sp 500 heads for first backtoback weekly losses this year us stocks were down friday afternoon with all three major benchmarks heading for modest weekly losses after hotterthanexpected inflation reports and commentary from federal reserve officials spurred investors to bet on more interestrate hikes by the central bank for the week the dow was on track to slip 06 potentially logging its thirdstraight weekly drop in what would be the longest such streak since september the sp 500 was heading for a 08 drop on track to book backtoback weekly declines for the first time this year the technologyheavy nasdaq was on pace to slip 01 for the week factset data show at last check after the sp 500 index saw a five month high in early february us stocks have continued to slide this week as hotterthanexpected economic data spurred expectations that the federal reserve could raise its policy rate well above 5 and keep it there until at least early 2024 the stock market appears to be adjusting to the idea that the fed might be tighter for longer said john bailer deputy head of equity income at newton investment management in a phone interview friday the fed needs to dampen down demand while the central bank has been tightening its monetary policy to cool consumer demand for goods and services and bring down inflation the stock market had been looking ahead to a potential pause in the feds interestrate hikes later this year markets stumbled after the release of the producerprice index for january on thursday which showed wholesale prices accelerated by 07 last month the sharpest increase since the summer the january cpi report released earlier in the week showed that prices paid by consumers failed to moderate as much as expected speaking in tennessee friday morning fed gov michelle bowman expressed concern that inflation isnt subsiding quickly enough which means the fed must continue hiking interest rates i dont think were seeing what we need to be seeing especially with inflation bowman said the us labor market has appeared strong in the face of rate hikes with a low unemployment rate but there also have been signs of a slowing economy the conference board said friday that its us leading economic index fell 03 in january for a 36 decline over the past six months that was in line with forecasts from economists polled by the wall street journal stephen guilfoyle president of family office sarge986 and a former floor trader on the new york stock exchange said the latest bout of aggressive fed rhetoric isnt surprising after some of the most speculative equity names have led this years rally they were no longer just fighting the fed they were taunting the fed they were provoking the hawks like bullard and mester guilfoyle told marketwatch during a phone interview the techheavy nasdaq which is outperforming the dow and sp 500 this week has jumped 118 so far this year according to factset data at last check that compares with a yeartodate rise of 56 for the sp 500 all three major us benchmarks are on track for modest weekly losses after marketbased chances of a rise in the feds benchmark rate in june have risen substantially this week the probability of an in increase in the fed funds rate in june was seen as negligible as recently as earlier this month according to trading in fed funds futures economists at bank of america and goldman sachs have adjusted their forecasts to call for additional 25 basispoint hikes in march may and june that would bring the feds terminal rate to a range of between 525 and 55 richmond fed president tom barkin said friday that he likes 25basis point moves because it gives the central bank flexibility according to media reports on his conversation with reporters after a speech in northern virginia readfeds barkin backs sticking with 25basispoint hikes in the future also see feds mester said she saw a compelling case for halfpoint hike at january meeting meanwhile treasury yields have advanced this week the yield on the 10year treasury note was trading around 384 friday afternoon according to factset data at last check us stocks will be closed on monday in observance of washingtons birthday on monday