Wall Street Ends Week On A Record

US markets have closed on record highs, buoyed by investor confidence the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this month.

The Dow Jones rose 0.9 percent to 27,332. The S&P 500 gained 0.5 percent to 3,013. while the Nasdaq was up 0.6 percent to 8,244.

All three also notched modest gains for the week, after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell cheered markets comments strongly suggesting the Fed would cut interest rates at its next policy meeting in less than three weeks.

Jack Ablin of Cresset Wealth Advisors said investors also were encouraged by outlook for better-than-expected quarterly revenues as corporate earnings season approaches.

"But the next question we expect is: where do we go from there?" he said. "The market needs to feed on something. The appetite of the market for low rates is insatiable. The question now is can they shift their attention to earnings."

Among individual companies, Ford Motor jumped 2.9 percent after jointly announcing a new a multi-billion-dollar new electric vehicle project with Germany's Volkswagen.

But Johnson & Johnson sank 4.2 percent after Bloomberg reported the company was facing a Justice Department probe into whether the company may have lied to the public about the cancer risks created by its talcum powder.

Shares in gene sequencing company Illumina cratered, falling 16.1 percent, after Bank of America downgraded the stock and the company warned its revenues may disappoint. (AFP)