03:51 PM EDT, 09/20/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes were mixed ahead of Friday's close as markets evaluated remarks by two Federal Reserve governors.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1% at 42,081.6. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite were little changed at 5,704.9 and 17,971.1, respectively. Among sectors, utilities paced the gainers, while industrials and materials saw the steepest declines.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee lowered its benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points to a range of 4.75% to 5%.

Fed Governor Michelle Bowman said Friday she preferred a smaller 25-basis-point cut at the meeting.

"Although it is important to recognize that there has been meaningful progress on lowering inflation, while core inflation remains around or above 2.5%, I see the risk that the committee's larger policy action could be interpreted as a premature declaration of victory on our price stability mandate," Bowman said.

Separately, Fed Governor Christopher Waller said he was in the 50-basis-point-cut camp because "inflation is softening much faster than I thought it was going to," CNBC reported.

The US two-year yield fell 2.8 basis points to 3.57%, while the 10-year rate lost 1.4 basis points to 3.73%.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 0.3% to $71.77 a barrel.