NEW YORK—Stocks rallied Thursday as the countdown clicked closer to zero for a highly anticipated speech about interest rates.
The S&P 500 gained 58.35, or 1.4 percent, to 4,199.12 for its best day in nearly two weeks. Much of the lift came late in the day as traders made moves ahead of Friday morning’s speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which has long been circled on Wall Street’s calendar.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 322.55, or 1 percent, to 33,291.78, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 207.74, or 1.7 percent, to 12,639.27. All three indexes trimmed their losses for the week, caused by Monday’s tumble that was the worst for stocks in months….