Wall Street climbs to the cusp of records, closes its best week of the year
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U. S. stocks closed out their best week of the year with more gains on Friday and climbed to the cusp of their records. The S&P 500 rose 0. 5% for a fifth straight gain and is just 0.
7% below its all-time high set in July. Rallies for Microsoft, Broadcom and other big technology stocks helped it claw back almost all its losses from last week, which was its worst in nearly 18 months. What You Need To Know - U. S. stocks rose closer to their records and closed out their best week of the year as hopes built for a big rate cut next week - The S&P 500 rose 0.
5% Friday to climb within 0. 7% of its all-time high reached in July - The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0. 7%, and also traded close to its own record high - Stocks got support from the bond market, where Treasury yields eased ahead of next week’s meeting of the Federal Reserve The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 297 points, or 0. 7%, and at one point got within 30 points of its record set last month. The Nasdaq composite added 0.
7%. Uber Technologies helped drive the market higher with a gain of 6. 4% after saying it will bring autonomous ride-hailing to Austin and Atlanta with Waymo early next year. Stocks also got support from the bond market, where Treasury yields eased ahead of next week’s meeting of the Federal Reserve. The unanimous expectation on Wall Street is for the Fed to deliver the first cut to interest rates in more than four years on Wednesday, and traders are rekindling hopes it may offer bigger-than-usual relief.
The Federal Reserve has been keeping its main interest rate at a two-decade high in hopes of slowing the economy enough to stifle high inflation. With inflation having eased substantially from its peak two summers ago, the Fed has said it can turn more focus to bolstering the slowing job market and economy. How much to cut rates by will be a delicate balancing act for the Fed: Lowering them relieves pressure on the economy but can also give inflation more fuel. Reports earlier this week showed some underlying upward pressure may remain on inflation, which initially pushed traders to ratchet back expectations for the size of the Fed’s upcoming move.