Dow slides 300 points to cap off first weekly decline in a month amid inflation worries

• US stocks dropped on Friday as investor concerns about rising inflation continued to linger.
• A better-than-expected June retail sales report was unable to move stocks higher.
• US consumers spent $621 billion at retail stores in June, representing an increase of 0.6%.
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US stocks fell on Friday and recorded their first weekly loss in a month, with stocks dropping about 1% as investor concerns about rising inflation continued to weigh on prospects of an economic recovery.

On Thursday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen both expressed concerns at the current pace of rising inflation and expect the trend to continue over the next few months before cooling down as supply chain disruptions are resolved.

If inflation doesn't cool off soon, the Fed may be forced to hasten its hawkish policies like rolling back monthly bond purchases and raising interest rates, which could hurt risk assets like stocks.

Meanwhile, June retail sales data that showed a surprise increase of 0.6%, besting expectations of a 0.4% decline.

US consumers spent $621 billion at retail stores in June, signaling that the ongoing economic recovery from the pandemic is accelerating as more people get vaccinated from COVID-19.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Friday:

• S&P 500: 4,327.16, down 0.75%
• Dow Jones industrial average: 34,687.85, down 0.86% (299.17 points)
• Nasdaq composite: 14,427.24, down 0.8%

Moderna jumped as much as 8% on Friday after it was tapped to replace Alexion Therapeutics in the S&P 500 index. The mRNA biotech platform exceeded a $100 billion valuation for the first time on Thursday, and is now worth $112 billion.

Shares of recent IPO Didi continued their decline on Friday, following reports that Chinese officials sent police to its offices as part of a sweeping cybersecurity probe.

Bitcoin declined about 1% on Friday, and is set to see its worst weekly performance in over a month as cryptocurrencies struggle to recover from a deep sell-off that began in May. Bank of America said it would allow some clients to begin trading bitcoin futures.

PayPal raised its weekly purchase limit of bitcoin to $100,000, and Square's Jack Dorsey said the company would work to create a DeFi ecosystem centered around bitcoin.

Oil prices were lower. West Texas Intermediate crude fell as much as TK%, to $TK per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, dropped TK%, to $TK per barrel.

Gold fell TK%, to $TK per ounce.