us stock indexes were poised to extend gains on hopes that slowing inflation will encourage the federal reserve to back off its campaign of aggressive interestrate increases futures for the benchmark sp 500 rose 04 friday a day after softer inflation data sent the benchmark index to its biggest oneday rise since april 2020 when stocks were recovering from the covid19 shock contracts tied to the dow jones industrial average added 03 and nasdaq100 futures added 05 signaling a continued rally in technology stocks