The S&P 500 rose 0.7% and pulled within 1% of its record set in August. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 227 points, or 0.4%, as of 1:07 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.2% higher.

All of Wall Street got a jolt after the U.S. government said employers across the country added 29,000 jobs to their payrolls last month. That was fewer than economists expected and a slowdown from August’s hiring rate of 133,000.

More importantly for financial markets, it tamped down concerns that the U.S. economy could be so strong that it could fuel inflation even higher. Inflation has remained much worse than anyone would like, and the Federal Reserve recently raised its main interest rate for the first time in three years to try to rein in the painful increases for the cost of living.

Even though Americans are feeling more frustrated about inflation and their finances, the overall U.S. economy has been chugging along. Earlier this week, the U.S. government said the economy’s growth in the spring was better than earlier thought, driven by businesses building AI data centers and spending by consumers.

Friday’s softer-than-expected data on the economy pushed traders to pare bets the Fed will hike its main interest rate later this month at its next meeting. They now see a 24% probability of that, down from 64% a week ago, according to data from CME Group.

“This report strengthens the case for the Federal Reserve to remain patient,” according to Adam Schickling, senior economist at Vanguard. “The labor market has not deteriorated sharply, but there is also little evidence that it has meaningfully strengthened, giving policymakers reason to wait for additional data.”

The pullback in expectations for an October rate hike helped calm what’s been a rattled bond market.

The centerpiece of the U.S. bond market, the 10-year Treasury, saw its yield briefly drop below 5.17% before it later pulled back to 5.27%. That’s down from its peak near 5.35% on Thursday, when it and other longer-term yields neared their highest levels in two decades.

An easing of yields can help the economy by making it more affordable for everyone to borrow money. Higher yields, meanwhile, tend to undercut prices for stocks and other investments.

Oil prices spent most of the day falling before leveling out on Friday, and that also helped take pressure off bond markets worldwide. The price for a barrel of Brent crude was down nearly 4% at one point in the day, but was most recently up 0.2% to $102.42 a barrel. Prices have been swinging sharply on uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow the global oil industry to return to normal.

Of course, a solid U.S. economy and worries about expensive oil and high inflation are only a few of the many drivers that have caused yields to jump in bond markets.

Concerns about big spending by governments, along with the mountains of debt they’re racking up, continue. In France, for example, yields have been particularly shaky as the government contends with its record debt and strained budget.

They don’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

As Treasury yields pared their declines Friday from the morning, U.S. stocks also gave back some of their earlier gains. The S&P 500 had been up as much as 1.2% at one point in the morning.

Lower yields in the bond market help investors justify paying higher prices for stocks, even those that get criticized for being too expensive. That helped companies in the artificial-intelligence industry add to their already stellar gains.

Nvidia’s 1.9% rise was the single strongest force lifting the S&P 500.

Tesla rallied 5.1% after the electric-vehicle company said it delivered 486,532 vehicles to customers during the latest quarter, more than analysts expected.

Such gains more than made up for a 5.5% drop for Nike. The sneaker and athletic apparel company reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, but its revenue weakened by more than feared. Nike also gave a forecast for profit this fiscal year that fell short of analysts’ expectations.

In stock markets abroad, indexes bounced back in Europe from sharp losses taken a day earlier after bond yields swung sharply across the continent.

Asian indexes were mixed, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropping 2.6% but South Korea’s Kospi adding 0.5%.