The S&P 500 had its best month since November 2020.

July turned out to be the best month for Wall Street’s stock investors since November 2020, a rally fueled by better than expected financial results from some of America’s biggest companies and bets that the Federal Reserve could curtail its policy of constraining the economy sooner than previously expected.

The S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent Friday, taking its gain for July to 9.1 percent, its best month since the first announcements about an effective Covid-19 vaccine helped send stocks nearly 11 percent higher in November 2020.

It’s a sharp change of tone after a particularly difficult stretch. Investor sentiment was buoyed by signs that some of America’s biggest companies are managing to weather economic headwinds, including slowing growth and rising interest rates. This week, marquee tech names like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet — whose size and performance drove the stock market to new highs in recent years — reported results that relieved investors. Shares of all four were higher for the week and the month.

At the same time, investors appeared to take solace from the latest Federal Reserve meeting, interpreting the central bank to be willing to slow its pace of interest rate increases as the economy begins to cool. Rising interest rates increase costs for companies and weigh on profits, making investors attuned to signals of an easing in the Fed’s current policy.

“Despite pockets of weakness, earnings have been fine,” said Alex Atanasiu, a portfolio manager at Glenmede Investment Management. He added that despite the Fed raising interest rates on Wednesday, longer-dated Treasury yields, which help set borrowing costs worldwide, have fallen along with expectations for further interest rate increases, “and that bolsters equities.”