Wall Street advances strongly awaiting Federal Reserve meeting

A broad rally on Friday gave way to a sharply bullish close in Wall Streetas encouraging economic data and a more upbeat corporate earnings outlook boosted risk appetite, ahead of the much-anticipated meeting of the Federal Reserve of USA.

The main stock indexes ended the session with gains of more than 2 percent. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq recorded a new consecutive weekly advance, and the Dow Jones It posted its biggest weekly percentage gain since May.

On the main index day Dow Jones, of 30 industrial giants, moved 2.59% to 32,861.80 points. The reference S&P 500, of 500 components, gained 2.46% to 3,901.06 units. The index Nasdaqwith a high technological component, gained 2.87% 11,102.45 points.

“This has been one of the best months (so far) in the history of the Dow Jones, suggesting the bear market is probably over,” said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group. “Big monthly moves historically occur at the end of a bear market cycle.”

The rally in Apple Inc shares helped temper the blow of the slump in Amazon.com, following the release of quarterly results for both market leaders on Thursday afternoon.

Strong earnings from Chevron and ExxonMobil and other non-tech group and mega-cap companies have improved aggregate earnings estimates for the quarter.

Among the 263 of the companies in the US S&P 500 that have reported quarterly numbers, 73% have beaten analyst consensus expectations, according to Refinitiv.

The Dow Jones rose 5.72% in the week; the S&P 500, 8.80%, and the Nasdaq, 2.24 percent.