wall street stocks rallied for a second straight session monday ahead of major earnings reports this week and amid expectations the federal reserve will moderate its aggressive antiinflation posture an ebbing in inflation and disappointing december retail sales have set the stage for the fed to pivot somewhat after a series of large interest rate hikes analysts pointed to a wall street journal report signaling the likelihood of a smaller 25basis point increase when the fed next meets at the end of this month the market seems to be leaning slightly towards the conclusion that in time the fed will take its foot off the brake and that will be the signal for better economic times better earnings and better stock prices said economic forecaster hugh johnson economics the dow jones industrial average finished up 08 percent at 3362956 the broadbased sp 500 advanced 12 percent to 401981 while the techrich nasdaq composite index jumped 20 percent to 1136441 this weeks calendar includes earnings reports from boeing microsoft and verizon analysts currently expect the sp 500 companies to see a 46 percent drop in yearoveryear profits according to factset also on the agenda is the governments first assessment of gross domestic product for the final quarter of 2022 analysts estimate the worlds biggest economy will grow 26 percent among individual companies salesforce rose 30 percent following a wall street journal report that activist fund elliott management took a multibillion stake in the software giant spotify technology won 21 percent after announcing it was cutting six percent of its roughly 10000 employees in the latest costcutting announcement among technology companies