US STOCKS-Wall St hits record on Powell's comments; S&P 500 crosses 3,000

* Three main Wall Street indexes hit record highs
* Fed's Powell begins two-day testimony before Congress
* Technology biggest boost to indexes
* Energy stocks lifted by higher oil prices
* Indexes up: Dow 0.35%, S&P 0.51%, Nasdaq 0.72%

(Updates to early afternoon)
By Medha Singh
July 10 (Reuters) - The benchmark S&P 500 briefly crossed
the 3,000 points mark for the first time on Wednesday after
dovish remarks from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell
bolstered the case for an interest rate cut later this month.
The Nasdaq .IXIC and the Dow Jones Industrials .DJI also
scaled all-time highs after Powell said the central bank stands
ready to "act as appropriate" to support record U.S. economic
growth.
Gains of near 1% each in Amazon.com AMZN.O , Microsoft Corp
MSFT.O and Apple Inc AAPL.O were among the biggest boosts to
the indexes.
Powell also pointed to economic risks, including
persistently weak inflation, slowing global growth and a
downturn in business investment, in prepared remarks ahead of
his two-day testimony before Congress. "It could be an insurance cut," David Mazza, head of product
at Direxion Investments in New York.
"Meaning just in case things do deteriorate worse or the
trade war heats up again, let's pull back the hike we did in
December and then begin another wait-and-see approach."
Traders raised the bets of a 50 basis point reduction to 23%
following the comments, according to the CME Group's FedWatch
tool. They had nearly abandoned hopes of an aggressive reduction
while still expecting the first U.S. rate cut since the
financial crisis at the July 30-31 meeting.
Alluding to the strong jobs data that tempered hopes of a
sharp rate cut at the end of the month, Powell said the report
did not fundamentally change the central bank's outlook and that
there is important economic data before the meeting.
Investors will now wait for minutes from the Fed's June
policy, scheduled to be released at 2 p.m. ET, for more clues on
the path forward on interest rates. At 13:01 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up
93.64 points, or 0.35%, at 26,877.13, the S&P 500 .SPX was up
15.15 points, or 0.51%, at 2,994.78 and the Nasdaq Composite
.IXIC was up 58.63 points, or 0.72%, at 8,200.35.
Ten of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with energy
.SPNY , technology .SPLRCT and communication services
.SPLRCL leading the gainers.
Energy stocks .SPNY benefited from a jump in oil prices
jumped at least 3%. O/R
Shares of banks .SPXBK , which tend to benefit in a higher
interest rate environment, retreated 0.54% after Powell's
comments. The financial sector .SPSY shed 0.16%. US/
Generic drugmaker Mylan NV's MYL.O shares fell 3.1% after
rival Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc AMRX.N cut its 2019 core
earnings forecast.
Deere & Co DE.N slipped 1% after UBS downgraded the
tractor maker's shares to "neutral" from "buy", saying demand in
next couple of quarters will weaken.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.36-to-1 ratio
on the NYSE and by a 1.53-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 67 new 52-week highs and one new low,
while the Nasdaq recorded 91 new highs and 36 new lows.