US stocks finished mixed on Friday, with the Dow closing at a fresh record as Federal Reserve officials spoke out about their recent vote to cut interest rates by half a percentage-point.

Traders also responded to a report in the Wall Street Journal that semiconductor software maker Qualcomm had approached Intel about a takeover.

The Dow Jones ended the day up 0.1 percent at 42,063 – a new record.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2 percent to 5,702, and the Nasdaq slipped 0.4 percent to 17,948.

"There's a bit of just settling and profit-taking a little bit, after the big gains yesterday and a lot of the volatility we've seen the last few weeks," said Mill Street Research chief strategist Sam Burns.

"But I think this is all pretty consistent with consolidation of gains when we're at all time highs with a lot of the indices," he added.

Among the Fed officials to speak on Friday was governor Michelle Bowman, the sole holdout in the 11-to-1 vote for a half-point rate cut on Wednesday, over the quarter-point cut that had been considered.

"I see the risk that the Committee's larger policy action could be interpreted as a premature declaration of victory on our price stability mandate," Bowman said in a statement, adding that she favoured a "measured pace" of cuts going forward.

Christopher Waller, another Fed governor, told CNBC that the US central bank's big rate cut was not a sign that the economy is "falling behind."

"It's not about reacting to, or falling behind or anything like that," he said. "I do not believe we're behind."

Among individual stocks, Qualcomm's share price fell 2.9 percent following a Wall Street Journal report that it had made a takeover approach of rival Intel in recent days, citing "people familiar with the matter."

Intel's shares popped more than eight percent on the news, before paring gains to end the day up 3.3 percent. (AFP)