04:30 PM EST, 03/06/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes closed higher Wednesday, as markets assessed remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's Congressional testimony before the House.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.6% to 16,031.5, while the S&P 500 advanced 0.5% to 5,104.8. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2% to 38,661.1. Barring consumer discretionary and communication services, all other sectors saw increases, led by utilities and technology.

"If the economy evolves broadly as expected, it will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year," Powell said in his semi-annual testimony. However, the economic outlook "is uncertain, and ongoing progress toward our 2% inflation objective is not assured."

Powell is scheduled to deliver his testimony before the Senate on Thursday.

"Capitulating to the Fed's pushback against expectations for a near-term rate cut, investors now anticipate the first-round reduction in June (as opposed to March), with three to four cuts by year-end, down from an earlier forecast of six cuts," Stifel said in a Wednesday note.

The US 10-year yield fell 2.9 basis points to 4.11%, while the two-year rate gained one basis point to 4.56%.

In economic news, the Fed's Beige Book showed that economic activity in the US rose "slightly" since early January, while the growth outlook was generally positive. The report was prepared by the San Francisco Fed based on information collected by Feb. 26.

Private employment in the US rose by 140,000 in February, according to Automatic Data Processing's (ADP) National Employment Report. That was below the 150,000 increase expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. January's job gains were revised higher to 111,000 from 107,000.

Separately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported January job vacancies of about 8.86 million, little changed from December's downwardly revised 8.89 million vacancies, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The consensus was for 8.35 million openings in a Bloomberg-compiled survey.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 1.2% to $79.08 per barrel Wednesday. Commercial crude stockpiles in the US rose by 1.4 million barrels to 448.5 million barrels through the week ended March 1, according to the Energy Information Administration. The consensus on Bloomberg was for a bigger increase of 2.7 million barrels.

In company news, CrowdStrike ( CRWD ) shares jumped 11%, the top gainer on the Nasdaq. The cybersecurity company late Tuesday logged stronger-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results and outlined an upbeat financial outlook for the current three-month period. The company also agreed to acquire data security platform Flow Security.

Brown-Forman (BF.A, BF.B) lowered its full-year sales growth outlook Wednesday. Sales unexpectedly declined in the fiscal third quarter in what the company said is an ongoing post-pandemic normalization of alcohol consumption trends. The company's class B shares dropped 7.3%, the steepest decliner on the S&P 500.

Gold increased 0.6% to $2,154.60 per troy ounce, while silver climbed 1.7% to $24.40 per ounce.