the spdr sp 500 etf trust spy completed its best month since 2020 in july despite another aggressive federal reserve interest rate hike and ongoing inflation concerns on wednesday the federal reserve announced its raising the fed funds interest rate target by 075 to a new range of between 225 and 25 its second 075 rate hike in two months prior to june the fed had not raised rates by 075 or higher in a single month since 1994 a day after fed chair jerome powell said he does not believe the us economy is in a recession the bureau of economic analysis announced on thursday that us gdp dropped 09 in the second quarter the secondquarter decline comes on the heels of a 16 drop in us gdp in the first quarter and two consecutive quarters of negative gdp growth is generally considered a strong recession indicator on friday the bureau of economic analysis reported the personal consumption expenditures price index increased by 68 yearoveryear in the month of june the highest inflation reading in any month since 1982 core pce which excludes volatile food and energy prices and is the feds preferred inflation gauge was up 48 exceeding analyst estimates of a 47 gain on wednesday spirit airlines incorporated save and frontier group holdings inc ulcc scrapped a potential merger deal first announced back in february within hours of the deals termination spirit accepted a 38billion buyout offer from jetblue airways corporation jblu priced at 3350 per spirit share that could potentially create the fifthlargest us airline high energy chevron corporation cvx shares traded higher on friday after the oil and gas giant reported record profits in the second quarter amid soaring energy prices investors will get more quarterly earnings reports from paypal holdings inc pypl uber technologies inc uber and advanced micro devices inc amd on tuesday and occidental petroleum corporation oxy on wednesday sp 500 companies that generate at least half of their sales outside of the us have reported 102 earnings growth so far in the second quarter compared to just 12 earnings growth for companies generating more than half of their sales domestically according to factset economic numbers in the week ahead investors will get key economic updates on wednesday when eurostat releases its june eurozone retail sales report and on friday when the us labor department releases its july jobs report