US benchmark equity indexes ended higher Friday as traders assessed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's latest comments and the official jobs report for February.

* The central bank's Federal Open Market Committee would want "greater clarity" around the Trump administration's policy changes before making their next move on interest rates, Powell said.

"As we parse the incoming information (about policy changes), we are focused on separating the signal from the noise as the outlook evolves," Powell said. "Despite elevated levels of uncertainty, the US economy continues to be in a good place."

* Nonfarm payrolls in the US rose by 151,000 last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The consensus was for a 160,000 increase, according to a survey compiled by Bloomberg. The unemployment rate increased to 4.1% from January's 4%, which was the market view for February.

"Job growth is likely to soften over the coming months, as federal layoffs related to (the Department of Government Efficiency) continue to mount and ongoing trade policy uncertainty helps to weigh on near-term hiring intentions," TD Economics said.

* April West Texas Intermediate crude oil closed up $0.66 to settle at $67.02 per barrel, while May Brent crude, the global benchmark, was last seen up $0.88 to $70.34 following reports Russia's oil minister said OPEC+ may pause the return of 2.2-million barrels of daily production cuts to the market following the initial April tranche.

* Broadcom (AVGO) shares jumped 8.7%. The chipmaker late Thursday provided an upbeat outlook for its fiscal second-quarter revenue after delivering a fiscal Q1 beat.

* Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) shares plunged nearly 11%. The company late Thursday issued a downbeat full-year earnings outlook and announced plans to cut jobs.