Wall Street’s week ends with big leap

Wall Street capped a volatile run for stocks with a broad rally Friday, contributing to sizable weekly gains for major indexes.

The S&P 500 rose 2.4% and notched its biggest weekly gain since June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.5% and the Nasdaq composite ended 2.3% higher.

More than 90% of the stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 index rose. Technology stocks, retailers and health care companies powered a big share of the rally. Oracle rose 5%, Home Depot added 2.3% and Pfizer rose 4.8%.

Social media companies fell broadly after Snapchat’s parent company issued a weak forecast and the Washington Post reported that Elon Musk plans to slash about three-quarters of the payroll at Twitter after he buys the company. Snap slumped 28.1% and Twitter shed 4.9%.

Markets have been unsettled in recent days, as stocks lurched from sharp gains early in the week to losses later in the week. The market appeared headed for another sell-off early Friday, then reversed course amid fresh signals from the Federal Reserve that it may consider easing up on its aggressive pace of interest rate hikes as it tries to bring down inflation.

The Fed is expected to raise interest rates another threequarters of a percentage point at its upcoming meeting in November. Markets have been unsettled partly because investors have been hoping that any sign of inflation easing or economic growth slowing could signal that the Fed will ease up on its rate increases, which have yet to show any signs of significantly impacting inflation.

A 0.75 point jump is triple the size of the Fed’s usual move, and it risks creating a recession if it moves too high or too quickly.