01:25 PM EST, 03/06/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes rose after midday Wednesday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's testimony to Congress signaled the central bank is not in a hurry to cut interest rates even though a reduction remains on the cards for this year.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.9% to 5,123.6, with the Nasdaq Composite up 1.1% to 16,114.6 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average trading 0.5% higher at 38,785.8. All the sectors rose intraday, with technology and utilities among the top gainers.

Appearing before the House Financial Services Committee, Powell delivered a semi-annual report on monetary policy on Wednesday, with investors looking for any signals from the Federal Reserve on the timing and extent of interest-rate cuts this year. He will testify before a Senate panel on Thursday.

"Policy rate is likely at its peak for this tightening cycle," Powell said in prepared remarks, referring to the fed funds rate paused in the 5.25% to 5.5% range. Fed began hiking rates in March 2022 to tame inflation, and after 11 consecutive increases of varying sizes, it halted the tightening cycle in July 2023.

"The economic outlook is uncertain, and ongoing progress toward our 2% inflation objective is not assured," Powell said. While February's consumer and wholesale price inflation reports are due next week, the January readings were higher than forecast. Also, nonfarm payrolls, due Friday for February, were almost twice as high as the market had anticipated for January.

Powell said there are risks to cutting rates too early and too fast as well as too late or too little. "It will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year."

In economic news, US job openings fell to 8.863 million in January from 8.889 million in December but remained above the 8.85 million set out in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. ADP's monthly measure of private payrolls showed a 140,000 increase in February, following an upwardly revised 111,000 jobs increase in January, compared with an expected increase of 150,000.

The US 10-year Treasury yield decreased 4.1 basis points to 4.1%, and the two-year slipped 1.7 basis points to 4.54%.

Gold for April delivery on the Comex rose 0.5% to $2,152.61 per troy ounce intraday, scaling new all-time highs this week. Silver jumped 1.8% to $24.43 per troy ounce.

In company news, CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) shares increased 13% intraday, the top performer on the Nasdaq, after the company reported Q4 earnings more than doubled from a year ago and revenue was ahead of consensus.

Brown-Forman's (BF.A, BF.B) shares slumped 9% intraday, the worst performer on the S&P 500, after the company reported a surprise drop in fiscal Q3 net sales.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil jumped 1.8% to $79.56 per barrel intraday.