Wall Street ends down, Apple falls on app store ruling

While the S&P 500 has risen about 19% in 2021, buoyed by support from dovish central bank policies and re-opening optimism, Wall Street didn’t have a great week overall, and ended sharply lower on Friday as investors weighed signs of higher inflation.

In reality, the major indexes are barely down on the month and a little over 1% off record highs. However, there’s a bit of caution in the air. Global growth and Delta concerns are mounting at the same time as central banks are lifting their foot off the accelerator, and markets remain remarkably tranquil in the face of rising uncertainty.

The S&P 500 Index fell 0.8% on Friday as the largest component of the benchmark index, and with a market value above $2.4 trillion, Apple (AAPL) accounted for about a quarter of the benchmark’s decline.

For the week, the Dow slid 2.2% and is down for two consecutive weeks. The S&P 500 lost 1.7% this week, its longest losing streak since Monday, February 22, 2021 when the market fell for five straight trading days. The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 1.6% this week, its largest one week percentage decline since the week ending July 16, 2021.