Wall Street rises as Fed rate move nears, earnings ramp up
The S&P 500 rose 1.2%, led by tech companies. The gains more than made up for the benchmark index's losses last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite closed 2% higher. Small company stocks also rose, pushing the Russell 2000 index up 1.3%.
Markets have been churning for weeks with sharp swings in both directions. On one hand, they've benefited from hopes that the nation's high inflation will continue to cool and get the
On the opposite end, they've taken hits on worries about a possible recession because of rate hikes already pushed through by the Fed.
Monday's gains follow a strong Friday, when stocks rallied on comments from a Fed official seen as a signal that the central bank may raise rates by just 0.25 percentage points next week.
That would be a downshift from last month's 0.50 point increase and from four straight earlier hikes of 0.75 points.
Higher rates intentionally slow the economy by making it more expensive for businesses and households to borrow, so a step down would mean less added pressure.
1, according to CME Group.
The bigger question is how much further the Fed goes from there, and how long it will wait before it cuts interest rates. Such cuts can act like steroids for markets, and
The yield on the two-year
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