The Tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index is up 24% year-to-date — a stark contrast to the 0.16% decline of the narrowly focused Dow Jones Industrial Average over the period. Alongside the debt ceiling negotiations, the signal event in the week may have been Thursday’s 24% jump in the shares in chipmaker NVIDIA, which took the company’s market capitalization to nearly USD 1 trillion, the sixth most highest market cap in the world. Shares rose after the company beat consensus Q1 earnings expectations by a wide margin and raised its profit outlook. Debt ceiling negotiations resumed after President Biden returned from Japan at the start of the week, but markets headed downward as signs emerged that little progress was being made. Signs of renewed momentum in the talks seemed to spur a market rally on Friday, however. Gains may have been capped by some discouraging US inflation data. The core (less food and energy) personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, rose by 0.4% in April, a tick above expectations. On a y-o-y basis, the index rose by a notch to 4.7%, indicating no progress in bringing inflation down since the start of the year. Shares in Europe fell on signs that the economic outlook may be worsening and continued uncertainty over U.S. debt ceiling talks. The pan-European STOXX Europe 600 Index slid 1.59% while European government bond yields broadly climbed on concern that central bank policymakers would extend their policy tightening to cope with persistent inflationary pressures.