03:46 PM EDT, 07/15/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US benchmark equity indexes were higher ahead of Monday's close after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said policymakers won't wait for inflation to fall to 2% before reducing interest rates.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7% at 40,272.7, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.5% to 18,484.6. The S&P 500 advanced 0.4% to 5,635.2. Among sectors, energy and financials led the gainers, while utilities saw the steepest decline.

Powell said the Federal Open Market Committee's monetary policy works with "long and variable lags," CNBC reported.

"The implication of that is that if you wait until inflation gets all the way down to 2%, you've probably waited too long, because the tightening that you're doing, or the level of tightness that you have, is still having effects which will probably drive inflation below 2%," Powell reportedly said.

The FOMC is seeking "greater confidence" that inflation will return to its 2% target, he added, according to the report.

The US 10-year yield rose 4.1 basis points to 4.23%, while the two-year rate dropped one basis point to 4.45%.

UnitedHealth ( UNH ) , Johnson & Johnson ( JNJ ) , Bank of America ( BAC ) , Morgan Stanley ( MS ) , Netflix ( NFLX ) , Abbott Laboratories ( ABT ) , American Express ( AXP ) , Schlumberger ( SLB ) and United Airlines (UAL) are some of the major companies scheduled to release their latest quarterly financial results later this week.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped 0.2% to $80.01 a barrel.