U.S. Stock Indices Rise as Fed Rate Hike Expectations Fade

U.S. equity markets posted solid gains on Friday, with the S&P 500 up about 0.3‑0.6% and the Nasdaq climbing roughly 0.9‑1.3%. Both indices recorded weekly advances of more than 3% for the S&P 500 and over 4% for the Nasdaq, the strongest performance since April. The Dow Jones added a modest 0.1‑0.3%.

The rally was driven by weaker‑than‑expected July non‑farm payroll data, which showed a loss of 23,000 jobs versus forecasts for an 83,000 increase. Investors interpreted the surprise as a signal that the Federal Reserve is likely to keep its policy rate unchanged in the upcoming September meeting, reinforcing expectations of a pause in rate hikes.

Individual stocks surged: software firm Atlassian jumped 34‑36%, Airbnb rose 12%, and Cloudflare gained about 10%. Semiconductor stocks led the sector rally, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) up more than 7% for the week. Oil prices slipped slightly.