week of the year, the strong gdp reading, jobless claims near pre-pandemic lows. there are signs inflation is starting to peak. you know, the fed s medicine though is dinging the housing market. home sales slowed for the tenth consecutive month. the longest such stretch on record going back to 1999. you re probably feeling it in the 401ks. stocks are headed for a down month and the first down year for stocks since 2018 and the worst year since the financial crisis in 2008. the fed s preferred inflation gauge, the pce index is due out. let s bring in gina smilek. i ve been going live with that pce indicator. it has become main street kitchen table news. some of these more wonky, arcane economic reports that people watch. it s because every week we get a conflicting batch of news.
and consternation within each caucus, they got the bill through on a bipartisan basis and now this agreement will be enforced. manu raju, cnn, capitol hill. the u.s. supreme court says mr. biden s student loan debt forgiveness program is blocked for now. the court will hear arguments in february. the president announced the plan in august following through on a pillar campaign. the program provides up to $250,000 worth of debt relief to millions of americans. it s being stuck in the court. the biden administration notified people saying, quote, unfortunately a number of lawsuits have been filed challenging the program which has blocked our ability to discharge the debt at present. the supreme court s decision is expected by june. in the meantime, the administration has paused payments and interest in order to help borrowers. more on the economy now as a key indicator shows signs that inflation is easing. it s called the pce index and it measures how much u.s. consumers are spending f
percentage points the federal reserve says there s no place to stop or pause. he signaled that a third consecutive .75 percentage point increase is possible during the fed s next meeting in september. so markets still very much digesting that news and the stocks sold off sharply following the comments. the dow and the s&p both down 2.5%. makenzie, we are also getting new inflation data today. help us break it down. right. the fed s preferred inflation measure is something known as the personal consumption expenditures price index, and we got updated data that price increases had slowed down in july, so the pce index came in with a year over year rise of 6.3% in july so this key measure of inflation is trending in the right direction as far as policymakers are concerned and chair powell said this morning that while the lower inflation readings for july are welcome, a single month s improvement falls
anti-abortion protesters to be outside as well. jim? all right, nadia, thank you for that report. on wall street recession fear. here is alison kosik with your before the bell report. reporter: hi, jim. this week wraps up the first half of the trading year and it was a rough one. the s&p 500 is on track for the worst first half since 1970. the biggest investor concerns red-hot inflation and a recession. we get a fresh check on inflation this week with may s pce index. the fed s favorite inflation measure in april cooled but prices remain uncomfortably high. the fear is the fe s response, aggressive rate hikes, will spark a recession, something jay powell conceded last week. we re not trying to provoke, i don t think we will need to pro provoke a recession, but it s important to restore price