The market opened up, up from Thursday's rally, but sold its gains shortly before midday.
Still, the Dow and S & P are on track to record their best weekly gains since the start of June, while the Nasdaq announces it as the best week out of 10.
Optimism that trade tensions between the US and China could ease helped the market move higher this week.
The key to the market will be if the gains can last until next month.
On the last trading day of the month of August, stocks are poised to know their second worst month of this year. Only May was worse. The Dow is about to slide 1.9%, while the S & P is on track for a 2% decline. The Nasdaq should lose 2.9%, according to Refinitiv.
May and August are the only two negative months for stocks this year.
August is generally considered a quiet month for the market, but this has not been the case in recent years.
Commercial pricing, retaliation, harsh rhetoric and recession warnings from the bond market were the topics that dominated the market this month.
The first trading day of the month of August, President Donald Trump threatened to place 10% of additional tariffs on $ 300 billion of Chinese imports, which led the Dow to achieve its most big intraday movement of the year. These tariffs will also affect consumer products such as toys and iPhones, which is a concern given that the slowdown in the US economy is kept alive by heavy consumer spending.
Like trade tensions escalating, worries about a currency war also rose, especially after the Chinese government devalued its yuan to fall below the ratio of 7 to 1 against the US dollar for the first time in ten years .
As a result, August 5th became the worst day of the year for the actions.
Investor concerns have helped safe haven assets, such as gold and Treasury securities, to rise.
The price of gold has reached its highest level in six years. The 30-year US Treasury yield has fallen to its lowest level ever recorded this month, while the 10-year yield has fallen to its lowest level in three years. Yields and prices are opposite.
The US yield curve was reversed several times in August, suggesting a harbinger of the recession. The reversals of the yield curve have often preceded recessions and reflect investor anxiety about the immediate future of the economy.
Meanwhile, Trump's criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell continued throughout the month. At one point, the president tweeted, "My only question is who is our biggest enemy, Jay Powell or President Xi," referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Friday, Trump once again whipped to Powell,
tweeting "The euro is depreciating against the dollar" like crazy ", which gives them an important advantage in terms of exports and manufacturing … and the Fed does not do anything!" The United States has a problem with the Fed, not a tariff problem,
Trump continued.
The euro has traded 0.6% against the US dollar on Friday. For the year, the euro's shared currency is down 4.2% against the greenback, according to Refinitiv.
Powell stood firm at the Fed's annual meeting at Jackson Hole on Aug. 23, recognizing the risk of an economic slowdown in the US without suggesting that the central bank would further reduce its interest rates in the United States. September.
Expectations regarding the reduction of a quarter percentage point at the September 18 meeting are about 96%, according to the WEC 's FedWatch tool.
