose 5.2 per cent, and Zoom Communications jumped 9.2 per cent after both delivered better profit reports for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
They’re the latest companies to top analysts’ expectations for earnings for the start of 2026, and the cavalcade of such reports has helped US stocks remain near their records. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate pofits over the long term.
The strength is coming even after a survey of US consumers by the University of Michigan found sentiment fell to a record low, piercing below a bottom in 2022 when inflation peaked above 9 per cent.
Households are feeling worried about how bad inflation is now because of expensive oil created by the war with Iran.
U.S. consumers are forecasting inflation will worsen to 4.8% in the coming 12 months, up from a forecast of 4.7% last month, according to the survey. In the longer run, their forecasts for inflation jumped to 3.9% from 3.5% last month.
Such rising expectations are a concern for economists because they can drive behavior that creates a vicious cycle that makes inflation worse.
Sentiment dropped in particular for lower-income consumers who are least able to absorb higher costs for essentials, and it fell for Republicans as well, according to the survey.
Helping to keep uncertainty high have been continued swings for oil prices. They yo-yoed again Friday, like they did through the week on uncertainty about when the United States and Iran may find a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The closure has prevented oil tankers from exiting the Persian Gulf and delivering crude to customers worldwide.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil to be delivered in August added 0.7% to settle at $100.21 after erasing an earlier decline.
Worries about inflation staying high have pushed bond yields higher worldwide, threatening to slow economies and undercut prices for stocks and all kinds of other investments.
High yields have already forced the average long-term US mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have supported the US economy’s grrowth recently.
