04:45 PM EDT, 07/05/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US equity indexes ended higher in a holiday-shortened trading week as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's dovish remarks and fresh economic indicators supporting bets for a Fed rate cut spurred Wall Street's rally.

* The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 39,375.87 on Friday versus 39,118.86 a week ago and the Nasdaq Composite closed at 18,352.76 versus 17,732.60 a week prior. The S&P 500 ended at 5,567.19, its highest closing level ever, compared with 5,460.48 a week earlier.

* Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday at a central banking forum in Portugal that policymakers have made "quite a bit of progress" in bringing inflation back to their target, though they need to see more encouraging data before reducing interest rates.

* Another highlight of the week was nonfarm payrolls, which increased by 206,000 in June versus estimates compiled by Bloomberg for a smaller 190,000 gain. The unemployment rate came in at 4.1% for the month, compared with estimates for a no change at 4%.

* The June employment report "is likely to result in the FOMC placing greater weight on the labor market when considering the timing of rate cuts," said David Doyle, head of economics at Macquarie.

* "While for now our base case for a first cut remains December, it has become increasingly likely that one may occur earlier than this, with a reduction at the September meeting a strong possibility," Doyle said.

* In equities, Nvidia (NVDA) gained nearly 2% this week, although it fell Friday. Nvidia faces a "huge bottleneck" in its artificial intelligence chips and regulators are still deciding on any potential actions, Bloomberg News reported Friday, citing Margrethe Vestager, the European Union commissioner for competition.

* Tesla (TSLA) rose more than 2% on Friday, extending a rally this week spurred by stronger-than-expected Q2 deliveries and with BofA Securities raising its price target to $260 from $220 while maintaining its buy rating.