The three major stock market indexes posted losses last week, with the S&P 500 breaking a three-week winning streak that had lifted it to its best performance since 2020, as investors reacted to the Federal Reserve's more aggressive tone in fighting inflation.

The S&P 500 rallied into the close but finished the trading week essentially flat. For the week, the S&P 500 had slight gain (.3%) while the Dow Jones edged slightly lower (-0.2%) and the Nasdaq gained 0.6%, after the three benchmarks indexes closed the first negative quarter for stocks in two years.

Equity markets continued to rally higher last week despite a sustained back-up in interest rates as Federal Reserve members have increased calls for a more aggressive pace of tightening.

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U.S. equities rallied sharply higher last week as market participants gauged the progress of ongoing ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine and commodity prices cooled off from their recent upward surge.