U.S. stocks ended January in upbeat fashion with the S&P 500 advancing nearly 6.3% to more than fully erase its 5.76% December decline and capped its strongest first-month start to a year since 2019. The broad market index ended its final January trading day up 1.47% amid a flurry of mixed 4Q earnings reports and the start of the Federal Reserve’s latest FOMC rate and policy deliberations. With employment costs growing at just 1% in the fourth quarter (smallest pace in a year) investors are more confident the Fed will slow its February inflation-fighting interest rate hike to 0.25%.