Monday, May 30, marks Memorial Day, a U.S. holiday in honor of the men and women who fell in military service that has also come to mark the unofficial start to summer,
U.S. financial markets, including the New York Stock Exchange, owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc. ICE, +3.18%, and exchanges operated by Nasdaq Inc. NDAQ, +3.12%, will be closed on Monday.
Stocks scored strong weekly gains ahead of the holiday break, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.76% breaking a streak of eight straight weekly declines — its longest since 1932, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The S&P 500 SPX, +2.47% and Nasdaq Composite COMP, +3.33% ended a run of seven weekly declines.
While stocks have suffered in 2022, investors were cheered by data that showed inflation pressures, while still running hot, may be peaking.
Bond traders, meanwhile, got an early jump on the holiday. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, an industry trade group, recommended a 2 p.m. Eastern close for U.S. fixed-income trading on Friday. Trading will be closed on Monday.
Treasury yields, which move opposite to price, have pulled back since hitting their highest levels since late 2018 earlier this month.
Parades and memorial services are in store, alongside family barbecues and picnics. Memorial Day also marks the start of what analysts call “summer driving season” in the U.S., which runs through the Labor Day weekend in September.
While investors are showing some signs of optimism on the inflation front, summer driving season will be off to a painful start for motorists, with gasoline pump prices at or near records due tight supplies of both gasoline and distillates on both sides of the Atlantic. That’s helped keep crude-oil futures elevated, with the U.S. benchmark CL.1, +0.23% on Friday ending at a nearly three-month high above $ 115 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.