Dow falls 160 points Friday, S&P 500 posts worst monthly drop since December

Stocks closed mostly lower on Friday, with the S&P 500 cementing its biggest drop in a month since December, as a surge in bond yields knocked the wind out of this year’s rally in equities. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
-0.47%
fell about 157 points, or 0.5%, ending near 33,508, according to preliminary FactSet data. The S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.27%
shed 0.3% and the Nasdaq Composite index
COMP,
+0.14%
gained 0.1%. September was the worst month for the Dow since February, with its 3.5% loss, while the S&P 500 shed 4.9% and the Nasdaq lost 5.8%, marking their worst months since December 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Yearly core inflation edged higher in August, according to Friday’s release of the latest PCE price index. The focus over the weekend will likely be a U.S. government shutdown. Given the negative backdrop for markets, the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq all booked declines in the third quarter.