Stocks rallied on Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the central bank could begin cutting interest rates as early as September. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 surged over 1.5% each, the Dow Jones soared 950 points, or 2.1%, to a record high. Tech leaders drove much of the strength, with Tesla jumping 4.4% and Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon each gaining over 1.5%, while Nvidia rose 1.1%. Speaking at the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole Symposium, Powell noted that the “baseline outlook and shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance,” remarks that heightened expectations for a 25 basis-point cut next month. Rate-cut bets rose to nearly 90% from about 75% earlier in the week. The rally allowed markets to recover from earlier weakness tied to pressure in megacap tech, leaving the Dow and S&P 500 on pace for weekly gains and trimming the Nasdaq’s losses.