Stocks Just Had Their Best Week of the Year

Wall Street on Friday wrapped up its best week of the year, following a cooler-than-expected report on the job market:

• The Dow rose 222 points, or 0.6%, to 34,061.
• The S&P 500 rose 40 points, or 0.9%, to 4,358.
• The Nasdaq rose 184 points, or 1.3%, to 13,478.
• The Dow rose more than 5% for the week, and the S&P and Nasdaq rose more than 6%, per CNBC.

Stocks have surged this week on rising hopes the Federal Reserve is finally done with its market-crunching hikes to interest rates, which were meant to get inflation under control. Friday's jobs report underscored that pressure is easing on inflation after it showed employers hired fewer workers last month than economists expected. Excitement about a potentially easier Fed was more than enough to offset a fall for Apple, which is Wall Street's most influential stock. The most valuable US stock fell 1.2% despite reporting stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Analysts said investors were likely disappointed with Apple's forecast for revenue for the last three months of 2023.

On the winning side of Wall Street was Expedia Group, which reported stronger results for the latest quarter than expected and said it may buy back up to $5 billion of its shares. Its stock flew 17.3% higher. Cardinal Health was also strong following its better-than-expected profit report, and it rose 8.5%.

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