Stocks rallied higher Friday as market participants were encouraged by remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the central bank's annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed nearly 250 points, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite added about 0.7% and 0.9%, respectively.

Here's how the market settled to close out the week:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): +0.67% or +29.40 points to 4,405.71

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.73% or +247.48 points to 34,346.90

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): +0.94% or +126.67 points to 13,590.65

Friday's moves helped the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both break a three-week losing streak as August's performance remained muted for the indexes. However, the Dow still posted a second straight week of losses despite its strength at the tailend of the week.

More positive sentiment entered Wall Street following Powell's remarks on Friday, with the head of the Fed remaining confident towards the nation's continued economic growth, including strong consumer spending and early signs of housing market recovery.

"The economy may not be cooling as expected. So far this year, GDP (gross domestic product) growth has come in above expectations and above its longer-run trend, and recent readings on consumer spending have been especially robust," Powell said. "In addition, after decelerating sharply over the past 18 months, the housing sector is showing signs of picking back up."

Powell also reiterated the central bank's goal of bringing down in inflation rates to 2% annually.

"Although inflation has moved down from its peak - a welcome development - it remains too high," Powell added. "We are prepared to raise rates further if appropriate, and intend to hold policy at a restrictive level until we are confident that inflation is moving sustainably down toward our objective."

On the earnings front, Nordstrom (JWN  ) shares fell Friday after the department store retailer warned of declining sales and theft-related losses following its second-quarter earnings beat. The company reiterated its full-year guidance, expecting a single-digit decline in revenues.

Affirm (AFRM  ) shares soared 28% on Friday after the buy now, pay later firm reported strong fiscal fourth-quarter earnings results and issued optimistic forward guidance. The company expects $430 million to $455 million in revenue for its fiscal first quarter.

"Despite significant changes in interest rates and consumer demand, we still delivered good credit results, unit economics, and GMV growth," CFO Michael Linford said in a statement. "We also demonstrated that the business can continue to expand profitably even in a high interest rate environment."

Elsewhere, United Auto Workers members voted Friday to authorize a strike. The union said 97% of combined members voted in favor of action, impacting contracts with General Motors (GM  ), Ford Motor (F  ) and Stellantis (STLA  ).

Looking ahead, next week will host major economic data for consumer confidence, spending and jobs for August, as well as second-quarter GDP's revised reading. A few more major earnings reports also lay ahead, including results from Salesforce (CRM  ), CrowdStrike (CRWD  ), Lululemon Athletica (LULU  ) and Broadcom (AVGO  ).