Stock investors are sensitive to rapid changes in interest rates, and the two-year Treasury yield tumbled from over 5 percent on Tuesday to 4.8 percent on Friday, a big move in a market that is typically measured in hundredths of a percentage point. Investors had started the week fearful that strong economic data and stubborn inflation would push the Fed to keep interest rates elevated for most of the year and potentially even warrant officials to move them higher. Investors had already welcomed comments on Wednesday from the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, who said it was "unlikely" the central bank would raise rates further, despite earlier intimations from some policymakers that an increase might be necessary given the strength of the U.S. economy this year. Investors now expect the Fed to cut rates at least once and potentially twice this year, with bets that the first cut will come in September, earlier than the November expectation at the start of the week