Wall Street climbs as investors trim bets on rate hike; Dow up 500 points

The S&P 500 was up 50.87 points, or 1.34%, at 3,841.25, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 120.63 points, or 1.07%, at 11,371.81

US stocks climbed on Friday as upbeat retail sales data allayed some concerns about an imminent recession, while investors scaled back bets of a supersized interest rate hike this month after comments from Federal Reserve policymakers.

The benchmark S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow rose after a five-day run of losses, which were mostly fanned by worries of a 100 basis points rate hike at the July policy meeting following hot inflation data.

Moving interest rates too dramatically could undermine the positive trends still seen in the economy and add to the already large amount of uncertainty, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic