Wall Street Today | Market Sees Bright Future After Fed Talk

The market climbed within all-time highs shortly after Powell hit the podium. News reports said the Federal Reserve was ready to cut rates. Powell did not specify the timeline of these rate cuts, but he said he was confident the economy was on the way to 2% inflation.

"The time has come to adjust, and the direction is clear," Powell said.

Fed officials' next policy meeting is scheduled for Sept. 17-18. They are widely expected to lower the benchmark federal funds rate at that meeting. Powell's comments Friday all but bring to a conclusion the Fed's historic inflation-fighting campaign, which Powell amplified from the same stage two years ago when he signaled his readiness to accept a recession as the price of lowering inflation.

Though Fed Powell's speech did not highlight the timeline for rate cuts, Wednesday FOMC meeting minutes from July paint a short time frame. Members reportedly were ready to cut rates in September if everything stayed the same; some even wanted to cut rates then.

Thursday, U.S. Initial Jobless claims showed that about 232k Americans were newly unemployed, around the forecast and the year average of 220k. Existing home sales came in at 3.95M for July, right around last month's 3.9M. S&P PMI came in slightly higher at 55.2 on Thursday.

Every sector on the S&P 500 was in the green Friday after the Fed news.

Oil futures settled higher Friday, extending a bounce from the previous session, after comments from head of the Federal Reserve confirmed prospects for interest-rate cuts that would help strengthen the economy - and demand for crude. Prices for the WTI and Brent crude still posted weekly losses, tied to overall worries over the outlook for global crude consumption.