Markets roiled by inflation

Volatile markets: Traders working at the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks teetered between small gains and losses in trading on Wall Street last week, which left major indexes well in the red. — AP

NEW YORK: For investors burned by inflation, a very bad year is starting to look even worse.

As stock prices tumbled and bonds were hit with the deepest losses in decades, the surge in consumer prices turned a few corners of the financial markets into profitable refuges earlier this year.