S&P 500 Ends Lousy Week on Optimistic Note

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Diccon Hyatt
Diccon Hyatt
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Diccon Hyatt has written hundreds of articles about how public policy and the economy intersect with personal finance, tracking all the latest dynamics affecting your money. Before joining The Balance, he covered business and community news for 17 years, including Princeton, New Jersey's high-tech Route 1 Corridor.
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Published October 01, 2021
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The Balance

That’s how many weeks it’s been since the S&P 500 had as bad a week as this last one, although promising results from a Merck COVID-19 pill boosted stocks to a Friday rebound.

The benchmark stock index closed at 4,357, falling 1.92% for the week, the biggest decline since February. Further signs that inflation may persist longer than expected, combined with other bad economic data, alarmed investors. 

The index lost 4.8% in September, the biggest monthly loss since the pandemic hit in early 2020. But the market rallied to a better start in October, with the S&P 500 posting a 1.15% gain after drugmaker Merck announced positive trial results from a COVID-19 pill.

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Article Sources

  1. Federal Reserve Economic Data. “S&P 500, Weekly Percent Change.”

  2. Federal Reserve Economic Data. “S&P 500, Monthly Percent Change.”

  3. Merck. “Merck and Ridgeback’s Investigational Oral Antiviral Molnupiravir Reduced the Risk of Hospitalization or Death by Approximately 50 Percent Compared to Placebo for Patients with Mild or Moderate COVID-19 in Positive Interim Analysis of Phase 3 Study.”

  4. Emory. “EUA application expected for COVID-19 antiviral discovered at Emory.”