On Wall Street on Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.5 per cent for a fifth straight gain and is just 0.7 per cent below its record set in July. Rallies for Microsoft, Broadcom and other big technology stocks helped it claw back almost all its losses from last week, which was its worst in nearly 18 months.

The Dow Jones jumped 297 points, or 0.7 per cent, and at one point got within 30 points of its record set last month. The Nasdaq composite added 0.7 per cent.

Uber Technologies helped drive the market higher with a gain of 6.4 per cent after saying it will bring autonomous ride-hailing to Austin and Atlanta with Waymo early next year.

Stocks also got support from the bond market, where Treasury yields eased ahead of this week’s meeting of the Federal Reserve.

Traders were seeing roughly a coin flip’s chance that the Fed could deliver a large cut of half of a percentage point, instead of the more traditional quarter of a point, according to data from CME Group. The federal funds rate is currently sitting in a range of 5.25 per cent to 5.50 per cent.

“Right now, the equity market is keying off the toss-up” in the size of the Fed’s cut next week “and would probably be fine with either,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.

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“They care more about direction than magnitude, and rates falling should take pressure” off companies’ expenses and stock prices, he said.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 3.65 per cent from 3.68 per cent late Thursday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, fell more sharply to 3.58 per cent from 3.65 per cent.

On Wall Street, home-furnishings company RH jumped 25.5 per cent after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. The company said demand has been gaining momentum each month “despite operating in the most challenging housing market in three decades.”

On the losing end of Wall Street Friday was Boeing, which lost 3.7 per cent as aircraft assembly workers walked off the job. Union members voted overwhelmingly to go on strike and reject the troubled aerospace giant’s tentative contract that would have increased wages by 25 per cent over four years.

Adobe fell 8.5 per cent, even though the company also reported better profit for the latest quarter than expected.

With AP

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