04:04 PM EST, 03/06/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US equity markets ended higher Wednesday as traders digested Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments on inflation and interest rates in his semi-annual Congressional testimony before the House of Representatives.

* Powell said it would "likely" be appropriate to cut interest rates this year if the economy evolves as expected but cautioned that risks remain and that the Federal Open Market Committee does not expect it would be time to lower rates until there is greater confidence that inflation is slowing "sustainably" toward the 2% goal.

* US job openings fell to 8.86 million in January from the downwardly revised 8.89 million vacancies in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The consensus was for 8.35 million openings in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.

* April West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed up $0.86 to $79.01 per barrel, while May Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last seen up $0.80 to $82.84 after the Energy Information Agency reported a smaller-than-expected rise in US oil inventories last week.

* Palantir Technologies ( PLTR ) shares rose 9.3% after the US Army awarded its subsidiary Palantir USG a $178.4 million contract to lead in the development of 10 ground station Targeting Intelligence Targeting Access Node prototypes and related technology.

* Brown-Forman (BF.A, BF.B) shares fell nearly 8% after the company reported an unexpected decline in fiscal Q3 sales.