Investing.com – The Dow reached another record high on Friday, after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s dovish comments earlier in the week set stocks soaring in anticipation of a rate cut later this month.
The Dow rose as far as 27,234.24 points before paring gains a little to be up 0.4% by 9:45 AM ET (13:45 GMT). Meanwhile, the S&P 500 renewed its push above the 3,000 level to trade up 0.2% at 3,005.37, while the Nasdaq composite rose 21 points, or 0.3%.
Investors expect the Fed to cut rates at its policy meeting in July, with Powell testifying before Congress that the central bank is worried about weak inflation and various "uncertainties" weighing on economic outlook.
"Jerome Powell spoke in Washington D.C. on Wednesday and Thursday, and the take away message is the U.S. central bank is considering cutting interest rates, and that is helping stocks around the world," said David Madden, market analyst at CMC Markets in the U.K.
An increase in core inflation data did nothing to deter rate cut expectations. Neither did the release of slightly higher-than-expected producer price inflation in June.
Social media company Snap (NYSE:SNAP) gained 1.4% in premarket trade after an analyst upgrade, while Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) rose 0.7% and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) surged 1%. Altria (NYSE:MO) was up 1.1% after Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) upgraded it.
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) fell 0.7%, as the social media giant’s cryptocurrency project, Libra, took criticism from President Donald Trump, adding to earlier downbeat commentary this week from Powell. Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) was down 1.1%, while Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) slipped 0.9%.
In commodities, crude oil slipped 0.1% to $60.16 a barrel. Gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,410.85 a troy ounce, while the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was flat at 96.618.
-- Reuters contributed to this report