sp 500 is on track for a weekly loss us stocks were down friday afternoon surrendering early gains after a report from the university of michigan showed consumer sentiment soured in may helping to revive recession fears all three major benchmarks were on track for weekly declines according to factset data at last check us stocks were down friday afternoon after a gauge of consumer sentiment fell with all three major benchmarks giving up modest gains seen after the opening bell the university of michigans index of consumer sentiment dropped to 577 in may based on a preliminary reading from 635 in april thats the lowest level since november and below an expected may reading of 63 by economists polled by the wall street journal the numbers in the university of michigans survey stink said steve sosnick chief strategist at interactive brokers in a phone interview friday the findings are not marketfriendly consumers inflation expectations over the next five years rose to 32 from 3 in april thats the highest reading since 2011 inflation is not coming down fast enough for peoples taste said sosnick also economic and political rhetoric has been so dreary that it cant help sentiment he said pointing to concerns over the us debt ceiling and worries about a slowing economy nearly all of the sp 500s 11 sectors were trading down friday afternoon according to factset data at last check utilities was the sole sector showing gains up just 01 it was those michigan numbers that set us up on the downside said joe saluzzi cohead of equity trading at themis trading during a phone interview with marketwatch see consumer sentiment sours in may on renewed worries about the us economy debt ceiling in this case bad news was bad news saluzzi said a reference to the fact that us stocks sometimes rally on downbeat economic data because it signals that the federal reserves interestrate hikes are having their intended effect now youre getting numbers that investors arent happy with he added for the week all three major us stock benchmarks were on track to decline based on friday afternoon trading the dow jones industrial average was on pace for a 15 weekly drop while the sp 500 was heading for a 07 fall and the nasdaq composite was off less than 01 according to factset data at last check stocks have been weighed down by economic worries and the recent banking stress is tied in with that according to kevin gordon senior investment strategist at charles schwab while the sp 500 and the technologyheavy nasdaq composite are up so far this year their gains have been driven by megacap companies gordon said in a phone interview friday if you take away the biggest names in those indexes he said the performance is pretty weak readthe sp 500 is topheavy with tech heres what that says about future stockmarket returns regional banks had struggled thursday with pacwest bancorp pacw reporting a big drop in deposits for the week ending may 5 the spdr sp regional banking etf kre was down 06 in friday afternoon trading after dropping 25 on thursday according to factset data investors have digested a raft of disappointing economic data in recent weeks including thursdays weekly jobless claims report which showed applications for unemployment benefits in the us rose to their highest level since october 2021 meanwhile the uncertain outlook for congress to raise the debt ceiling was another factor weighing on investors minds analysts said as a meeting between president joe biden and top congressional leaders was delayed until next week amid signs that staff negotiations were progressing see debtceiling meetings productive as biden leaders set to reconvene next week white house also readheres where investors may turn to hide as us debtceiling deadline looms based on 2011 market reaction beyond that the outlook for federal reserve monetary policy also seems unclear fed gov michelle bowman signaled early friday that she was not onboard with the view that april inflation data from the consumerprice index showed enough progress on reducing price pressures to justify the central bank keeping its interest rates steady for the rest of the year in my view the most recent cpi and employment reports have not provided consistent evidence that inflation is on a downward path and i will continue to closely monitor the incoming data as i consider the appropriate stance of monetary policy going into our june meeting bowman said in a speech at a european central bank conference in frankfurt theres so much uncertainty out there with these markets said mark arbeter president of arbeter investments during a phone interview despite the latest move lower us stocks remained mired in a tight range that has held for most of the year it would take a break above 4200 on the sp 500 index to signal that a sustainable bull market might be in the offing arbeter said during a phone interview with marketwatch this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co 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