Markets take trek upward

NEW YORK >> Stocks finished broadly higher on Wall Street on Tuesday, clawing back some of the ground they lost in their worst weekly drop since the beginning of the pandemic.

The rally to start the holiday-shortened week came as investors look ahead to what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will tell Congress on Wednesday, the first of two days of testimony as part of the central bank's semi-annual monetary policy report. Last week, the Fed hiked its key shortterm interest rate by the most since 1994, the central bank's latest effort to tame the worst inflation in 40 years.

The S&P 500 rose 2.4%, recouping about 40% of its losses last week. More than 85% of the stocks in the benchmark index gained ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.1% and the Nasdaq climbed 2.5%.

Technology stocks had some of the strongest gains. Apple rose 3.3% and Microsoft rose 2.5%.

Retailers, health care companies and banks also made solid gains. Kellogg rose 2% after the maker of Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies said it would split into three companies. Spirit Airlines jumped 7.9% after JetBlue sweetened its buyout offer for the budget airline.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 89.95 points to 3,764.79. The index remains stuck in a slump, though, along with every other major index, and is still down 21.5% from the record high it set in January. It's posted a weekly loss in 10 out of the last 11 weeks.

The Dow rose 641.47 points to 30,530.25, while the Nasdaq added 270.95 points to 11,069.30.

Smaller company stocks also gained ground. The Russell 2000 rose 28.34 points, or 1.8%, to 1,694.03.

Wall Street will be closely listening for clues about the Fed's plans for possible additional rate hikes when Powell speaks before Congress this week. The central bank could consider another such mega-hike at its next meeting in July, but Powell has said increases of threequarters of a percentage point would not be common.