Wall Street's main indexes soared on Thursday with the S&P 500 and the Dow hitting intraday record highs after the Federal Reserve kicked off its monetary easing cycle with half-a-percentage point reduction and forecast more interest rate cuts were on the horizon.

Markets on Wall Street were positioned to open at record highs Thursday after the Federal Reserve issued a bigger-than-usual interest rate cut intended to fortify a cooling labor market and prevent a recession.

The Federal Reserve's closely followed overnight reverse-repo facility already has begun to reflect Wednesday's big interest-rate cut. Wall Street firms rushed to park extra cash overnight at the facility in the wake of the pandemic,