Growing hopes that the Federal Reserve might begin cutting interest rates sooner rather than later appeared to help bring the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite indices to new record intraday highs before pulling back late Friday. Small-cap and value shares outperformed, while mega-cap tech shares lagged due in part to a decline in Apple following reports about slowing iPhone sales in China. Notably, Danish pharmaceuticals company Novo Nordisk displaced Tesla on Thursday as the 12th biggest public company by market capitalization. On the macro side, Friday’s US jobs report showed that employers added 275,000 jobs in February, more than consensus forecasts, but January’s gain was revised significantly lower, from 353,000 to 229,000. Moreover, the unemployment rate rose unexpectedly from 3.7% to 3.9%, its highest level in over two years. In a positive sign for inflation, average hourly earnings rose 0.1%, below expectations and down sharply from January’s 0.5% increase. Fed Chairman Powell’s less-hawkish than expected comments at Congress mid-week and the downside economic surprises helped push the yield on the US 10-year to its lowest intraday level (4.03%) since February 2. The STOXX Europe 600 Index gained ground for the seventh straight week, hitting a record high as ECB keeps rates steady but cuts macro forecasts. The dollar endured its worst week in three months. Gold soared to a new record high just shy of $2200 on Friday. Bitcoin hit a new all-time high at $70,000 on Friday.