Wall Street builds on gains, heads for 4-week winning streak

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose broadly in midday trading on Wall Street Friday and added to weekly gains for the major indexes.

The S&P 500 rose 0.9% as of 11:34 a.m. Eastern and roughly 85% of stocks in the benchmark index gained ground. It is on track for its first four-week winning streak since last year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 188 points, or 0.6%, to 33,525 and the Nasdaq rose 1.2%.

Small-company stocks also made strong gains in a sign that investors are confident about the economy. The Russell 2000 rose 1.3%.

Technology and communications stocks had some of the biggest gains. Chipmaker Nvidia rose 2.9% and Facebook's parent Meta rose 1.7%.

Energy companies lagged the market as U.S. oil prices slipped 2.4%. Chevron fell 1.5%.

Trading has been choppy throughout much of the week, but major indexes got a big bump, and made the bulk of their gains, on Wednesday after a report showed that inflation cooled more than expected last month.

The Federal Reserve's fight to tame higher prices remains a priority for Wall Street. Investors have been hoping to see some relief from the hottest inflation in four decades and stocks rallied on Wednesday after an encouraging report on consumer prices from the Labor Department.

The Fed has been raising interest rates in the hopes of slowing the economy and cooling inflation, but investors are worried that it could be hitting the brakes too aggressively and risks steering the economy into a recession. The cooler-than-expected reading on consumer prices bolstered hopes among investors that inflation may be close to a peak and that the Fed might be able to temper its rate hikes.