NEW YORK • Stocks rallied to three-month highs on Wall Street on Wednesday as investors welcomed a government report showing that inflation cooled more than expected last month.

The encouraging inflation update sparked speculation that the Federal Reserve may not have to remain as aggressive about hiking interest rates as feared. The central bank has been raising rates in an effort to slow the economy in the hopes of stamping out inflation, but that risks bringing on a recession if the Fed moves too aggressively.

The S&P 500 rose 87.77 points, or 2.1%, to 4,210.24. The gains broke a four-day losing streak and pushed the benchmark index to its highest levels since early May. It is now nearly 15% above its mid-june low.

The Nasdaq composite, whose many high-growth and expensive-looking stocks have been particularly vulnerable to interest rates, jumped 360.88 points, or 2.9%, to 12,854.80. It’s up more than 20% from June.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 535.10 points, or 1.6%, to 33,309.51.

Technology stocks, cryptocurrencies and other of the year’s hardest-hit investments were some of the day’s biggest winners. Bitcoin rose 2.2% to just under $24,000.

Lower prices for gasoline and oil were responsible for much of last month’s inflation surprise. But even after ignoring that and volatile food prices, “core inflation” held steady last month instead of accelerating as economists had forecast.

The data encouraged traders to scale back bets for how much the Fed will raise interest rates at its next meeting. They now see a hike of a half percentage point as the most likely outcome, according to CME Group. A day earlier, they were betting on a more aggressive hike of 0.75 percentage points, the same as the last two increases.