Dow opens near 40,000 as stocks look to close strong week

US stocks were mostly flat Friday morning but investors on Wall Street are likely chilling champagne bottles as they prepare to close out one of the strongest weeks of the year for markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is tracking toward its best week since December, has passed the key threshold of 40,000 twice in futures trading on Thursday and Friday. The index is now barely 250 points away from surpassing that level during trading hours, and could close the week by marking a new milestone for the 128-year-old blue-chip index.

All three major indexes, meanwhile, notched two record highs in a row.

A surge in artificial intelligence stocks fueled two new record highs across the three major indexes this week, along with fresh projections from the Federal Reserve that the US economy will see three interest rate cuts before the year is out.

The Dow and S&P 500 were flat on Friday morning. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 0.1%.

This is a developing story and will be updated.