Stocks Surged on an Inflation Reading. But the Bear Market Isn’t Over.

Investors finally got the inflation reading they were looking for, and are likely to get a split government for the next two years. That combination propelled stocks to their best weekly showing since June. On Friday, the


S&P 500


even briefly crossed the 4,000 threshold, a level it hadn’t breached in two months.

The S&P ended the week 5.9% higher, closing just below 4,000. The


Dow Jones Industrial Average


rose 4.1%, and the


Nasdaq Composite


jumped 8.1%. It was the best weekly showing for the Nasdaq since March, and it came during a week when tech news seemed largely negative. Facebook parent


Meta Platforms


(ticker: META) announced that it will cut 11,000 jobs, the latest in a wave of Silicon Valley layoffs. The best thing Facebook can say for itself now is that it isn’t Twitter.