U.S. 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. Two of the Fed’s most hawkish policymakers on Thursday said they favored another 75 bps rate increase this month. “The debate of a rate hike of a …
