By Medha Singh and Johann M Cherian

(Reuters) -All three major U.S. stock indexes gained more 1% on Friday, with the benchmark S&P 500 nearing an all-time high, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said “the time has come” to reduce interest rates.

At a highly anticipated annual economic conference in Jackson Hole, Powell endorsed imminent policy easing citing risks in the job market and inflation coming within reach of the Fed’s 2% target.

Minutes from the Fed’s July meeting had also showed a number of policymakers were ready to consider rate reductions come September.

“Powell is really data driven. The unemployment is not alarming but it’s certainly higher than it has been in the past and that would be something for him to take action on,” said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners.

“These comments point to cuts beginning and the market is nodding its head in agreement.”

Traders have fully priced in a rate cut at the Fed’s Sept. 17-18 meet, with a 65.5% chance that the central bank will lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

Dovish comments from Fed officials and a slate of data signaling the economy was slowing only gradually have helped U.S. stocks recover from a rout earlier this month that was driven by a dour July employment report and yen carry trade.

The S&P 500 is now less than 1% away from a record high touched in July, after falling as much as 9.7% from that level earlier in August.

At 11:41 a.m. the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 475.25 points, or 1.17%, to 41,188.03, the S&P 500 gained 63.58 points, or 1.14%, to 5,634.22 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 262.29 points, or 1.49%, to 17,881.65.

The domestically focused Russell 2000 advanced 3.1%, while the rate-sensitive KBW Regional Banking index jumped 5.4%.

Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE market volatility index, dipped 1.06 points to 16.49.

All major S&P 500 sectors were higher, with megacap growth names such as Nvidia, Broadcom and Apple among the top boosts to the index.

Wall Street’s three main indexes were poised to rise over 1%, gaining for the second straight week.

Among other movers, Workday shares jumped 11.6% after the human resource software provider beat market expectations for second-quarter revenue and announced a $1 billion stock buyback plan.

Ross Stores gained 3.8% after the discount retailer raised its fiscal 2024 profit forecast.

Intuit lost 7.7% after the TurboTax parent forecast first-quarter revenue below Wall Street expectations.

Latest data from the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau was also encouraging, showing sales of new U.S. single-family homes rose to their highest level in more than a year in July.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 10.48-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 4.3-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 74 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 122 new highs and 34 new lows.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

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