Apple helps push stocks toward first weekly winning streak since August

Wall Street is rallying Friday to cap another strong week for stocks, led by Apple and other companies that made even bigger profits during the summer than expected.

Wall Street is rallying Friday to cap another strong week for stocks, led by Apple and other companies that made even bigger profits during the summer than expected.

The S&P 500 was 2.4% higher in afternoon trading and heading for its first back-to-back weekly gains since August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 796 points, or 2.5%, to 32,829, as of 3:21 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.7% higher.

Smaller company stocks also gained ground, lifting the Russell 2000 index by 2.1%.

One reason that stocks have revived recently is hopes for a “pivot” by the Federal Reserve, where the central bank dials down the big interest-rate hikes that have shaken the market. Such a move could boost the market, but many analysts say such hopes may be overdone.

“This rally has now gotten a bit irrational and fragile at this level,” said Liz Young, chief investment strategist at SoFi.

The central bank has been very clear about its plan to err on the side going too far in order to tame inflation, she said, which means the big gains on hopes of a pullback seem premature.

More recently, many big U.S. companies have been reporting stronger earnings than expected, though the bag remains decidedly mixed.

Apple rose 7.4% and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500 in its first trading after reporting fatter revenue and profit than expected for the latest quarter. Intel jumped 10.2% after delivering much bigger profit than analysts forecasted even though it said it saw “worsening economic conditions.”