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Back from the brink of a bear market, the stock market snapped its seven-week losing streak.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index of blue-chip publicly-held U.S. companies gained +6.37% this past week.

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Just a week ago, the S&P 500 was down -19% and in the throes of the worst losing streak since 2001.

However, according to consensus forecasts of economists, the U.S. is expected to grow by more than +2% in 2022.

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Newly released data on the Federal Reserve’s preferred indicator of inflation, the personal consumption expenditure deflator, indicated inflation eased. In April. Though inflation remains near a 40-year high, strong earnings reports, along with the slowing of inflation, propelled the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index to close at 4,158.24. The index gained +2.47% from Thursday. The S&P 500 index is up +60.06% from the March 23, 2020, bear market low and down -14.25% from the January 3rd all-time high.