Smaller firms outperformed recent market leaders like tech and communications stocks. Stocks’ summer climb showed signs of slowing last week, until a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell Friday recharged markets and sent the Dow industrials to a fresh record by opening the door to lower interest rates. This week, a positive earnings season and hopes of a forthcoming rate cut have lifted the share prices of smaller companies and left some investors turning their attention to recently unloved parts of the market.
