- US stocks rallied on Friday, boosted by hopes of less aggressive Fed rate hikes.
- All three indexes ended the day higher, with the Dow climbing over 700 points.
Stocks rallied on Friday, climbing on investors' hopes for less aggressive rate hikes from the US central bank. All three indexes ended the day sharply higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surging by 750 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both rose more than 2%.
While markets widely expected two more 75 basis point rate hikes this year from the Fed, expectations for a hike that size in December have been slashed after a report from the Wall Street Journal said officials have concerns about overtightening.
That gave a boost to stocks midday after being dragged earlier in the session by fears of tech weakness following dismal earnings from Snap.
The 10-year Treasury yield also edged slightly lower but was still at post-crisis highs around 4.2%.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Friday:
- S&P 500: 3,753.15, up 2.38%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 31,083.02, up 2.47% (749.43 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 10,859.72, up 2.31%
Here's what else is happening today:
- The housing market will deteriorate more quickly than expected, as the impact of sky-high mortgage rates hasn't been fully felt by the market, Goldman Sachs warned.
- Wharton Professor Jeremy Siegel slammed the Fed for "playing with fire" in its handling of the economy.
- The world's copper supply is dangerously low and can barely cover five days of global demand, a trader said.
- Elon Musk may have to sell $10 billion in Tesla stock next week to complete the "train wreck" acquisition of Twitter, Wedbush said.
- Stocks likely hit a bottom after September's inflation report, according to a note from Carson Group.
In commodities, bonds and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude added on 0.7% to trade at $85.16 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.2% to $93.54.
- Gold rose 1.4% to $1,659.60 per ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield edged lower to 4.2%.
- Bitcoin ticked higher by 0.7% to $19,229.82.