US Shares surge on hopes for less hawkish Fed

US shares surged on Friday after a news report, by WSJ, said the US Fed will likely debate on a smaller interest rate hike in December, raising hopes the central bank may be ready to adopt a less hawkish policy stance.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 646.73 points, or 2.13%, to 30,980.32, the S&P 500 (.SPX) gained 74.27 points, or 2.03%, to 3,740.05 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 198.82 points, or 1.87%, to 10,813.66.

Each of the three major indexes were on track for their biggest weekly percentage gains in four months. The news helped stocks recover from early losses as Snap fell 30.07% after posting its slowest quarterly revenue growth in five years as advertisers cut spending due to inflation and geopolitical woes.

Some Fed officials have begun sounding out their tendency to slow down the pace of increases soon, according to the Wall Street Journal, and how to signal plans to approve a smaller increase in December.

Fed’s Mary Daly echoed that tendency, saying “it’s time to start talking about slowing the pace of the hikes in borrowing costs and doing so should avoid sending the economy into an “unforced downturn” by hiking interest rates too sharply.