Stocks rallied on Wall Street after the head of the Federal Reserve said the central bank could soon ease up on its aggressive pace of interest rate hikes aimed at taming inflation.

While citing some signs that inflation is cooling, Fed Chair Jerome Powell stressed Wednesday that the Fed will push rates higher than previously expected and keep them there for an extended period.

Major indexes ended November with their second straight month of gains.

On Wednesday:

The S&P 500 rose 122.48 points, or 3.1%, to 4,080.11.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 737.24 points, or 2.2%, to 34,589.77.

The Nasdaq rose 484.22 points, or 4.4%, to 11,468.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 50.03 points, or 2.7%, to 1,886.58.

For the week:

The S&P 500 is up 53.99 points, or 1.3%.

The Dow is up 242.74 points, or 0.7%.

The Nasdaq is up 241.64 points, or 2.2%.

The Russell 2000 is up 17.39 points, or 0.9%.

For the year:

The S&P 500 is down 686.07 points, or 14.4%.

The Dow is down 1,748.53 points, or 4.8%.

The Nasdaq is down 4,176.97 points, or 26.7%.

The Russell 2000 is down 358.74 points, or 16%.

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